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Balance. We need to eat a balanced diet, we need to balance our work life with our home life, and we need our government to have a balanced approach to environmental regulation. You will read in this issue two contrasting


views of President Obama's Climate Action Plan released this past June (see pg. 6). Your leaders in the electric cooperative industry have serious concerns with several of Obama's proposals, mainly as they pertain to regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fi red power plants. Basically, we advocate for common sense polices that balance environmental stewardship with our basic need for energy to power our lives and economy—policies that will not impose economic penalties unfairly on electric cooperative members. Oklahoma Electric Cooperative and Western


Farmers Electric Cooperative, our power provider, already invest in energy effi ciency measures and technology designed to help members and the co-op reduce usage and demand. Our ground- breaking geothermal validation study (see pg. 8) is a prime example of how we are going beyond federal requirements and taking our own initiative toward creating a more stable and aff ordable energy landscape.


rom the top Max A. Meek, CEO and General Manager


“T e Clean Air Act was never intended, and should not be used, to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.” —NRECA


T e bottom line for cooperatives is reducing


the economic impact these federal regulations will have on our members. T e National Rural Electric Cooperative


Association (NRECA) believes, as do I, the Clean Air Act was never intended, and should not be used, to regulate greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Obama instructed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to draft rules for carbon emissions from coal-fi red power plants to go into eff ect in 2015. T e NRECA and electric co-op managers nationwide have submitted comments to the EPA arguing the technology to reduce carbon dioxide is not economically feasible to be utilized widescale and the regulation would eff ectively shut down many of our nation's coal-fi red power plants on which we depend so heavily for base-load power generation. T e fi ght is not over. I encourage you to


contact your representatives and tell them what it means to you to have aff ordable power and what it would mean to your budget if rates were to rise. NRECA has set up a website to help you learn more about this issue and to get involved. Go to www.action.coop to learn more.


News Magazine 3


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