Thank You Members for Your Help!!

More than 75,000 postcards were delivered to the Iowa offices of U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin by electric co-op leaders expressing concern about potential cap-and-trade legislation.

The deliveries coincided with the scheduled U.S. Senate debate on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, commonly referred to as cap-and-trade legislation or the Waxman-Markey bill. The measure was passed in June by the U.S. House, and proposes limits on carbon dioxide emissions through the buying and selling of carbon credits. Emitters of carbon dioxide above the proposed limits would buy carbon credits from companies that are under the proposed limit, and the credits would be publicly traded by commodity brokers.

The legislation is of specific interest to electric cooperatives that provide service in each of the state’s 99 counties. They are concerned the costs associated with the carbon credits would be passed onto their member-consumers.

“Electric cooperatives are working hard to help Congress develop simple, affordable, flexible and effective climate change legislation,” said Glenn English, chief executive of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

“Family budgets are already strained by rising energy costs, and climate change legislation that does not take consumer costs into account will place significant burdens on households from coast to coast.”

A poll, commissioned in April by the national organization, found that 77 percent of those who responded were concerned that a market-based cap-and-trade system would allow financiers and multinational energy companies to control the price consumers pay for electricity. Fifty-eight percent agreed that climate change legislation must keep electric bills affordable by focusing only on meeting climate change requirements and not generating federal revenue for other purposes.

“As champions for our members’ best interests, electric co-ops are dedicated to getting the message through to Congress: Any regulations on carbon dioxide emissions must come through simple, affordable and flexible legislation that can be sustained over the decades needed to make any difference,” English said.

The postcards were dropped off at Grassley’s and Harkin’s district offices in Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Dubuque, Sioux City and Waterloo.