Archive for category: Note from David

We are several primaries into a presidential election year, and even the most experienced political observer seems astounded by the level of polarization that exists in our country. The right hates the left; Democrats distrust Republicans — you get the point.

Depending on whom you ask, it’s obviously the other party’s fault. Armchair observers will contend that we’ve never been this divided. At times, the political system seems almost to the point of brokenness.

Fact is that polarization is nothing new. However, the gap may be widening. The Pew Research Center, which has been tracking political polarization for almost 30 years, says our “values and basic beliefs are more polarized along partisan lines than at any point in the past 25 years.” In a recent report, Pew goes on to state that “unlike in 1987, when this series of surveys began, the values gap between Republicans and Democrats is now greater than gender, age, race or class divides.”

Though polarization (of a different sort) is a good thing when it comes to motors and other machines that depend on electricity, political polarization becomes terribly distracting when you’re trying to operate an electric utility.

The electric utility business is an industry of “absolutes.” Electricity behaves in a constant and predictable manner. Yet, energy policy is determined in the world of politics. Over the years, despite partisan polarization, political battles and the whims and desires of various interest groups, we’ve fashioned a reliable, resilient electric grid.

Today’s electric grid is an interconnected network owned by electric cooperatives, municipal systems and investor-owned electric companies. It wasn’t always that way. There was quite a political fight in the 1930s before much of the nation was electrified with the help of the Rural Electrification Administration. The same is true for the creation and evolution of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

From our beginnings, electric cooperatives have been deeply involved in politics. In those early days, there were fights in the boardrooms of huge corporations, state assemblies and Congress. It wasn’t easy, and rural electrification didn’t happen overnight.

Over the decades, we’ve learned to navigate political obstacles.

Decisions made in the legislative hallways impact not only the cost of electricity but also its dependability. Because of our commitment to our communities, we have been able to fashion bipartisan support, which is fitting as our cooperative members span the spectrum in their political leanings.

For example, we have members who applaud the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan, and we have members who believe it is overreach of the EPA’s authority. While electric cooperatives are on record opposing the Clean Power Plan, we are proven leaders in renewable-energy generation and energy-efficiency efforts. Our opposition doesn’t mean that we are opposed to the goals of the plan. We just believe there are better ways to accomplish them — ways that will allow us to maintain a reliable, affordable supply of power.

How do we deal with polarization on energy policy? The first step is the belief that reasonable people can disagree. The next is education — for those of us in the electric utility industry and for those who want to dramatically change our business. If we only listen to people who “think like us,” we may never see the other side of an issue.

It goes back to the fact that electricity behaves in a constant and predictable manner. Our political efforts have never been driven by greed. They are centered on maintaining our ability to provide power for our cooperatives. We know that we need an ample supply of affordable electricity to power our communities, and we must fulfill this commitment in an environmentally responsible manner. We try to maintain that balanced approach even when navigating the shifting sands of the political landscape.

Last month, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected an early challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to curb carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, saying the legal action was premature. The panel did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit, stating that objections to the plan were filed too soon because the regulation has not yet been finalized. When the rules are finalized later this year, there will be additional challenges.

The decision was just the latest milestone in the long journey to energy independence. Though it remains unclear if the Clean Power Plan will withstand legal challenges, it doesn’t alter the changes the electric utility industry has undertaken over the past few years.

These changes predated EPA’s Clean Power Plan by several years. Case in point, I wrote the following in The Tennessee Magazine’s July 2007 edition:

We are at the beginning of our own revolution — an energy revolution. Last month, we talked about the changing political landscape and the climate change debate. In fact, it seems that every other headline these days is something about climate change, greenhouse gases, carbon emissions and global warming. The climate change issue has brought about political change — change that will affect us, our children and our grandchildren.

The change won’t occur quickly, that’s for certain. There is no “magic bullet” that is going to solve our energy needs and clean up the environment. Steps toward lowering our energy consumption will go a long way toward lessening our carbon emissions. However, as our population grows, conservation and efficiency can’t solve all of our problems. It will take a long, deliberative process that is going to involve individuals and governments. Developing cost-effective energy alternatives will take a massive technological effort and investment.

Hybrid vehicles, once a novelty item, are rapidly gaining an anchor in the marketplace. Compact fluorescent lamps are quickly replacing incandescent lights in our homes and offices.

There is a long list of renewable energy technologies that today are in their commercial infancy: Solar, wind, geothermal and landfill methane are just a few. As we develop and improve the technologies for harnessing these resources, those energy sources may become more commonplace.

Our current reliable low-emission energy sources — hydro and nuclear — will continue to be a part of our achieving our energy-independence goals. Even coal-fired generation, while contributing to carbon emissions, can be improved through technological advancements that greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted.

As we begin this revolution, there is hope for the future. EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, suggests “it is technically feasible to slow down and stop the increase in U.S. electric sector carbon dioxide emissions and then eventually reduce them over the next 25 years while meeting the increased demand for electricity.” For example, technologies are currently being developed that would capture and store carbon dioxide in underground caverns.

Those trends have continued — and accelerated — during the past eight years. New housing construction and appliances are even more energy-efficient. Renewable energy resources such as solar and wind are implemented more each year.

Just as our electric cooperatives brought another degree of independence to rural America more than 80 years ago, we remain committed to being involved in a sustainable, renewable energy future as we look toward our nation’s energy independence.