Local electric co-op starts energy movement

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — The Continental Divide Electric Co-op announced last week that the Grants and Gallup-based local electricity supplier has joined a grassroots effort to find solutions to power problems.

CDEC spokesman Mac Juarez said the campaign, “Our Energy, Our Future: A Dialogue with America,” was designed by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association to address climate problems, keep electricity available and keep costs down.

The NRECA lobbies congress for rural electric co-ops such as CDEC and their members and consumers. CDCE and the cooperative association are now calling on members to join in a grassroots effort to e-mail or write letters to Congress and ask our leaders:

• What is your plan to make sure we have the electricity we’ll need in the future?

• What are you doing to fully fund the research required to make emissions-free electric plants an affordable reality?

• How much is all this going to increase my electric bill and what will you do to make it affordable?

“Responsible Leadership on energy and climate change means first answering hard questions about the economic impact on all of us,” CDEC General Manager Richard Shirley said.

Juarez said that by the end of June, concerned members of the public had submitted about 250,000 messages had been sent to members of Congress. He added that more than half of the letters and e-mails came from people living in the co-op service areas in Florida, Missouri, South Carolina and North Carolina.

New Mexicans have sent less than 300 messages so far, putting the state near the bottom of the list of participants, Juarez said.

He added, “With nearly 17,000 members in our co-op’s service area, we’ve set a goal of getting 10 percent, or 1,700 of them to e-mail or mail the key questions to New Mexico’s congressmen,” Juarez said.

He explained that although there has been good media coverage in the state about climate change and energy needs, so far New Mexico’s electric co-ops have not made a focused effort to alert and influence congressmen about consumer concerns.

CDEC launched a media and awareness program in Grants and Gallup this month with a Web site, www.cdec.coop and a full back page presentation in the NRECA monthly news tabloid, “enchantment.”

The co-op will follow up with ads in newspapers and on radio, and a newsletter in co-op consumers’ monthly bills in August.

“We need to remind Congress that energy efficiency alone won’t solve the climate change challenge; nor will renewable sources of energy. Congress must not only examine all the consequences, lawmakers should engage in an honest conversation about those consequences with constituents before taking action,” CDEC General Manager Richard Shirley said.