Electric co-op members have reason to rebel

solar generating plants that exceed the 5 percent cap. The cap is designed to protect Tri-State’s investment in coal.

One of the sinister side effects of this arrangement is to discourage investment in areas supplied by TriState’s increasingly expensive power, now that there are other cities and counties being served by lower-cost renewable wind and solar.

At Pojoaque, presentations were made by board members from Delta Montrose Electric Association, La Plata Electric Association and the chief executive officer and business director of United Power, whose co-op boards are now all renewable-friendly. There were also Tri-State board members present; they did not speak.

Britt Bassett, former Los Alamos nuclear scientist, now a board member of La Plata in Durango, presented a series of graphs pointing out that TriState is pushing forward its $3 billion debt in such a way that it will become $4.5 billion by 2040, when the 40-year contracts are up and will need to be renewed. Much of the debt is coal-related. Tri-State, of course, is fighting tooth and nail in the courts and utility regulatory commissions to resist the pressure of the dissenting co-ops, who remain outvoted on the board (which votes by member) even though they are among the largest users of TriState electricity.

What’s at stake here? I hardly need to mention the effects of burning coal on global warming and air quality. But it might be useful to point out that if Jemez Mountains Electric Co-op, TriState’s largest New Mexico member, were to get busy and install a number of large solar arrays, it could keep a good share (and eventually all) of the $60 million it sends to Tri-State every year for electricity that could easily be generated here. The result: more local jobs, lower local electricity rates and nationally cleaner air.

The conference is likely to be the first of a number of such gatherings of renewable-centric Tri-State members. This one was organized by Luis Torres, working under contract with the Conservation Voters Alliance Education Fund.

The excellent turnout suggested that the time for change has finally arrived.

Stanley Crawford writes and farms in the Embudo Valley, where he has lived since 1969.