About 180 Mountain View Electric Association members from Monument, Black Forest and Falcon attended the annual Lamplighter Dinner at The Pinery in Black Forest. The Oct. 15 meeting focused on continuing legislative changes and challenges facing the electrical utility industry and rural energy co-operatives like MVEA.The main topic that co-op chief executive officer Jim Heron addressed was the Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule on the federal Clean Power Plan. ìIt’s going to have a pretty severe impact on Mountain View in the future,î Heron said. ìIt’s basically regulation being advanced by the EPA through the Clean Air Act, and particularly targeted on the electricity production industry.îThe CPP mandates 32 percent cuts in carbon dioxide emissions from power plants across the United States by 2030, Heron said. ìI have not read it, but it’s over 1,500 pages with about 2,000 pages of supporting documents, and has changed quite a bit from the original plan,î Heron said.Each state is assigned different emission goals. ìColorado actually fared pretty well; we came in below the average 32 percent, they’re giving us 28 percent,î Heron said. ìSurrounding states were way above the standard, so it will affect them way more than Colorado.îStates will develop their own plans, but have a tight timetable to submit them to the federal government. ìI thought this was strange,î Heron said. ìWhere it’s taken them years and years to write this particular rule, but they only give you one year to submit your plan.îLegal challenges will likely be filed in court, as soon as the rule is published in the Federal Register. However, the states and power suppliers will still be required to file the plans and start meeting initial goals while the challenges work their way through the legal system.ìJust farm boy knowledge tells you wait until it all gets hammered out, but that’s not how they do things in Washington,î Heron said. ìTri-state, our power supplier, will be joining industry groups in the lawsuits. Tri-state also announced they will be filing their own lawsuit because its situation is quite different.îThe costs of Tri-state power to its member co-operatives will go up in 2016. ìWe’re thinking in 2016 we’ll see an increase between 4 and 6 percent,î Heron said. ìOn the retail side, we’re not sure how that will impact you. We’ll be evaluating that in a cost-of-service study. If it goes into effect, it will go in March of next year.îJanuary 2016 marks MVEA’s 75th anniversary as an energy co-operative. ìWe’ve already started the celebration with the 75th anniversary logo,î Heron said. ìYou’ll also see this on the front of the Falcon building in grand style.îHaley Chapin, executive director of Tri-Lakes Cares, spoke about MVEA winning the 2015 Partners in Philanthropy Award from the Center for Non-Profit Excellence. ìWe’re very happy that they were able to show the community exactly the impact Mountain View has from programs like Operation Roundup,î Chapin said. The round-up program allows members to round their bill up to the nearest dollar, with the change going to a fund that helps individuals and organizations in the MVEA service area.The 2016 75th anniversary membership meeting will be held at Falcon High School June 2, 2016. More information about the membership meeting, Operation Roundup and the impacts of ongoing environmental regulation changes is at http://mvea.coop.
