The North Central Electric Cooperative General Manager took aim at President’s Obama’s Clean Power Plan at its annual meeting Tuesday, June 14 at the Seneca County Fairgrounds.

General Manager Markus Bryant said the cooperative’s mission is to provide reliable electric service; a superior customer experience; and innovative energy solutions.   “Keeping electric rates competitive is our greatest challenge, especially given that the President of the United States is on record as stating that his plan is to bankrupt any utility that burns coal to generate electricity.”

He said the Ohio cooperatives are grateful for the U.S. Supreme Court’s stay of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan. “However we are not out of the woods yet,” Bryant said. “We will see how all this mess plays out in Congress, the federal courts and especially in this year’s presidential election, where we have one candidate who wants to throw out the Clean Power Plan and one who wants to keep it and has stated publicaly she wants to put coal companies out of business and coal miners out of work.”

Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives President & CEO Pat O’Loughlin said power production is cleaner than ever.  He said without any federal regulations carbon dioxide emissions are down nearly 20 percent over the past decade as the country transitions to a greater reliance on natural gas and renewable energy. O’Loughlin said in 2016 for the first time ever the U.S. will produce more electricity with natural gas than coal.

He called the Clean Power Plan “a very heavy-handed regulatory system that is going to accomplish very little more than what we would accomplish on our own. The goal of the government  is to get emission down 30 percent by 2030 and under their plan it’s going to cost us millions of dollars more to get a couple of more percent than what we can do on our own.”

About 1,850 attended the annual meeting and Family Fun Day, including nearly 850 members. The event included children rides, bounce houses, magic shows, face-painting, electric safety demonstrations and member business displays.

Re-elected to the North Central Electric Board of trustees were Rodney Snavely of Republic and Duane Frankart, Fostoria. Michael Scherger of Kansas in Seneca County was elected to his first term. 

Frankart acknowledged the retirement of Eileen Gabel of Tiffin after an 18-year tenure with the organization, and commended the cooperative’s focus on member service; efficiency; affordability; and high customer satisfaction scores, while encouraging members to make their voices heard in the upcoming presidential election.  Frankart further noted North Central’s refund of $690,000 in member patronage capital credits.