North Central Electric Cooperative General Manager Markus Bryant took aim at President Obama’s Clean Power Plan at the cooperative’s annual meeting in June at the Seneca County Fairgrounds. 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,” Bryant said.

He said the Ohio cooperatives are grateful for the U.S. Supreme Court’s stay of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan. The stay means the EPA has no authority to enforce the CPP until after rule has been decided by the courts. A decision from the Washington, D.C., Appeals Court is expected this fall.

“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 publicly she wants to put coal companies out of business and coal miners out of work.”

Pat O’Loughlin, president and CEO of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, North Central’s statewide service organization and wholesale power supplier, said power production is cleaner than ever. 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, he said. In 2016, for the first time in history, 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 817 members. The event included children’s rides, bounce houses, magic shows, face painting, electrical safety demonstrations, and a showcase of North Central member businesses.

Frankart 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.