North Central Electric President Duane Frankart strongly believes grassroots lobbying is critical when it comes to protecting the mission of providing affordable and reliable electricity and the cooperative business model. 

He is constantly recruiting cooperative members to join their political action committee, ACRE Co-op Owners for Political Action®. To date, nearly 400 North Central members belong to Co-op Owners and pay $2.08 on their monthly electric bill to help communicate key issues relating to electric cooperatives. It’s considered one of the larger memberships in Ohio and the country. 

For the past eight years, he has served as one of North Central’s representatives at the annual legislative conference in Washington, D.C. He was joined in May by Director of Administrative Services Richard Shock and about 60 leaders from the other 23 Ohio electric cooperatives. All told, about 1,500 cooperative officials from across the country converged on Washington for the legislative conference. The event gives America’s electric cooperatives the opportunity to meet with legislators and their staffs to share information about the issues affecting co-op members back home.

“I’ve said this before, and I truly believe it: In the political arena, if we don’t have a place at the table, we will be on the menu. As board president, I do not want this to happen,” Frankart said.

Not only does Frankart meet with senators and legislators, he talks with their staff. “It’s very important that we talk with their staff and treat them with a lot of respect. They are the ones who feed their representative all the information,” Frankart said. “I made it a point to personally thank them for all they do as staff members. That puts a smile on their faces and gives them some recognition.”

North Central’s service territory covers three congressional districts. Rep. Jim Jordan serves the majority of North Central’s service area, while Rep. Bob Latta serves Wyandot County, and Rep. Bob Gibbs serves Richland and Huron counties. 

The key point that Frankart said he cannot stress enough is the need for cooperative members to vote.  “We need to think about who will represent our cooperative the best. Remember, your vote counts.”

During this year’s legislative conference, important topics were key “asks” for co-ops:

• Oppose pole attachment legislation: Draft legislation before the House Energy and Commerce Committee would extend federal regulation of attachments to electric cooperative power poles. Cooperative leaders asked their officials to maintain the federal pole attachment exemption for electric cooperatives and remove language that would increase regulation.
• Extend geothermal credit: Tax credits for highly efficient geothermal heat pumps expire at the end of 2016. Cooperatives help their members save energy and money by promoting geothermal heat pumps. 
• Cooperatives asked lawmakers to extend the geothermal tax credit.
• Support coal ash legislation: This bill would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from reversing course on its coal ash regulations and require states to implement the EPA rule through a permitting program. 
• Support FEMA reauthorization: Cooperative leaders sought Senate support for H.R. 1471, a bill passed by the House that cuts red tape. Without the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), many electric cooperative consumers living in disaster-stricken areas could face significantly higher electric rates.