Now, that the voters of the La Plata Electric Association have spoken, I am sincerely hoping the elected board members leave the past behind and work toward the common good of our co-op.
To start off, education is essential. The electric utility business is changing rapidly due to local electricity generation, in particular solar, which is becoming less expensive than centralized production from large power plants, especially coal.
Just recently, Barclay Bank downgraded the whole electricity-generating sector of the U.S. high-grade bond market. The reason given was, it sees the traditional utility sector facing big challenges from fast-growing renewable energy. Interestingly enough, Greg Munroe, LPEA’s retiring CEO, stated the same in his retirement letter in the Country Journal. Looking into the future, his first of several predictions is “local, distributed generation” will make up more than 50 percent of LPEA’s needs,” a surprisingly futuristic statement.
Now, I would like to give kudos to Jeff Berman, our newly re-elected LPEA board member.
In 2006, he was the only board member who voted against renewing the contract with Tri-State for another 40 years until 2050. Please let this sink in. The new contract with Tri-State extends to 2050, which is eons away in today’s rapidly changing market. This contract limits LPEA to generating no more than 5 percent of its electricity needs over the next 40 years. Jeff, by voting against it, foresaw the future, while the old guard on the LPEA board, as well as the negative letter writers to the Herald, demonstrated a lack of vision. For that reason, I would like to thank Jeff and all those who voted for him for their visionary voice on the LPEA board.
Werner Heiber
Durango
