This LPEA election will have massive negative consequences if we elect the wrong candidates.
Self-proclaimed “progressive” candidates want to take LPEA out of the long-standing contract with Tri-State. Yes, the LPEA board has that authority, and it would saddle us with over $400,000,000 in debt! While today there is excess power being generated and sold at a discount, power generators will adapt to demand and open-market buyers will be stuck with whatever market price sellers mandate if there is excess power!
Oh, and what about that debt? The Tri-State contract limits LPEA’s commercially generated power to 5 percent of total usage. (No limit to individual solar panels for homes/businesses.) The progressives’ scheme is to create solar farm businesses to make money with subsidies from LPEA’s members. Wonder why two of our current progressive board members (Basset, Lynch) are participants? What is so wrong with Tri-State supplying us with 30 percent renewable electricity today, two full years ahead of the State mandated 20 percent by 2020?
Tri-State is owned and controlled by the 43 distribution co-ops like LPEA. It has been rapidly adapting to new generating technology as all have insisted. We have never been without supply to meet our demand and we enjoy that commitment for the next 30 years. This provides enormous value in our rapidly changing technological world.
Please vote for candidates who support evolution of power sources, not revolution into a self-serving and dubious unknown. Vote Karen Barger, Gene Fisher, Kohler McInnis and Bob Formwalt.
John Beebe
Bayfield
