New technologies to reduce the greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide, will cost billions of dollars, according to The Wall Street Journal. It is an “unpleasant and inescapable truth,” noted The New York Times, “… that any serious effort to fight global warming will require everyone to pay more for energy.”
Those in the electric utility industry agree. “I think power prices could go up 50 percent, maybe more,” an investor-owned utility CEO warned in the Journal article.
That means a $150 monthly electric bill could go up to $225; a $400 electric bill could climb to $600. And that does not include the predicted 10 percent per year increase many of us can expect to pay to finance new power plants needed to meet the increasing demand for electricity.
We are talking about significant increases in what we pay for electricity.
But the Times editorial called these increases beneficial. Energy is currently underpriced and therefore overconsumed, it said. “As long as today’s energy is relatively cheap, there is little incentive for private firms to develop new fuels and technologies,” the editorial stated. Higher prices will force consumers to use less electricity and make it profitable for others to invest in alternate, and higher-priced, resources.
These skyrocketing electric bills will be painful for thousands of electric co-op consumer-members. Your co-op knows this. That is why your representatives at the co-op question each proposal brought forward by Congress.
Changes in the electric industry are coming, but each change needs to have a real, measurable payoff. Additional dollars paid through rate increases need to fund programs that result in significant changes worthy of the sacrifice consumers will have to make.
We need more research in most areas to effect real, measurable change. More research is needed to find ways to improve the efficiency of renewable resources, such as wind and solar. We need to develop ways to store this intermittent energy so that it can become a more stable part of the system.
Nationally, electric co-ops are leading the push for more investments in research and development for carbon capture and storage, and clean-coal technology. At the same time, individual co-ops are working to find new, economically feasible projects that will move us toward changes in the industry.
Across the country, co-ops give away compact fluorescent lightbulbs to promote energy efficiency. They also offer green power to their members, as well as rebates on more efficient heating and cooling systems, motors and appliances, such as water heaters.
Collectively, co-ops are looking at creating a national renewable energy co-op. Co-ops are doing a lot to help cut emissions, improve efficiency and meet the needs of their members. They strive to do it while remembering that electricity is a necessity, not a luxury.
As we balance what needs to be done with what it will cost and who will pay that cost, your electric co-op will be looking out for you.


This editorial was written by Mona Neeley, publisher/editor of the Colorado Rural Electric Association’s Colorado Country Life magazine.