(the following account of the 2006 AMEC Annual Meeting
appeared in the November 2006 Rural Missouri)

Taking care of business

Legislators honored at AMEC Annual Meeting

by Jim McCarty

John Davis, manager of Sho-Me Power Electric Cooperative, Marshfield, addresses the audience at the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives Annual Meeting after receiving AMEC’s first Frank Stork Democracy Award. Joining Davis on stage were Barry Hart, the assocation's CEO, left, and Frank Stork, right, the award’s namesake.

Electric cooperatives were born in the legislative arena. And they will die in the same legislative arena if they don’t play an active role in the legislative process. For this reason it was appropriate that a bevy of elected officials headlined the 69th annual meeting of the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, held Oct. 2-3 at Lake of the Ozarks.

The annual meeting gives all of Missouri’s electric cooperatives an opportunity to come together on the issues facing the program. “Those issues don’t divide us, they make us stronger,” said AMEC Board President Carl Lowrance, a director from Laclede Electric Cooperative. “We speak with one voice through the statewide association for the best interests of 600,000 rural electric members.”

U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, a member of the Senate Energy Committee, spoke about energy issues facing Missourians. “This U.S. senator is no stranger to electric cooperatives,” said Barry Hart, executive vice president of the association, who introduced the senator. “Sen. Talent has been a great friend of Missouri’s rural electric cooperatives. He has stood up for us on a number of issues including carrying the ball for increased funding for electric cooperatives. This will allow co-ops to maintain the current electric system reliability and build new systems to meet the growth in rural Missouri.”

Talent spoke of his work on the energy bill, where he was credited with helping to keep cooperative control at home in locally elected boards instead of with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a move proposed by other legislators working on the bill.

U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, left, was presented with a Nation-al Legislative Leadership Award by Barry Hart, AMEC’s executive vice president.

“When I got on the energy committee one thing I resolved to do was to not fix what was not broken,” Talent said. “You guys are doing a great job. There aren’t many organizations I don’t hear any complaints about. You guys are one of them and I think that is significant.”

Rural America has much to gain from the energy bill, Talent said. He pointed out that profits once reserved for oil companies would instead go to farmers as energy bill boosts for ethanol and biodiesel production lead to a wave of new plants in Missouri.

“We will get our fuel from the same place we get our food,” he said, adding that he expects a total of 11 plants in Missouri. For his efforts on behalf of electric cooperatives, Talent was honored with the National Legislative Leadership Award. Only one other national leader has been so honored.

Joining Talent for special electric cooperative recognition were five Missouri legislators who were key players in passing an eminent domain reform law in the last session. Sen. Michael Gibbons, Sen. Chris Koster, House Speaker Rod Jetton, Rep. Steve Hobbs and Rep. Bryan Pratt received the first-ever AMEC Legislative Leadership Awards for their role in protecting landowner rights without hampering electric cooperative reliability.

Sen. Koster, tasked with finding compromise on the controversial bill, spoke about how the job was accomplished.

“There were a lot of groups that were walking through a tinderbox that could have ignited and taken us all down. The success is a testament to cooperation and good judgment and cool temper. The rural electric cooperatives had difficult challenges to face in that bill, no doubt about it. And there were sacrifices you had to make in order to reach a successful level.”

Sen. Chris Koster talked about his role in passing an eminent domain reform law in the last session. Koster was one of five Missouri lawmakers recognized at the event.

Legislators weren’t the only ones honored at the meeting. The first Frank Stork Democracy Award was presented in 2006, honoring the work of legendary AMEC Manager Frank Stork. It was fitting that this award was presented to John Davis, manager of Sho-Me Electric Power Cooperative, Marshfield. Davis has played a significant role in the political arena, standing up for the rights of rural people on both a state and national level.

The group also honored retired Consolidated Electric Manager Byron Jahn and retired Cuivre River Electric Director Marvin Edwards with its Distinguished Service Awards.
The record crowd of more than 300 managers, directors and key staff also heard from State Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who talked about the BIG Missouri linked deposit program and Mindy Mazur from Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s office, who talked about the many new services the office has for Missouri’s citizens. These include birth anddeath records for Missourians that can be accessed online and a kid’s section on the office Web site.

But the speaker who really caught the attention of the crowd was Public Service Commissioner Jeff Davis, who gave a sobering report on power supply issues affecting all segments of the electric utility industry. He said demand for electricity is growing at a pace statewide that would power 180,000 new homes each year.

“Whatever excess generation most utilities have is going to be gone in the next few years,” he said. “We’re seeing steady commercial growth, but the real driver is residential growth. We have more houses, bigger houses and more appliances stuffed in those houses.

Missouri Public Service Commission Chairman Jeff Davis’ sobering message about challenges facing the electric utility industry was the most popular portion of the program, according to attendees.

“The problem is compounded because we haven’t built any baseload generation in a decade.” Baseload generation comes from large plants designed to meet the normal requirements for power.

He said coal-fired plants are the only realistic option to meet the demand for electricity. “I’ve seen alternative proposals for solar, hydro, wind power, demand response programs. In my opinion, none of them have been feasible to take the place of a 600-megawatt coal plant.

You don’t want to be on the operating table one day and find out the wind’s not blowing in Kansas.”

But Missouri utilities will have to pay $2 billion to $3 billion to comply with clean-air regulations on these new plants.

The meeting provided a chance for two representatives from Mississippi’s electric cooperatives to say thanks for the assistance that state received in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Stan Rucker, from the Electric Power Association of Mississippi, and Robert Occhi, general manager of Coast Electric on the Gulf Coast, both praised Missouri’s electric cooperatives for their speedy assistance. Missouri linemen were the first to arrive when the call for help went out.

They also said thanks for the donations sent to Mississippi electric co-op employees who lost everything in the storm. “Those employees, all they had left was a slab, a mortgage and no flood insurance,” Occhi said.

Another eye-opening presentation came from Dr. Alan Wessler, chairman of the Missouri Dairy Growth Council. Wessler pointed out that Missouri imports 1.4 billion pounds of dairy products, so the potential exists for new dairies in the state. He said each cow has the potential to generate $13,737 that would ripple through the state’s economy.

Those gathered for the meeting also heard from Kristin Perry, director of the Agricultural Leaders of Tomorrow (ALOT) program that is training the next generation of rural leaders. Missouri’s electric cooperatives have pledged increased financial support for the program.

For more information, contact:
Jim McCarty, (573) 659-3402
jmccarty@amec.coop