CHICAGO – National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) CEO Jim Matheson today testified during an Environmental Protection Agency public hearing in support of the agency’s proposed Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule.
“[T]he Affordable Clean Energy rule is the best path forward for electric co-ops,” said Matheson. “The billions of dollars co-ops have invested in power plant development represent an investment in certainty of being able to provide power to consumers on a long-term basis. The proposed ACE rule provides crucial flexibility so electric co-ops can respond to market conditions, technologies and industry changes at the same time they continue to contribute to the vitality and prosperity of the communities they serve.”
NRECA will file detailed comments on the ACE proposal at the end of the month.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing more than 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $12 billion annually in their communities.
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