ARLINGTON, Va. – The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association issued the following statement regarding recent proposals to privatize PMA transmission assets.
“The proposal to sell PMA transmission assets would jeopardize affordable and reliable power for more than 100 million people across the nation,” said Stephen Bell, NRECA Director of Media Relations. “More than 600 electric co-ops rely on PMAs for access to low-cost, hydroelectric power. Selling these federal transmission assets to for-profit companies will inevitably increase costs for co-op members. Raising electricity prices on rural Americans to send more money to Washington has been a bad idea each and every time it has been proposed. Today is no different.”
The Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) market hydroelectric power from projects operated by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Publicly owned PMA assets pay for themselves. Appropriations for the federal power program are repaid with interest to the U.S. Treasury by federal power customers.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national service organization that represents the nation’s more than 900 not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric cooperatives, which provide service to 42 million people in 47 states.
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