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Show How Moon Lake Electric members share challenge (Last in a three-part series by Moon Lake Electric Association) By Peggy Deller, Manager, Member Relations The biggest challenges our cooperatives face are, holding the line on rates and having enough power available to maintain our lifestyle. Let's look at the national and international interna-tional conditions beyond our control that have driven up the price of providing pro-viding our members with reliable electric elec-tric service. 1) INFLATION. Since 1973 the retail price of electricity has increased 140 percent, on a nationwide average. That is an enormous increase, but lets compare com-pare it with other increases for goods and services for the same period. The cost for a hospital room increased 172 percent. Gasoline prices rose 236 percent. per-cent. Home mortgage financing rose 267 percent. 2) COST OF FUEL. This is the principal prin-cipal factor in the rise in electricity cost. Since 1973 the price of coal increased in-creased 377 percent and natural gas prices rose 238 percent. The average cost of a barrel of oil increased nearly 1,000 percent, from $3 to about $32. 3) ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. PROTEC-TION. Protecting our environment has added to construction and maintenance costs. 4) BUILDING COSTS. Since 1970 the average cost of a new coal-fired generating plant has increased almost 700 percent. 5) REGULATIONS. Compliance with regulations takes much time and money. Often the regulations overlap in the various levels of government. Also, the delays in getting necessary permits let inflation take its toll. 6) FINANCING. The electric industry in-dustry requires much more capital than most industries. Therefore, today's high interest rates are of great concern. 7) GROWTH. Electric cooperatives, including Moon Lake Electric, have pledged to extend reliable electric service ser-vice to every home, farm and business located in their service area. Moon Lake Electric has grown considerably. This growth was a factor in lowering rates for a time but it has caught up with us. The need for new power plants to handle growth and the increased usage by our power oriented society, are factors in the rising rates. While we're building these plants, we must remember that we're building for the future of our children, too. What is our hope for the future? While it seems like a "no-win" situation, one thing that we can do is express our views to elected officials about the effect ef-fect of inflation, over-regulation and high interest on our lives. We can support sup-port those politicians who, by their voting record, show a concern for these issues. Here is an example of how letters and pressure from us, you and me, can work. Last year the non-budget REA loan programs got mixed up with the Administration's proposed budget cuts. Consumers wrote letters to Congressmen Con-gressmen explaining that cutting these programs would not reduce the fedeial budget but would add to inflation by raising electric rates in rural area. The Congressmen showed they agreed in preserving the programs. Cooperatives are working along with others in the electric industry exploring ' new technologies and techniques to produce pro-duce energy. In the meantime, until these developments become feasible or the above listed conditions are controlled, controll-ed, we can try to conserve energy. We can change our habits to conserve electricity elec-tricity where we live and work. This won't lower the rates but can lower our bills. Moon Lake Electric has speakers who will meet with groups upon request, re-quest, to point out measures that can be taken to lower electric usage and reduce waste. The cooperative also has personnel available to conduct home energy audits. It just takes a phone call to any Moon Lake office to get an ap--pointment. The purpose of this series has been to . improve communications with our membership. We hope it has been helpful and that you will want to attend the 1982 Annual Meeting of Members at the Roosevelt Junior High School on Saturday March 6. There you will have an opportunity to better understand your cooperative. |