GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.— Electric cooperatives must defend recent federal funding wins while pushing back on punishing regulations and meeting the increasing demand for electricity, NRECA Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Connor said in kicking off NRECA’s Regional Meetings for 2024.

“The stakes are really high right now. We’ve got a lot of territory to defend,” Connor said Sept. 5 at the Regions 1&4 Meeting. “These are difficult challenges. Fortunately, that’s exactly where we excel.”

The start of the gathering coincided with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s announcement of $7.3 billion in funding for co-ops as part of its Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program. The program, created through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 after strong lobbying by NRECA, is aimed at deploying clean energy in rural America.

NRECA’s advocacy also helped co-ops win expanded federal funding for broadband projects, the ability to tap federal tax credits through a direct-pay option, and access to $1 billion in loan support through USDA’s Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program.

“Electric co-ops have made several important gains in the last few years that we’re going to have to fight to keep,” Connor said.

Co-ops also face threats from “the most aggressive [Environmental Protection Agency] in the history of our country, energy policy so bad that it poses a threat to electric reliability, and substantial barriers to the replacement of an aging electric grid that isn’t up to today’s standard,” he added.

Combatting those challenges will require pro-energy policies and a sustained commitment to innovation, Connor said, particularly with U.S. electricity demand projected to at least double by 2050.

“We need twice the power, twice the infrastructure, twice the energy efficiency, two times everything we have today,” he told co-op leaders.

“We’ve got a steep hill to climb, but… progress remains at the very core of our mission today,” he said.

Connor said co-ops must advocate for a pro-energy regulatory environment that protects reliability.

Among other things, that means removing barriers for siting and permitting generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure, as well as strengthening supply chains, supporting nuclear energy and preserving hydropower dams.

In addition, “we cannot take any source of electricity offline in this country until we have a surefire plan to continue to serve our community with uninterrupted, reliable power,” he emphasized.

Fulfilling that plan will help co-ops and their members take advantage of the country’s growth, including in manufacturing and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud and edge computing.

“Our job is to make sure rural America is ready,” Connor said.

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