Electric cooperative leaders will gather for NRECA's Legislative Conference this month in Washington, D.C., to urge policymakers to take action to support reliable, affordable electricity amid skyrocketing demand.

The conference, which takes place April 26-29, will focus on the top federal issues affecting co-ops and provide strategies for how to engage effectively with members of Congress and agency officials.

“There’s no more effective advocacy than a co-op leader—who is also a constituent—coming to D.C. to talk to their member of Congress about what’s most important to them,” said Hill Thomas, NRECA’s vice president of legislative affairs.

On Monday, April 27, guest speakers from Congress will address the conference. Details are still being finalized.

Co-op leaders will spend two days visiting the offices of senators, House members and federal agencies to advocate for smart energy policies that help co-ops deliver reliable electricity at rates their consumer-members can afford.

The issue of reliability is becoming increasingly urgent, with the North American Electric Reliability Corp. warning in January that the U.S. grid reliability outlook is worsening amid projections of more power plant retirements and surging demand from data centers and other large loads in the next decade.

Conference participants will focus on four major issues in their talks with policymakers: streamlining the Federal Emergency Management Agency, mitigating wildfire risk, reforming the permitting process and increasing funds for the Rural Utilities Service Electric Loan program.

Specifically, co-op leaders will urge policymakers to:

• Pass FEMA reform. NRECA supports the bipartisan Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act, which would streamline the agency and dramatically speed up delivery of crucial disaster relief funds to electric cooperatives devastated by wildfires, hurricanes, ice storms and other natural disasters. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted to advance the bill last fall, but it has not yet come to the House floor for a vote.

• Pass the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act. The bill would help co-ops strengthen their systems against wildfire and would greatly expand the ability of co-ops to remove “hazard trees" that are in danger of sparking fires by falling from federal property onto electric lines. Co-ops could remove trees within 150 feet of their rights of way instead of the 10 feet currently permitted under federal law. The House passed the bill last year but the Senate has yet to take it up.

• Pass permitting reform legislation. The House last year passed two significant permitting reform bills—the SPEED Act and the PERMIT Act—that would help protect affordable power nationwide by reducing delays for co-ops seeking federal approval to make crucial improvements to their systems. The Senate is currently discussing its own legislation.

• Increase funding for the Rural Utilities Service Electric Loan Program. This essential program helps electric cooperatives pay for construction, improvement and modernization of their systems. Co-ops are asking Congress to continue to boost funding and urging RUS to raise its loan cap to help meet demand for the popular program. RUS has hit its loan cap for the past several years.