Pressure is mounting in Congress to do something about climate change. Political debates in Washington, D.C., may seem far away, but the outcome will affect your cooperative – and you, the cooperative member, as well as other electric consumers.
Climate change is but one aspect of a looming energy crisis created by increasing demand and decreasing capacity to meet that demand. Experts now say some areas of the country will be short of power within one or two years. In South Carolina, we may have a little more time -- but not much -- before shortages occur, especially if construction of new power plants does not begin soon.
And yet energy supply isn’t an issue our elected representatives are spending a lot of time on. The desire by government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly is about to collide with our society's growing demand for power.
Some people say we can meet demand through efficiency and renewable energy. The reality is we need all the efficiency and renewable energy we can get, but that will not be enough.
To avert an energy crisis, the federal government must exercise true leadership, the same leadership that got Americans to the moon in the 1960s. Without that leadership – without a sound, responsible plan – government risks not only the reliability of our electric system, but literally the ability of many Americans to be able to afford to pay their electric bill.
We, as electric co-op members and constituents, must call on elected officials to provide this leadership. That’s why we want to encourage you to contact your elected officials. Now.
Right now, members of Congress as well as your state elected officials are hearing from lots of different interest groups who have ideas about how to address climate change. No one is talking to consumers, however. We need a plan South Carolinians can live with today while we deal with the climate change problem of tomorrow.
To make things easy, we have a website that will send an email for you. Go to www.ourenergy.coop and plug in your address. There you’ll be able to ask a series of questions to your representatives in Washington. We’re kicking this effort off with a basic but critical question: What are they doing to make sure we’ll have the power we need in the future?
Far too often questions don’t get asked by policy makers until plans go wrong. We believe it makes sense to know the answers before the laws are passed. You can help your elected officials and yourself by having this conversation. The electric bill you save will be your own.
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