Take Action Now: Help Protect Northwest Hydropower
Reliable and affordable power in your state is in peril, and we need your help!
A recent court decision will change the operations of the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. These changes will increase rates and decrease the reliability of Oregon’s electric grid, affecting families and communities.
The dams provide affordable, dependable, carbon-free electricity that powers homes, farms, schools and small businesses across the state and region. These legal actions reduce the amount of hydroelectricity produced by the dams. This impacts your community by jeopardizing system reliability, increasing costs, and requiring more expensive, carbon-intensive replacement electricity generation sources.
Oregonians deserve transparency and a voice in decisions that increase their electricity bills and threaten reliability.
Join the Fight for Affordable Rates!
Midstate Electric Cooperative belongs to a statewide association called ORECA (Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association). Its role, on behalf of Oregon cooperatives, is to lobby lawmakers and state officials for legislation that supports our mission against mandates that jeopardize cooperative values. MEC is actively involved in working with other Oregon electric cooperatives through ORECA to remind lawmakers about the importance of affordable and reliable electricity. But we can’t do this alone; we need your help!
Electric Cooperative member-owners have the opportunity to join Voices of Cooperative Power (VCP), a network of electric co-op members working together to influence elected officials who are making energy policy decisions that impact our co-ops and, by extension, our way of life.
As a Voices for Cooperative Power member, you are provided with background material on electric utility issues and newsletters on important state and federal legislation. From time to time, you might be asked to contact your elected officials about a particular piece of legislation that is being considered. You are never under any obligation to do so and can cancel your participation at any time.
Elected officials need and want to hear from our members – the voters. The more people they hear from, the more lawmakers pay attention to what Oregon electric cooperatives are saying.
Read this article (PDF) released by the Public Power Council about Northwest hydro coming to the rescue (again) during our region’s record cold snap.
Sign up and make your voice heard today: Voices for Cooperative Power
Or feel free to call us at (541) 536-2126, and we can answer any questions you may have and complete the enrollment process on your behalf.