Along Those Lines NRECA

Scams that target electric utility consumers have been around for almost as long as the industry itself, with criminals using the latest technologies over the years to defraud victims. Electric co-ops have a unique advantage in combating scams, being locally owned, community focused and eager to share information with one another. Learn more from Monica Martinez of Utilities United Against Scams and Joan O’Fallon of Polk-Burnett Electric Cooperative.

The 2024 hurricane season could be especially challenging for electric co-ops and their members. NOAA is predicting above-normal Atlantic hurricane activity with up to 25 named storms—a record high for its May forecast. Learn more from Matt Rosencrans, lead hurricane outlook forecaster with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, and hear from Jeff Davis Electric Cooperative General Manager Mike Heinen about his co-op’s efforts to strengthen its system against hurricane damage.

The EPA recently finalized its new rule to aggressively cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants—a sweeping move that NRECA CEO Jim Matheson called “unlawful, unrealistic and unachievable." Critics across the industry have decried the regulation as a threat to reliability at a time when an already-stressed grid faces soaring demand. Hear from NRECA's Ashley Slater and Minnkota Power Cooperative's Mac McLennan about the rule, its impacts and how co-ops are working to reverse it.

In 2021, Branden Bauer was working at United Electric in Pennsylvania as a journeyman lineman with nearly 10 years of experience. During a system improvement project, he made contact with a live conductor that he'd mistakenly thought was a neutral and suffered devastating injuries. Hear from Branden and his wife, Caitlin, about how he's made a mission of telling his story in the hope that it’ll help others. Graphic content warning: Contains detailed descriptions of high-voltage contact injuries.

A long-simmering dispute over the Lower Snake River dams burst onto the headlines in November with news of a backroom deal between the Biden administration and plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Bonneville Power Administration and other agencies that manage the dams. The deal has raised fears about the possibility of breaching the dams and compromising the availability of reliable, carbon-free electricity. Hear from NRECA's Louis Finkel and Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative's Bryan Case.

The electric utility industry is in the midst of a “skills and people shortage,” brought on by a steady stream of senior leaders reaching retirement age, a marked increase in non-retirement turnover and an evolution toward more advanced technologies that’s making it more difficult to find qualified employees. Electric co-ops are responding with creative initiatives on succession planning and employee development. Learn more from NRECA's Delaine Orendorff and Wells Rural Electric's Clay Fitch.