Rural Friends of Electric Cooperatives

Her objective was clear: keeping electrical rates affordable in Texas is paramount.

On Sept. 15, State Rep. for Texas House District 59 Shelby Slawson joined United Cooperative Services for its annual Rural Friends of Electric Cooperatives luncheon in United’s Stephenville community room.

“I’m a rural Texas advocate by calling,” Slawson said. “This means I believe firmly in the power of volunteerism, the importance of community engagement and political representation. I represent Central Texans when I address important issues that matter most to hard-working, honest-living Texans, such as economic development, taxation, facilities planning, annexation and education.”

In conjunction with her rural Texas advocacy, Slawson recently secured the final passage of Senate Bill 2011 regarding electric security. The new legislation protects Texas electric consumers from higher prices due to market manipulation or maltreatment.

The bill increases the potential penalty for electric market power abuses, such as predatory pricing, collusion or withholding of production to drive up prices that violate the Voluntary Mitigation Plan, which is an agreement between generators and the Public Utility Commission of  Texas (PUCT), Slawson said. This offers another tool to oversee electric generation companies, which, in turn, applies more checks and balances to the electric generation business model.  

Rural Friends of Electric Cooperatives is a non-partisan political action committee (PAC) that supports legislators who support the interests of electric co-ops and their members. It is open to all people with an interest in preserving their local electric cooperative and promoting the progress and growth of co-ops and the communities they serve.

United is one of the few co-ops in the state that has 100 percent employee support in the PAC, which stands as a testament to the cooperative’s involvement in political endeavors.

During her address, Slawson praised United for its commitment to actively relay communication to its membership.

“We have known for a couple of years that there would be residual electrical charges related to Winter Storm Uri,” Slawson said. “As a United member, I get my mail, read the inserts and see the explanations for any additional charges. I commend the co-op for being as proactive as possible about communicating those costs.”

Involvement in political processes and forming personal relationships with government representatives are vital to keeping the values of electric co-ops and their members at the forefront with state and federal politicians, said United CEO Cameron Smallwood.

“Our employee participation in PAC, along with our board of directors and some of our members, shows that we are unified about electing lawmakers who will represent us,” Smallwood said. “We work very hard to have a relationship with our representatives, and we meet with them regularly. It’s important to make them aware of the potential impacts  future legislation may have on our members or on our ability to  deliver reliable electric service to them.”