If you are a Member-Owner of IREA, you will have received a letter from the management.  Some of you sent this letter immediately to the place for which it was most qualified, the garbage.  If so, please take a moment to read the copy we have made available here.  This letter has a number of failings and we have responded to a few below.

1. In 2009 IREA are required to get 1% of our energy from wind.  IREA purchases a load ratio share of wind from Xcel energy which does amount to about 5 or 6%; however, IREA plans the sell of the excess REC through Green-E.  Therefore, if IREA are not retiring the RECs it is at worst illegal and at best unethical for them to claim 5% wind.
   
2. The letter refers to "low-cost" coal. Yet there was a little-noticed announcement about 2 weeks ago that the Obama administration is considering an end to Bush-era laxity concerning Hg emissions. The Post ran a little peice last week saying that fish in Lake Granby, Rifle Gap Reservoir, Elkhead Reservoir, and Catamount Lake are mercury tainted, so much so that the CO Dept of Public Health issued an advisory. The story concluded with pointing to coal as the source, and said there is "a program underway to reduce emissions by 90 percent by 2018." How much will this reduction cost to achieve?
   
3. The letter also makes a statement that Comanche 3 "will be designed to absorb, rather than pass through, variable fuel costs." ??? Does anyone understand that statement? If the price of coal doubles, it HAS to be passed through.  Are we missing something??
   
4. They are still leaning heavily on the discredited, debunked "survey" (read: push poll) that they crafted last year.
   
5. The letter further complains about the proposed tiered rate system, saying "the purpose of tiered rates is to impose energy conservation." Again, very misleading. The purpose of tiered rates is to **invoke market processes and price signals to ration scare resources in an orderly, prioritized fashion.**  It is classic market capitalism. The current one-price fits all is price-agnostic and flat out Soviet style pure and simple. Why does the IREA hate the free market (could it be because it is so beholden to FDR-era federal subsidies??)
   
6. The letter pretends that the IREA is a champion of the poor.  IREA can say that they help the poor with their bills by using the Energy Outreach program.  They match our contributions but to a total of $75k over the year.  That's the good news.  The bad news on the topic is that IREA NEVER gets close to the $75k budgeted amount because they do not really promote the program.  It gets mentioned once or twice a year with very little info to let members know the value of the program. 
   

We love it when Stan gets the urge to speak his "mind"  - reminds us of Dan Quayle's observation: "What a terrible thing to have lost one's mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is."