CEO Columns

Our energy, our future - April 8, 2008
Pressure is mounting in Congress to do something about climate change. And while political debates in Washington, D.C., may seem far away, the outcome will have a direct impact on our cooperative – and on you, the cooperative member and other electric consumers.

Full impacts of climate bill need to be understood - January 30, 2008

The Lieberman-Warner legislation does not allow the time or commit the resources necessary to protect our consumers. The bill has yet to undergo extensive evaluation and much about it is not only unclear, it is confusing. It is inconceivable that a bill with such dramatic impact could move forward with so little analysis.

Future requires energy in all forms - January 20, 2008

As I reflect on 2007 and look at 2008 and beyond, it seems in many respects we will continue to face many of the same issues as we strive to develop the necessary generation and transmission resources to meet our members’ energy requirements. 

Future requires energy in all forms - September 18, 2007
On Aug. 4, the House of Representatives finally reached an agreement on an energy bill.

One player, part of the solution - July 26, 2007
I recently attended, at the invitation of the Department of Energy (DOE), a workshop on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) held in Oslo, Norway, on June 21-22. The purpose was to develop opportunities for CCS in the fossil fuel sector, including enhanced oil recovery and CO2 removal from natural gas production, and provide an action plan to the Group of Eight (G8) leaders at the summit in 2008 in Japan.

Build with balance, we must - June 4, 2007
Every two years, Basin Electric reviews current demand and energy usage among the membership to understand and determine future energy requirements. This task is important. Many months of pouring over energy usage patterns of various classes of end-use consumers – residential, commercial and industrial – along with data from actual consumer surveys, ultimately become the basis for what is called a Power Requirement Study.