Annual meeting crowd urged to continue the push to safeguard Our Energy, Our Future

Story and photos by Walter Allread, South Carolina Living Magazine

“IT’S LIKE A MARATHON. We’ve got to keep the pressure up,” Laurens Electric Cooperative members were told at their annual meeting June 6.

Hundreds of members signed Our Energy, Our Future cards there, urged on by Mike Couick, right, president of the statewide association of electric cooperatives. Couick thanked members for supporting the national co-op effort, which reminds Congress not to pass legislation that will push power costs sky high.

Couick said South Carolina’s congressional delegation backs co-op consumers but lawmakers from California and elsewhere want to raise other states’ power costs to subsidize their exorbitant rates. Electricity costs 37.5 cents a kilowatt-hour (kwh) in California, Couick noted, about three times the cost of Laurens Electric service. A typical Laurens Electric Cooperative member uses 1,200 kwh a month, which averages $133.43, he said. “Your bill would jump to about $361.47 if they get what they want in California,” Couick said.

To support the cause, access laurenselectric.com and click on the Our Energy, Our Future link.

The co-op registered 2522 members in attendance. The members re-elected incumbents Leroy Blakely, Helen Abrams and F.E. Hendrix to their Board of Trustees.