Grassroots Involvement
In 1998, Oregon's consumer-owned utilities started a grass-roots program called Power of Community. Eleven meetings were held around the state with community leaders to address the restructuring of the electricity industry and its potential impact on Oregon's small and rural communities. The meetings were designed to build a coalition of support to maintain local control of Oregon's consumer-owned utilities by the locally-elected governing boards. This grass-roots coalition helped maintain local control of consumer-owned utilities in the electrical industry restructuring legislation of 1999.
However, the challenges to local control and preferential access to federal hydro-based energy are far from over. Consumer-owned utilities will face increased political pressures from a variety of sources, both regional and national. The political strength of cooperatives rests in the voices of the 300,000 Oregon consumers. Informed and politically-active consumers can and will persuade legislators to maintain cooperative principals such as local control.
By signing on as a Power of Community supporter, you will receive a newsletter (Power Line) and legislative reports during session (Salem Scoop) which explain issues of importance to cooperative members. From time to time you may be asked to contact your Senators and Representatives to voice your opinion. Hearing from grassroots constituents does make a difference to lawmakers. Your support will allow us to have a strong presence in upcoming debates on the regional and national energy picture.
The Power of Community brochure and sign-up form is available for download and requires Adobe Reader; click on the "Get Adobe Reader" icon below to
download the Adobe Reader, and then click on "Power of Community" to download.
Power of Community Download
Power of Community
