Butler Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc.
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1/7/2010

Cap and Trade legislation and how it can affect your electric costs

Congress plans to enact legislation that will place a market-based cap on carbon pollution and enhance the production of renewable energy sources. The legislation calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 14% below the 2005 levels by 2020, and approximately 83% below 2005 levels by 2050. The proposed method by the government is called Cap and Trade, which means capping greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels (natural gas, coal, propane, gasoline, or diesel) and auctioning off emission permits to the highest bidder.

The Cooperative will keep you informed about the Cap and Trade legislation and how it can affect your electric costs. Throughout the year, we will include informative inserts in your bills focusing on the potential effects that Cap and Trade legislation will have on you, such as reduction in household income, possible market manipulation, and possible job migration.

We encourage you to join the Cooperative in actively speaking out to your Congressional representatives about the concerns you have for this Cap and Trade legislation. Working together, we can get our message to elected officials that any Cap and Trade program will endanger affordable, reliable electricity. There are ways you can make your voice heard.

  • Log onto the Cooperative’s web site at www.butlerrural.coop and click on the Our Energy, Our Future icon. You can send a pre-written letter to your Congressional representatives asking the important question: What are you going to do to keep electricity affordable?
  • You can write your Congressman directly.
  • You can join COPA, Co-op Owners for Political Action, a national political action committee with more than 30,000 electric cooperative employees, trustees, and members. For $2.08 each month, you can help strengthen our political voice by supporting political leaders who have the best interests of electric cooperatives in mind. Contact the Cooperative to sign up and make a difference, 513-867-4400 or 800-255-BREC (2732). Your COPA contribution of $2.08 will appear on your monthly electric bill or online at www.butlerrural.coop.



It’s going to take all of us working together to let our elected officials know what we think about Cap and Trade. Keeping electricity affordable and available depends on us all.

 


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