Thanks to your efforts last year, and your willingness to
step up and speak out again this year, if needed, a contentious legislative
battle with large cable companies is moving toward a good outcome for
customer-owned electric cooperatives in this year�s General Assembly
session. The issue in dispute involves the fees that cable companies pay to
attach their lines to cooperative poles, and the ability of cooperatives as
customer-owned utilities to recover their costs in allowing such
attachments.
In mid-February, as this editorial is being written, a
bill that we support is moving through the General Assembly. This bill calls
for unresolved disputes between cable companies and electric cooperatives
over pole-attachment fees and terms to be decided by the Virginia State
Corporation Commission (SCC).
The SCC, of course, is the state agency that regulates
electric utilities, including electric cooperatives, so the SCC already has
a long, deep knowledge of utility costs � as well as a mandate to protect
the interests of utility ratepayers. Since you�re served by an electric
cooperative, you�re both a customer AND an owner of your utility, with a
customer-elected board of directors in place to protect your interests. In
Virginia, the SCC adds another layer of scrutiny and customer protection to
the equation.
And that�s what makes the bill
resolving this pole-attachment dispute � which has been a thorny issue that
we�ve been fighting on your behalf for well over a year � something that
cooperative leaders are able to support. You see, the SCC has the necessary
expertise to understand the array of technical details surrounding pole
attachments, including their component costs, as well as such critical
related issues as ensuring electric service reliability. And
�
again
� the SCC is there to protect the best interests
of electric ratepayers.
Yet as logical as this outcome may seem, the path to reach
it has been anything but smooth or uneventful. The considerable lobbying
muscle of the big cable companies could only have been countered by a higher
power: you and your neighbors. During the 2011 General Assembly session, the
co-op chorus of voices was so large, so loud, and so insistent, that the
state legislature declined to pass the bill proposed by the big cable
companies. This cable bill would have mandated that cooperatives accept
reduced, subsidy-level fees when cable companies attach their lines to
cooperative poles. These reduced fees would have kept your cooperative from
recovering its costs � and effectively would have resulted in you and your
neighbors subsidizing these cable companies.
The outcry from cooperative customer-owners over this
unfair prospect prompted the state legislature a year ago to refer the issue
to the SCC for study. This past fall, the SCC study affirmed what
cooperatives had been saying. And that is, that there is no evidence that
lower pole-attachment fees would directly result in additional broadband
deployment (cable companies argued that they would) AND that any reduction
to cooperatives� pole-attachment fees would likely require an increase in
cooperative customers� electric rates if the cooperatives� revenue
requirements remained the same.
So when pole attachments came up
again in the 2012 session, looming large as a backdrop to this whole issue
was the grassroots muscle you and other cooperative customer-owners
exercised last year. And thus the General Assembly wisely chose through this
year�s legislation to designate the SCC as the forum for unresolved disputes
over these cable attachments to cooperative poles.
It�s worth noting that Senator William M. Stanley Jr. of
Moneta and Delegate Donald Merricks of Chatham � both of whom count numerous
cooperative customer-owners among their constituents � provided strong,
principled leadership in advocating on behalf of all cooperative
customer-owners. And, of course, the elected board members and staff members
from all 13 cooperatives in Virginia also worked hard on your behalf.
But in the end, it was you and your neighbors who were the
game-changers. And because of your advocacy last year, and your willingness
to step up again this year if and when needed, last year�s unreasonable
cable bill turned into this year�s reasonable outcome.
And, as we noted in these pages a year ago, �the turning
point came not in the halls of power in Richmond, but in the powerful calls
of constituents, from Accomack and Appomattox, Clarke County and
Clarksville, Leesburg and Lee County, Wakefield and Winchester, and from
countless other cooperative consumers everywhere in between.�
