For those of you who aren’t already aware, I’ve been working since July 2006 with “IREA Voices,” a group of member-owners of Intermountain Rural Electric Association (based in Sedalia, CO, south of Denver) who want to bring a great deal more openness, transparency, and modernization to their rural co-op utility. This small but dedicated group has been working to “Create a New IREA, One Voice at a Time.”
Rather than provide all possible background info, please check out the IREA Voices website – www.ireavoices.org – and an entry I submitted to the Colorado Renewable Energy Society’s blog in August 2006.
IREA Voices had a public “kick-off” meeting just before Labor Day 2006 in SW Denver, drawing 50 people, former Colorado Speaker of the House Lola Spradley, a spokesman for Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO), and other notables. A subsequent meeting in Castle Rock just before Thanksgiving drew fewer people, yet produced a great amount of brainstorming & ideas.
On January 18, IREA Voices came to Parker for another public meeting. While only a dozen or so new faces showed up, they came from all over IREA’s service territory. Some drove nearly two hours on each way a frigid weeknight to see what was brewing within their normally black-box utility … !
The meeting organizers didn’t have to do much to get the meeting (or the emotions) going. Many in the room had grown disgusted over years of IREA’s ignorance of their concerns, misuse of their money, and resistance to the idea of Colorado’s “New Energy Economy.” They appreciated seeing a group forming that could provide them with the kind of voice that IREA has up until now totally ignored.
Along with sharing a great deal of information about how co-op utilities are supposed to work, how IREA has actually worked, ETC., the meeting also focused attention on running candidates for IREA’s Board of Directors. Candidates are already running for 2 of the 4 districts that will have elections in the coming months. And while the “incumbent effect” is even more powerful here than it is in Congress(!), we can at least take solace in knowing that IREA will have to publish whatever we want published for candidate bio’s to be included in their infamous “Watts & Volts” newsletter. This could be the first time – maybe ever – that IREA publishes information about energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other forward-thinking ideas with a positive spin! Whether our candidates win or not, we look forward to seeing the kinds of forces that such an effort will unleash among the disaffected (or otherwise misinformed) IREA member-owners who have yet to find out about IREA Voices.
The next public meeting of IREA Voices will be on Tuesday, February 6, 6 – 9 PM, at the Woodland Park Public Library. Details are available at www.ireavoices.org.
PLEASE JOIN US, and help us “Create a New IREA, One Voice at a Time!”
