ACTION ALERT!

Dear Power of Community member:

The Oregon State Legislature has introduced a bill that mandates your electric cooperative (co-op) to purchase a portion of its electricity from renewable sources. ORECA needs you to contact your state legislators and oppose this mandate for three reasons:

1.
It undermines local control. You have the right to decide what kind of electricity you want through a board of directors you elect each year at your co-op's annual meeting. In fact, many co-ops already offer renewable power to their members. This mandate takes the decision making power out of your hands and gives it to the state.

2.
It could cause rate increases. Renewable energy is more expensive than our current power sources, over 70% of which is renewable hydroelectricity. We do support all forms of renewable energy and many utilities choose to invest in renewables, but rate increases affect everyone in our communities.

3.
It doesn't recognize hydro as a renewable. Our abundant low-cost hydro supply is the primary reason that Oregon is one of the lowest states in the nation for green house gas emissions. It doesn't make sense not to include hydro. Please call or e-mail your state legislators and let them know our three concerns. Go to takeaction.nreca.coop (see instructions on right), which will walk you through the process of sending an e-mail to your legislators. Or, contact your co-op for a list of legislators to write or call if you do not have internet access.

Thank you again for your support. Please contact me, or your co-op with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
SANDY FLICKER
Executive Director
(503) 585-9988 OR sflicker@oreca.org

To participate on-line please go to

takeaction.nreca.coop

1. Scroll down to Stuff in Your State
2. Click on OR-OREGON
3. If a first-time user, 
 complete the requested information
 this will match you with your legislator
 then click "submit." In the next step
 you can edit the letter if you wish.

And/Or Call/Mail your Representative:

Representative Wayne Krieger
 (Republican-Dist. 1)
900 Court Street NE
Suite H-378
Salem, OR 97301-4055
Phone: (503)986.1401
Fax:   (503)986.1401
Email: rep.waynekrieger@state.or.us
Web: www.leg.state.or.us/krieger

Representative Bruce Hanna
 (Republican-Dist. 7)
900 Court Street NE
Suite H-288
Salem, Oregon 97301
Phone:(503) 986.1407
Fax:None
Email: brucehanna@state.or.us
Web: www.leg.state.or.us/hanna

Representative Susan Morgan
 (Republican-Dist. 2)
900 Court Street NE
Suite H-381
Salem, Oregon 97301-4056
Phone:(503)986.1402
Fax(503)986.1130
Email: rep.susanmorgan@state.or.us
Web: www.leg.state.or.us/morgan