Rural Missouri - December 2019 - 5

| PERSPECTIVES

Our gift to you
by Caleb Jones | cjones@amec.coop

have to buy more electricity to provide for you
and, most importantly, you end up with a lower
electric bill.
Through the Take Control & Save program
UHEDWHVKHOSPHPEHUVSD\IRUQHZHQHUJ\HIÀcient appliances. The list of available rebates is
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cooling systems.
Electric co-ops have given away thousands of
money-saving light bulbs. They've also offered
energy audits that reveal all the ways a homeowner, farmer or business can make the most
of the energy used.
Sometimes these tips are as simple as
caulking around a leaky window or replacing
the seal on a refrigerator. Or the audit could
point toward the need for more insulation in
the attic, new lighting at a church or a groundsource heat pump for a school.
The amount of electricity saved by the program is incredible. Over the life of the energy
saving measures, it equals enough electricity to
power all of the residences in a city the size of
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There are people at your electric co-op whose
job is to ensure you can afford your electric bill
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stay abreast of all the latest energy-saving technology available today.
You can look at what they do as our gift to
you, not just at Christmas time but during the
entire year.
Now if they could only do something for that
pickup of mine ...
From my family to yours, I would like to wish
you a very Merry Christmas and all the best in
the new year.

love the Ford pickup I drive. I just wish it
got better gas mileage. When I am out on
the road, it seems like it wants to pull into
every gas station I pass.
I wish I could walk into the nearest Break
Time or Casey's and ask them what I can do to
use less fuel. My guess is that request would
be greeted with the sounds of crickets chirping
and not much else.
Likewise when I see the bill for the latest trip
to the grocery store I feel it in the wallet, every
time. It's not cheap feeding a family of four that
includes two rapidly growing kids. Too bad
Hy-Vee or Gerbes doesn't have an employee to
provide counseling on how to stretch the time
between grocery store trips.
I can only think of one business that goes
out of its way to help you use less of what it
sells - your electric cooperative.
I've heard stories about the formative years
for electric cooperatives when they needed every
nickel and dime just to keep the doors open. Yet
they still encouraged members to install timers on their water heaters so they only operated
when necessary.
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honored rural tradition of, "take all you need,
but need all you take." I bet you've heard your
parents or grandparents say that many times.
This policy was formalized in a big way
by Associated Electric Cooperative when it
launched its "Take Control & Save" program.
Associated, which generates the electricity for From our family - myself, Lindsey, Max and Charlie - to yours, here's
most of Missouri's electric cooperatives, saw hoping all of you have a Merry Christmas and all the best in the new year.
the program as a way to postpone the need
for a new power plant while also saving money for Watts." The idea is if you can reduce your electricity
Jones is the executive vice president and CEO of
members.
usage, you don't have to generate the electricity in
It's a concept some in the industry call "Nega- WKHÀUVWSODFH7KDWZD\\RXUFRRSHUDWLYHGRHVQ·W the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives.

GUEST COLUMN

A Better Place
by Jim Matheson | info@ruralmissouri.coop

Across the country, electric cooperatives devote
countless amounts of time, energy and resources to
hat are you going to do to make improve lives in the regions they serve. Job training
and continuing education programs. Youth Tour.
your community a better place?"
Economic development efforts. BroadWhen I was a young
band projects. Health fairs. Job fairs.
boy growing up in
Scholarship programs. Volunteer serUtah, this was something my mother
vices. Literacy work.
asked me often. She even continued
The 47 electric cooperatives that
throughout my adulthood. Over the
serve Missouri's communities do all
years, I realized it's not a question you
this and more.
can answer with words. It's one you
And why do electric co-ops do these
have to answer with your actions.
things? For the same reason they got
The desire to make my communiinto the electric business 80 years ago:
ty a better place led me to represent
because when they see a need, they
the people of my district in the U.S.
know that if they don't act, it's likely no
Congress for 14 years. And it's what
one else will.
brought me to NRECA and to AmeriThis holiday season, I encourage
ca's electric cooperatives.
Jim Matheson
you to look around and see if you can
Concern for community is at the
spot some things your electric cooperavery center of the electric cooperative
SXUSRVH$QGDVDFRRSPHPEHU\RXEHQHÀWIURP tive is doing to make where you live a better place.
that commitment every day. And I don't just mean Co-op crews may help hang decorations in your
through the electricity in your homes and business- town with their bucket trucks or put the star at the
top of a community Christmas tree. They might run
es or when your power is restored after a storm.

food drives to offer holiday meals to the needy. Or
sponsor a team in a charity race. You won't have to
look far, I promise.
And that's because beyond providing reliable,
affordable power, there is no responsibility co-ops
take more seriously than their commitment to
improve their communities.
In my role as CEO of NRECA, I spend a lot of time
surrounded by the division and acrimony of Washington, D.C. But what heartens me most is knowing
that no matter how bad it may seem here, there
are more than 900 electric cooperatives out there
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in our country, work to accomplish big ideas and
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So in this month of giving and joy, you can be
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give to my mother's oft-repeated question: plenty.
And not in words, but in actions.
Happy Holidays, and thanks for your leadership
in your community.
Matheson is CEO of the National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association.
DECEMBER 2019 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP

http://www.RURALMISSOURI.COOP

Rural Missouri - December 2019

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