August 6, 2010
Berea resident hopes EKPC will develop energy efficiency programs


My household receives electricity from Bluegrass Energy Co-operative (BEC.) Bluegrass Energy is a member of Eastern Kentucky Power Co-operative (EKPC.) Recently EKPC has put a new management team in place in response to an unfavorable management audit. I am glad to see this positive step.

The managers of energy production, including those of EKPC and BGE, face some very challenging large-scale issues. Some of the most challenging issues stem from the fact that, on many levels, past strategies for producing energy have become uneconomical, unhealthy, and dangerous to the general population. Advanced industrial societies, which include Kentucky and the United States, must reconsider how we produce energy. I realize that changing the long-standing strategies of large organizations is very difficult. But that is what insightful and forward thinking managers can do well.

One of my hopes, as a member/owner of BGE and thus of EKPC, is that the new management team will expand their current levels of investment in searches for, and research and development of, energy efficiency programs. Equally important are programs for diversifying sources of production. I think it is imperative that both of these strategies, efficiency and diversification, be placed within the goal of stabilizing overall usage.

A major step in shifting strategy for EKPC would be to lay aside plans to build the Smith generating plant. The Smith plant is an example of a strategy that, once generally beneficial, now contributes to the uneconomical, unhealthy, and dangerous conditions faced by all of us. In particular, the Smith plant will contribute to existing air quality problems, increase the overextended debt load of EKPC, and make inevitable shifts in management goals and strategies more difficult.
Thank you for your attention to these thoughts.

Richard Futrell
Berea