Glenn English, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), today praised Committee Chairmen Henry Waxman, Chairman Markey and Chairman Peterson for their willingness to address the concerns of rural electric cooperatives in proposed climate change legislation.

In a letter to Chairman Waxman, English said “[e]lectric cooperatives want to thank you and the House leadership for addressing the ‘fairness’ issue. Providing language that no utility should receive allowances in excess of 100% of their needs deals with an inequity that would have cost consumers.”

“We still have concerns about this bill,” English wrote, but with the changes, “the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association will not stand in the way of passage of this legislation.”

In an agreement reached between Waxman and NRECA the bill that would go to the House floor for a vote includes the following provisions:

• No one gets a “windfall” determined by whether a utility receives allowances above what will cover its direct and indirect costs of complying with the cap-and-trade program.

• Allowances above that level are to be distributed to all LDCs (investor-owned utilities, cooperatives and municipals) based on emissions.

• An additional 0.5 percent of all allowances will be provided to small utilities (utilities with less than 4 million MWH sales per year). These allowances will be distributed to cooperatives and municipals based on emissions, and must be used for efficiency, renewable electricity, or low-income assistance programs. This allowance allocation has the same distribution schedule and phase-out as the electricity sector allocation currently in the bill.

“We look forward to working with legislators in both chambers going forward,” English said.

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