Letters to the editor

July 24, 2007

Power's in the people

It seems everyone is piling on Matanuska Electric Association right now, but we have to step back and look at how MEA officials are working to help us get this latest vote just right.

First, they spent a ton of money on a glossy mailer full of all sorts of propa- … er, information on why we should vote for local generation. Then, they spend even more money calling us to tell us how to vote. Could they be more helpful?

Clearly they don't want to import power from evil old Chugach Electric Association, and they are spending a lot of our money to get the vote they want. As member-owners, I think we should be proud of the MEA board and its fine upper management staff.

I can only assume that way back in May 2006, MEA just forgot to be so helpful when it had six meetings, from Willow to Eagle River, to ask member-owners what kind of new generation we would like.

Somehow, they overlooked advertising those meetings - no glossy special mailer, not even a word in the PowerLines newsletter that goes monthly to every ratepayer.

I guess back then they were saving us money.

MEA staff was kind enough to provide me with the recordings of those meetings.

Of the six meetings, nobody showed up at four of them (imagine that). But people showed up in Palmer and Wasilla, and of those who testified, 67 percent said they wanted MEA to look into renewable energy generation.

Only 33 percent and 8 percent said they wanted new generation from coal and natural gas, respectively.

In another apparent oversight, these results never made it into the newsletter, and MEA certainly didn't heed that advice!

Now, in a cooperative, the board of directors is supposed be our voice. Unfortunately, the majority of the board members are ignoring the interests of their member-owners.

It's time to call each board member and ask how he or she is looking out for our pocketbook, health and future. The phone numbers can be found in your Power Lines newsletter or on the MEA Web site.

Mark Masteller

Palmer