As your locally owned not-for-profit electric provider, Halifax EMC is committed to reliably powering our local communities. Beyond routine maintenance and updates that improve the reliability of the grid, we work in other ways to ensure our members’ needs are addressed. One of the ways we do this is through proactively engaging elected officials to ensure our members are well represented in Washington, D.C.

This past April, hundreds of electric cooperative leaders from across the country, including North Carolina, traveled to Washington, D.C., for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Legislative Conference.

As we met with elected officials on Capitol Hill, we discussed key energy issues and priorities that impact our members back home. I, along with CEOs from other North Carolina cooperatives, spoke with North Carolina Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd as well as key staff from Congressman Don Davis’ office and focused on telling our own unique stories of how we are ensuring reliable and affordable power for our communities through a diverse supply of energy resources to meet the growing demand for electricity.

While engaging with members of Congress and the regulatory agencies, we also detailed the need to improve environmental permitting processes and cut costly and burdensome regulations—like the EPA Power Plant Rule—to accelerate deployment and maintenance of essential electric infrastructure. We highlighted the importance of federal hydropower resources as well as the need to pass legislation to facilitate co-op vegetation management efforts and reduce wildfire risks.

An additional focal point of our discussions with policymakers included ensuring federal programs and resources that support electric cooperative energy projects are protected as we invest to meet the unique needs of our communities. This includes tools such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service electric loan program and the New Empowering Rural America co-op loan and grant program, energy tax credits with an elective (direct) pay option for co-ops, and recently funded Department of Energy infrastructure programs.

Despite the challenges that lie ahead, we are encouraged to see the President’s swift actions to address many of these issues. We look forward to working with his administration and members of Congress to implement a pro-energy agenda that prioritizes reliability and affordability and strengthens our nation’s grid. As we continue to communicate our message you can help make it stronger by joining Voices for Cooperative Power or “VCP,” which is a grassroots effort to make sure our members have a way to amplify our messaging and let elected officials know what matters to their communities. By joining VCP and following us on social media you can be kept informed on what’s going on and be provided easy ways to message your legislators on what’s important.

While you may not consider it on a daily basis, electricity is essential and underpins nearly every aspect of modern life. Understanding today’s evolving energy landscape is important as it shapes how electricity is produced, delivered and consumed.

Advocating for reliable, affordable power on behalf of Halifax EMC’s members is a critical part of our commitment to you and our community.