Midwest Electric and Paulding Putnam Host Joint Legislative Dinner

Nearly 200 members of Midwest Electric and Paulding Putnam gathered Monday evening at the Wassenberg Art Center in Van Wert for a joint Legislative Dinner hosted by the cooperatives’ America’s Electric Cooperatives PAC.

The event brought cooperative members together with state and energy industry leaders for an evening focused on issues affecting electric reliability, affordability and the future of Ohio’s energy industry.

State Representative Roy Klopfenstein and State Senator Susan Manchester joined members for the evening, sharing their perspectives on current energy legislation and the role electric cooperatives play in helping legislators understand the issues facing the electric industry.

Klopfenstein emphasized the importance of cooperative participation in America’s Electric Cooperatives PAC and the role the cooperative industry plays in educating elected officials.

“The America’s Electric Cooperatives PAC plays an important role in helping legislators understand the issues facing electric cooperatives and members they serve.” Klopfenstein said. “That education is critical to making informed decisions about Ohio’s energy future.”

Klopfenstein described the work often associated with lobbying as legislative education, noting that virtually every business is affected by legislation in some way.

“When I think about who I would consider allies, this PAC is an ally,” Klopfenstein said. “The individual contributions may be small, but collectively, they are critically important to the future of not only electric cooperatives, but Ohio as a whole.”

Manchester focused on energy affordability and recent legislative efforts aimed at strengthening Ohio’s energy resources. 

“As we’re all aware, one of the big issues that is talked about today is affordability,” Manchester said. “And your energy prices are a huge part of that.”

She highlighted House Bill 15, legislation that was championed by Klopfenstein in the Ohio House, which she said has improved Ohio’s ability to utilize its energy resources and attract additional generation to the state.

“That is so critically important, not only for the reliability of our grid, but in our ability to make Ohio competitive as a state to the rest of the country,” Manchester said.

Manchester recognized the role electric cooperatives played in the development of the legislation and its potential impact on maintaining affordable and reliable electricity for Ohio consumers.

The evening also featured a presentation from Kevin Zemanek, Assistant Vice President of Operations for Buckeye Power, the wholesale power provider for both Paulding Putnam and Midwest Electric.

Zemanek discussed the growing demand for electricity from large energy users, including data centers, and the steps being taken to protect electric reliability and ensure that the costs associated with those large loads are appropriately allocated. Currently, neither Paulding Putnam nor Midwest Electric serves any data centers, but both cooperatives are preparing for the future to ensure their members are protected and do not bear the costs associated with new large energy users.

He explained that Buckeye Power has implemented a separate rate for data centers that ensures the costs associated with serving these large new loads are allocated directly to the data centers, rather than being spread across the cooperative’s membership. He discussed requirements and proposed changes at the state and federal levels that would require new large loads to bring their own generation.

“These are two proactive things the Buckeye Board did over the past year,” Zemanek said, referring to the generation and rate measures. “I think we’ve gone into a really good position, a really good place for our grid. Reliability is the number one topic, and then also affordability.”

The evening began with a complimentary Italian dinner before members heard from the speakers and concluded with a Q&A session, allowing members to interact directly with Klopfenstein and Manchester and gain additional insight into the energy issues discussed throughout the evening.

America’s Electric Cooperatives PAC is a bipartisan political action committee focused on issues affecting electric cooperatives and the communities they serve. The PAC works to support policies that help keep members’ energy bills affordable, improve quality of life, protect jobs, and strengthen Ohio’s economy while ensuring policymakers have accurate information about the electric cooperative industry.

Both Paulding Putnam and Midwest Electric Cooperatives are political leaders in the state of Ohio, with more than 1,400 America’s Electric Cooperative PAC members.

Photos from the evening are available on both Paulding Putnam’s Facebook page and Midwest Electric’s Facebook page. For more information about the PAC and upcoming events, visit the PAC website.