DENVER—Stan Lewandowski, General Manager of Intermountain Rural
Electric Association (IREA), distributed a nine page letter to
approximately 900 fellow members of the National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association that describes IREAs launch of a campaign to
combat global warming “alarmists”. Lewandowski revealed that IREA
contributed $100,000 to Dr. Patrick Michaels of New Hope Environmental
Services, Inc. A quick review of past newsletters from the World
Climate Report, whose chief editor is Dr. Michaels, reveals that Dr.
Michaels has long been a leading skeptic of global warming. Unlike the
vast majority of climate scientists today, Dr. Michaels disputes the
fact that human activity (in the form of burning fossil fuels) is the
leading cause of the spike in concentrations of CO2, the resulting
increase in global temperature, and its consequences.
Jake
Meffley, an Energy Advocate for Environment Colorado says, “The real
issue here is not global warming, its cause, and our collective
responsibility for the generation of greenhouse gases. That is a debate
(if there is one) best left for qualified climate scientists. The issue
deserving our attention is IREA’s contribution of a huge sum of money
last February to such a questionable source with virtually no input
from its members”, Meffley concluded.
Stan
Lewandowski and the IREA Board of Directors have a good faith
obligation to act in the best interests of their members. That trust
may have been broken.
"I'm
a little shocked. If he wasn't trying to hide something why wouldn't he
notify the members? It's hard to trust someone like that, I mean, what
else is he doing with our money that we don't know about?", says
Jessica Wilson, and IREA member.
Coop
funds are not profits that can be spent as management dictates as in
the for-profit business world. Excess money in the hands of the coop
belongs to its member customers and can be returned in the form of
capital credits.
In
the letter sent to other rural electric coops asking for their
financial contributions, Lewandowski explains the connection between
global warming and IREA, “A carbon tax or a mandatory market-based
greenhouse regulation system would erode most, if not all, of the
benefits of the coal filed generation”. IREA’s expenditure represents a
significant policy shift that merits the involvement of members.
Per
a Lewandowski quote appearing August 2 in the Rocky Mountain News,
“We’re a $300 million-a-year corporation. We’re not going to our
members and ask them individually about every decision we make.” While
no one expected an individual consultation from IREA management or it’s
Board of Directors, they could have held public meetings, used the
monthly newsletter to elicit responses, or utilized their web site to
obtain input.
The
following quote first appeared July 27 th in an article co-authored by
Clayton Sandell and Bill Blakemore of ABC World News Tonight:
“It’s
outrageous. It’s an abuse of authority,” said Ron Binz, a public
utility consultant who was Colorado’s state utility consumer advocate
from 1984 to 1995. “Intermountain is a rural electric cooperative,”
Binz said. “The customers are member-owners. Stan Lewandowski is
basically spending other people’s money.”
IREA is a member of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Per the NRECA web site:
Electric cooperatives are private, independent electric utilities,
owned by the members they serve. Democratically governed businesses,
electric cooperatives are organized under the Cooperative or Rochdale
Principles, anchoring them firmly in the communities they serve and
ensuring that they are closely regulated by their consumers.
Intermountain
REA must live up to the ideals expressed by its national organization.
Contributing large sums of money to issues that are primarily of a
political nature without incorporating the input of its members runs
IREA afoul of the spirit of these ideals.
IREAletter.pdf