Fewer than half of Tennessee’s electric cooperatives allow their member-owners to attend board meetings, and only three offer community solar programs. These are two of the findings in a new report released today by Appalachian Voices and two rural community…
Most rural folks rely on electric co-ops for their power, and as “member-owners,” they vote on board members who decide everything from rates to whether clean energy is part of their energy source.
Rural electric co-ops were set up as democratic institutions, but have increasingly become unresponsive to their customers, who are also owner-members. In Virginia, members of two co-ops are challenging the status quo.
