In the mid 1990s, the California legislature passed a bill deregulating energy pricing. Out of that occurrence came an opportunity for me to help create the California Electric Users Cooperative. Dairy Co-ops, Grape Growers, Sunkist Growers, Calavo Avocado, and several Cotton Co-ops were just a few of the "heavy hitters" who joined up. We weren’t concerned with alternative energy. We just wanted to contract with a large Generator of electricity and create savings on the power bills of our 700 members. We were able to contract with New West Energy, part of the Salt River Project in Arizona, negotiating a three year contract to became a "wireless" aggregator of electricity. The contract gave the C.E.U.C. a 3% discount on the electricity we bought and although that doesn’t sound like much, there were grower members with giant veggie coolers, irrigators and dairy processors who had mega electric bills every month and it all added up. We were able to return member refunds at 2% of their costs and the other 1% went to administrative costs.

At the end of two years, we had collectively saved our members close to two million dollars but the rug was pulled out from under us. Governor Davis took away our direct access and essentially put us out of business. He was afraid of brown-outs because he wanted to get re-elected the next year so he had gone out and purchased blocks of electricity from the Generators at above market prices and in order to pay for it no one was exempted. So, even though we were successful, our project was over. Some of our members proposed a change in our strategy to move toward alternative energy. There were some areas where wind generation was feasible along with solar and we also looked into bio-mass because of all the agricultural refuse. There wasn’t enough interest at the time so we had to dissolve the C.E.U.C.

My interest in clean power has continued and even though it’s not my day job, it is intriguing and I have remained involved. Every year since 1998 I have traveled to Washington D.C. for the annual legislative rally of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association of America, (N.R.E.C.A.). Our California delegation lobbies almost all of our 52 state legislators on energy and transportation issues before Congress. We urge our lawmakers to support legislation in the production of all sources of energy. Alternative energy is great but it will never serve all our needs. There should be a balance in the production from all sources to keep costs in check and help our economy grow strong again.