The Co-op Way Keeps Rising
Electric Rates in Check

Many Americans do buisness with a cooperative everyday. They exist in almost every industry from energy to news reporting to healthcare. Co-op's are a huge part of the economy here in the United States and serve more than 120 million members, or four in 10 Americans.

While cooperatives may resemble most companies in some ways, thay are very different in others. One of the most important differences is that co-op's are not driven by profit. For-profit companies aim to return a profit to their shareholders. After all, these shareholders have invested their money in the buisness.

A co-op's mission, on the other hand, is meeting its members' needs for goods and services. Electric co-op's are part of the tradition of diong buisness, one that has a long historygoing back to 1752 when Ben Franklinstarted the first cooperative in Philadelphia.

A cooperative, however, is still going to see itsoperating costs

rise when the price of doing buisness goes up. There's no better exampleof this than right now when the cost of fuel to run power plants is at a record high. We work everyday to achieve operating efficiencies as we face these cost increases. We will work with you to make sure you have the information and help you need to use energy wisely. But if we find it necessary to pass along power supply increases, you can trust that the decision was based on keeping the buisness financially strong on behalf of all members. We are not driven by the profit motive to make money for outside investors.

At a time when Americans' electric bills are going up around the country-in some places as much as 40 percent- the co-op way of doing buisness is an important way to keep costs manageable.

We are not profit-driven and we don't have to impress Wall Street every quarter. Rather, we are service-driven and operating at cost. You can bank on the cooperative difference.

October 2006

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