Co-op power

Keeping it reliable, affordable, environmentally responsible

York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive has three top pri­or­i­ties: pro­vide you safe, reli­able access to elec­tric pow­er, offer that ser­vice as afford­ably as pos­si­ble, and do both in a fis­cal­ly and envi­ron­men­tal­ly respon­si­ble fash­ion.

Because YEC is a not-for-prof­it co-op, we are well posi­tioned to make any nec­es­sary invest­ments for ensur­ing safe, reli­able and afford­able elec­tric­i­ty. How­ev­er, ful­fill­ing our com­mit­ment to envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship in a fis­cal­ly respon­si­ble man­ner has become more chal­leng­ing. Many envi­ron­men­tal laws that were adopt­ed by Con­gress decades ago are being used by fed­er­al agen­cies and the courts to address issues for which they were nev­er intend­ed.

For exam­ple, the fed­er­al Clean Air Act is now 40 years old and was last amend­ed in 1990. Much has changed in the inter­ven­ing years, includ­ing tech­nol­o­gy, our under­stand­ing of the envi­ron­ment envi­ron­ment, and the elec­tric util­i­ty indus­try.

Today, offi­cials with the U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency are try­ing to mod­i­fy the Clean Air Act to fit new cir­cum­stances. With­out a doubt, new EPA rules being issued will wind up back in the courts—and lengthy lit­i­ga­tion will ensue.

Rea­son­able peo­ple can and will dis­agree over how to find a bal­ance between pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment, guar­an­tee­ing a reli­able sup­ply of pow­er, and keep­ing elec­tric bills afford­able. Con­gress even­tu­al­ly will have to revis­it the Clean Air Act and update it to fit the needs of the 21st cen­tu­ry. Mean­while, YEC will con­tin­ue to encour­age law­mak­ers and reg­u­la­tors to strike the prop­er bal­ance on these con­cerns.

Paul Basha
Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer