Legislators help us look out for you

Marc Howie, YEC Vice President of Community Development
Marc Howie,
Vice Pres­i­dent of Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment

A new year brings a new ses­sion of the S.C. Gen­er­al Assem­bly and, with it, a chance to thank our local leg­is­la­tors for their sup­port of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive.

The state sen­a­tors and rep­re­sen­ta­tives shown on these pages deserve your thanks. They help YEC save our mem­bers mon­ey and con­tin­ue to pro­vide the most reli­able ser­vice pos­si­ble.

As the leg­isla­tive liai­son for YEC, I work with my peers from oth­er inde­pen­dent, local­ly owned elec­tric dis­tri­b­u­tion co-ops around the state. We coor­di­nate with the gov­ern­ment rela­tions team at The Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tives of South Car­oli­na, Inc., our statewide asso­ci­a­tion, to look out for the more than 1.5 mil­lion South Car­oli­na cit­i­zens who rely on their local co-ops for depend­able, afford­able elec­tric pow­er.

Leg­isla­tive advo­ca­cy is cru­cial to your co-op’s con­tin­ued suc­cess. Deci­sions by law­mak­ers in Colum­bia and in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., have major ram­i­fi­ca­tions for your month­ly bill. That’s why your coop­er­a­tive keeps a close eye on the leg­isla­tive, reg­u­la­to­ry and legal issues of the entire util­i­ty indus­try.

2013 accomplishments

Our local leg­isla­tive del­e­ga­tion con­tin­ues to stand tall for YEC mem­bers. For instance, in recent years, the Gen­er­al Assem­bly has passed leg­is­la­tion aimed at curb­ing the theft of cop­per, which has cost cit­i­zens, insur­ance com­pa­nies, church­es and util­i­ties a great deal of mon­ey. In 2013, leg­is­la­tors, with input from co-ops and oth­er util­i­ties, went back and fine-tuned a law passed in 2012. We now have one of the tough­est laws in the Unit­ed States on the theft of cop­per.

In 2013 the Leg­is­la­ture also passed tougher laws regard­ing theft of util­i­ty ser­vice, par­tic­u­lar­ly for those who steal pow­er as part of larg­er crim­i­nal enter­pris­es includ­ing oper­a­tors of “grow hous­es,” where crooks cir­cum­vent elec­tric meter­ing to avoid pay­ing for pow­er used to grow mar­i­jua­na indoors. Now these crim­i­nals face seri­ous jail time if they try to stick oth­er co-op mem­bers with the cost of their pow­er.

Grassroots greatness

Co-ops have earned a rep­u­ta­tion as the Leg­is­la­ture’s “go-to” advi­sors on ener­gy-relat­ed mat­ters by demon­strat­ing our exper­tise in elec­tric­i­ty, eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and com­mu­ni­ty empow­er­ment. In the past, we pro­vid­ed expert advice on leg­is­la­tion to update state ener­gy-effi­cien­cy build­ing codes, which will help new home­own­ers save ener­gy and mon­ey. Today, we are doing the same to make sure our state poli­cies in dis­trib­uted gen­er­a­tion like solar are rea­son­able and con­sumer friend­ly. We appre­ci­ate our leg­is­la­tors’ atten­tive­ness to our mem­bers’ needs.

Leg­is­la­tors know co-ops well. They know that YEC and oth­er local­ly owned and oper­at­ed elec­tric coop­er­a­tives have rep­re­sent­ed grass­roots orga­niz­ing at its finest for almost 75 years. Thanks again to our del­e­ga­tion and to our great­est advocates—you, our con­sumer-mem­bers.

Marc Howie
Vice Pres­i­dent of Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment