Business : FEMA policy change tops list of issues for discussions with leaders in D.C.

CEO Steve Marlow, East-Central Cooperative Rural Electric Cooperative, along with 35 other representatives from Iowa’s rural electric cooperatives have returned from Washington, D.C., after calling on Iowa’s congressional delegation to get engaged and direct FEMA to reconsider their policy change and work with rural electric cooperatives to resolve the issue fairly. The purpose of this annual trip is for Iowa’s electric cooperatives to ensure elected officials are fully aware of the thoughts and concerns of their constituents who are served by electric cooperatives in Iowa. The key issue discussed was a policy change at FEMA that would have a devastating economic impact on electric cooperatives. One of the primary functions of the federal government is to lend assistance to local communities during federally declared natural disasters and to assist the impacted areas to recover. Electricity and power are cornerstones of any disaster recovery. Rural America is entitled to receive that assistance because we pay our fair share into that system. No community or individual wishes to experience some of the devastating weather occurrences that unfortunately sometimes happen in Iowa. But when storms happen, electric cooperatives work tirelessly, around the clock in daunting conditions to safely restore light, heat and power to our member consumers. Unfortunately, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has decided to change the policies for storm recovery assistance after the fact now requiring an unfair, arbitrary, costly and potentially risky test on our power lines. This FEMA over reach has the potential to lead to devastating economic impacts on electric cooperatives. FEMA is supposed to support us when devastating weather occurrences damage our power lines so that we can rebuild and continue to serve our member-consumers. “When devastating weather occurrences happen such as blizzards, ice storms and floods, the men and women of EastCentral Iowa REC work tirelessly around the clock to quickly restore and repair damaged utility poles and distribution lines. This is a matter of safety for our families, farms and rural businesses,” said CEO Steve Marlow “When it is appropriate and the established policies are met, we access federal storm damage recovery funds to help us cover the costs of repair.” Prior to these meetings in Washington, D.C., with Iowa’s Congressional delegation, electric cooperative employees, board members and member-consumers took action by signing over 10,000 postcards urging Iowa’s congressional delegation to intervene and direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to reconsider a new, unfair, arbitrary and costly testing policy to access storm damage recovery funds. These postcards were delivered to each Congressional district office. Steve Marlow, CEO, East-Central Iowa REC – Serving nearly 6,400 member-consumers along, 2,267 miles of distribution line, throughout 11 Counties including, Benton, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Clayton, Delaware, Fayette, Linn, Tama, Johnson and Iowa County’s. To find out more about ECI REC click here. Advertorial