5/22/2009 2:11:24 PM

Members of the board of directors of Northern Neck Electric Cooperative recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Virginias congressional representatives and to discuss issues of critical importance to electric cooperatives and their consumer-members.

Directors Russell (Rusty) G. Brown, Ralph Sutton and James A. Wise joined with over 3,000 fellow electric cooperative leaders from across the United States who also came to the Nations Capital to meet with representatives from their respective states during the 2009 National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Legislative Conference May 4-6. Also attending from NNEC were President and CEO Greg White, Vice President Anne Kenner and Public Relations Specialist Andrew Packett.
After intensive briefings on key issues conducted by the governmental affairs staffs of the NRECA and the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives (VMDAEC), the Virginia delegation of more than 60 men and women traveled to Capitol Hill. There they met with Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb and Congressional Representatives Rick Boucher, Bob Goodlatte, Glenn Nye, Tom Perriello, Rob Wittman, Frank Wolf and as well as senior staff members of Representatives Gerald Connolly and Randy Forbes.

The Virginia delegation discussed with the Senators, Representatives and their staffs the concerns and positions of the Commonwealths electric cooperatives on proposed Federal legislation on climate change and carbon emissions standards, the critical need for additional power generation and transmission in the Mid-Atlantic region, and the need for policies that will keep electricity affordable to the consumer-members the electric cooperatives serve.

"Energy issues are now at the top of the national agenda," said White. "We welcomed this opportunity to stress to our legislators the importance of affordable electricity to Virginias economic well-being and to the quality of life of the nearly 1 million consumer-members our cooperatives serve throughout the Commonwealth."