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Archive for the ‘Co-op Reform’ Category

Big Hot Texas Sun: Problem or Resource?

Posted in Climate Change, Co-op Reform, Efficiency, Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, solar, tagged , on August 11, 2011 |

Pearl Brewery San Antonio

Pearl Brewery, San Antonio - home of one of the largest solar roofs in the region

We’re in the midst of a heat wave and drought that are on record to be Texas’ worst in recorded history. (and now imagine if global warming actually kicked in, the way all those scientists say! *wink*)

But we have a few options. Cope, adapt, or conquer. I much prefer the last solution to the first.

First, we can cope. Rep. Joe Barton from here in Texas once famously said in a Congressional hearing that his constituents don’t have to worry about global warming- they’ll just find some shade. Well, we can do that. We can also do what is more likely which is just go sit in our homes and offices and blast the air conditioning as much as we can to make these ever-warming, record-breaking hot, dry summers as tolerable as possible.

The only problem is, all that electricity comes from somewhere. And with record-breaking demand on the ERCOT grid, they have been warning Texans to conserve or risk rolling blackouts. And while blasting the a/c may seem like an affordable luxury for the people who live in the McMansions of West Austin, I don’t know about the rest of you, but most Texas families can’t afford the huge energy bills that would be associated with just setting the thermostat at 70 and letting it go.

We can already see what coping is getting us.

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Pedernales Electric Co-op voting begins! An overview

Posted in Co-op Reform, tagged , , , , on May 5, 2011 |

UPDATE: We’ve added a little here and there based on some new information we’ve gotten since first publishing this, specifically some information from NRECA (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association) and Pedernales’ counsel about the effects of converting to SMDs.

Well folks, yesterday marked the beginning of voting for the board of the Pedernales Electric Coop.  I’m a proud co-op member, something I couldn’t have said several years ago when the co-op board met behind closed doors and the board nominated its own members. But now we have returned to the principle of democratic control by the member-owners of the co-op, in no small part due to the work of Public Citizen and others.

There’s been a lot of news recently about PEC and Public Citizen’s involvement in the reform effort.  We’re not going to comment on that just yet, as we want to keep this focused on the issue at hand, which is the election.  Voters across the co-op have the opportunity to vote for two board seats and on a member referendum about future elections and how they should take place.

You can vote in three ways.  A ballot should have been mailed to you on Wednesday according to PEC staff.  In it you will see that you can vote for candidates in Districts 2 and 3 and on the question of single member districts.  You can see videos of each of the candidates at the PEC Candidate Forum online here. We’ll let the candidates speak for themselves on why they should get your vote, as we do not and will not endorse anyone in these races.

However, what’s missing in all of this is a discussion about the pros and cons of single member district voting. Below I’ve attached the presentation we made to board candidates about what we would like to see in the future for PEC. We lay out a broad vision that investing in the future and the key to lower rates is efficiency and renewables. These also just so happen to help things like clean air, create jobs, and use little water in comparison to traditional power generation.  We believe that as a co-op, based on the principles of what a cooperative is (as opposed to a private utility or municipal utility), we have a special place in the community to be responsible, ethical, and think about the greater good of our policy choices.

Beware– this presentation is loooooooong, but I wanted to bring attention specifically to the slides about the pros and cons of single member districts. (pgs 15-19)

But in the spirit of transparency we wanted to put the entirety of what we spoke to the board candidates about out there. You know, in case someone publicly accuses you of being a secretive, corrupt cabal that pulls the strings at the co-op.

[scribd id=54650680 key=key-w92e1zwplb1yqkw42rp mode=list]

So, let’s discuss single member districts, or SMDs for short. I’m putting on my political science hat (my Political Science 350:  “Theories of Democracy and Democratization” professor would be so proud of me) and let’s talk about what SMDs actually do.  I’m personally agnostic about how people should vote on this. I see good sides and down sides to it, but both sides deserve an airing.

But first, what are we voting on?  This is how it will appear on the ballot: (more…)

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PEC names new CEO

Posted in Co-op Reform, tagged , , , , on February 22, 2011 |

The Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) has named R.B Sloan as its new CEO. Sloan begins March 6, leaving his current job as director of utilities in Danville, VA.  He also ran the city-owned electric company for Vero Beach, Fla.

PEC, the nation’s oldest and largest co-op has been plagued by scandal and management upheaval over the past few years. Sloan will come to Pedernales just three months after longtime General Manager Bennie Fuelberg was found guilty of a money-laundering scheme.

See our earlier posts on Fuelberg’s trial,  conviction and sentencing.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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PEC’s former general manager sentenced to five years probation

Posted in Co-op Reform, tagged , , , , on February 8, 2011 |

Bennie Fuelberg during his trial

Bennie Fuelberg

Former Pedernales Electric Cooperative General Manager Bennie Fuelberg has been sentenced to five years’ probation, 300 days in county jail, 1,000 hours of community service and $126,000 in restitution which goes to the co-op’s former law firm Clark, Thomas and Winters, and its insurance company, which paid a $4.1 million settlement to the co-op last year.  The sentence is for a conviction on third-degree felony theft of co-op funds, money laundering and misappropriation of fiduciary property.  The co-op, which had rejected a prosecution proposal directing Fuelberg to pay Pedernales $100,000, gets no money.

The charges could have carried a maximum prison term of 10 years, but Fuelberg got less than a year of actual jail time.

Demond, a former attorney with Clark, Thomas & Winters, faces trial on the same theft and money laundering charges later this year.

Update:

Turns out, the reason for only 300 days of jail time is the judge gave Fuelberg the option of reducing his jail time by accepting responsibility for his crime — including waiving his right to appeal — and testifying against attorney Walter Demond. Demond, a former partner at Clark Thomas, who faces trial later this year on the same felony theft, money laundering and misapplication of fiduciary property charges as Fuelberg.

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Former Pedernales GM Bennie Fuelberg GUILTY on all counts

Posted in Co-op Reform, Energy, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 10, 2010 |

After only a day of deliberation, the jury has returned a guilty verdict on former Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) general manager Bennie Fuelberg on all counts of money laundering, theft, and misapplication of fiduciary property.

During the two weeks of trial, the prosecution showed how Bennie Fuelberg filtered money through Clark, Thomas & White, the co-op’s law firm, to his lobbyist brother, Curtis, and Bill Price, the son of a co-op board member.  Fuelberg also misdirected staff, removing oversight of the co-ops legal bills from other managers in an attempt to hide the money being passed through to his brother.

Prosecutor Harry White detailed this in his closing arguments Thursday: “The reason Bennie Fuelberg kept a secret was because he knew it was wrong. What he did was he took money that didn’t belong to him, that belonged to normal people, and gave it to his brother.”

As an aside, Clark, Thomas & White repaid over $4 million in fees to PEC in a separate lawsuit, showing just how much money Bennie siphoned away from the co-op over the years.

Several of us here at Public Citizen are current or former PEC members.  We were part of the original investigations and lawsuits that opened up the wretched hive of scum and villany that Fuelberg had turned the co-op into, and have worked for and are proud of the reforms that have taken place in the past few years.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Trial of former Pedernales Directer Fuelberg begins today

Posted in Co-op Reform, tagged , , , on November 29, 2010 |

Bennie Fuelberg, former Pedernales Electric Co-op GM - AAS Photo

With last week’s conviction of Tom Delay, is it too much to hope that another Texas scoundrel gets justice, too?

Less politically charged but no less important, for PEC Director Bennie Fuelberg will go on trial in Fredericksburg, where the trial was moved because the judge decided Fuelberg was unlikely to get a fair trial if tried in Pedernales territory.  He was probably right.

Patrick George of the Austin American Statesman wrote extensively about the trial and the actvities leading up to the trial  this morning.

From the Austin American Stateman article:

In what is arguably the climax to more than three years of lawsuits, grand jury indictments, legislation, allegations of corruption, congressional hearings, reforms and resignations at the Pedernales Electric Cooperative not to mention newspaper stories detailing it all the utility’s former chief executive will go on trial today in Fredericksburg.

Before his June 2009 indictment on felony theft and money laundering charges, former Pedernales General Manager Bennie Fuelberg was one of the Hill Country’s most prominent citizens. Now, his name is often tossed about by co-op leaders and employees as synonymous with scandal and cronyism.

The trial, prosecuted by the Texas attorney general’s office after a Hill Country district attorney stepped aside, could be the completion of Fuelberg’s fall from grace — or it could result in his exoneration.

Fuelberg, who ran the nation’s largest member-owned electric utility for more than 30 years, is charged with misapplication of fiduciary duty in excess of $200,000, theft of property in excess of $200,000 and money laundering between $100,000 and $200,000. The first two charges are first-degree felonies that carry a penalty of up to 99 years in prison if convicted; the last charge is a second-degree felony that carries up to 20 years.

Fuelberg and the co-op’s former outside counsel, Walter Demond, were indicted on identical charges last year after a five-month grand jury investigation. Demond will be tried after Fuelberg. Both have pleaded not guilty. The grand jury’s term has since expired, and no other indictments have been handed up.

The criminal charges stem from accusations that the men arranged for thousands of dollars of co-op money to be paid to relatives of Pedernales executives. According to the indictments, payments exceeding $200,000 went to Curtis Fuelberg, Bennie Fuelberg’s brother, and William Price, the son of former Director E.B. Price. (more…)

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Smitty’s statement on former PEC/AE GM Juan Garza’s new nuclear job

Posted in Co-op Reform, Efficiency, Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear, Renewables, tagged , , , , , on September 21, 2010 |

Statement of Tom “Smitty” Smith:

We are shocked to hear the news that former Austin Energy and Pedernales Electric Cooperative General Manager Juan Garza has taken a job promoting nuclear power with New Jersey-based NRG Energy. While Garza rightfully acknowledges the danger climate change poses to Texas, nuclear power’s life cycle carbon footprint, exorbitant cost and extreme construction time belie the claim that nuclear is a solution to the climate crisis.

Numerous independent analyses warn that new nuclear reactors are too expensive, including consultants to the City of Austin who twice recommended the city pass on investment in the proposed South Texas Project units 3 and 4 due to high risk and cost. San Antonio’s CPS Energy has cut off investment in the project. Municipal utilities and electric cooperatives should take heed of the nuclear industry’s poor track record of delivering new reactors on time and on budget. The cost of these reactors has more than trebled in three years and when we built the first two units they were 6 times over budget and 8 years late. There are cheaper, cleaner, faster ways to meet new power needs in a carbon-constrained world.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Texas State Rep. Patrick Rose rails against PEC Board decisions, lack of transparency

Posted in Co-op Reform, Energy, Good Government, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 25, 2010 |

Logo for PEC

Rep. Patrick Rose this morning had an opinion piece printed regarding transparency reforms at the  Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) , echoing similar criticism from the Austin American Statesman last week.  I’m not saying I agree with every word Rep. Rose wrote here in this morning’s San Marcos Local News, but this shows that this will likely be an issue in the upcoming Legislative Session.  As a bit of history, Rep. Rose (D-Dripping Springs) and Senator Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay), both of whom are members of the co-op, tried to pass a bill to increase transparency at PEC last session, but that ultimately failed when, as with so many other issues, it got killed by Voter ID.

As an aside and for full transparency’s (ha!) sake, Rep. Rose is also my State Representative and I have to give him a big hat tip for the work he has done in working to reform the PEC, as that work directly affects the electric bills my family and neighbors pay every month.

Commentary
By PATRICK ROSE
District 45 State Representative

Rep. Patrick Rose by the river

Our three-county district is served entirely by electric co-ops and municipally owned systems. I believe that public power has served our area well and kept costs lower than other energy providers across the state. As we continue our efforts to protect and grow jobs in our region, energy affordability is key. This is one of the many reasons why I am committed to a strong and transparent Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC).

On Monday, Senator Troy Fraser (R-Marble Falls) and I spoke at the August meeting of the PEC board of directors. I appreciate every opportunity to meet with the board and co-op members about our reform efforts.

My remarks were focused on my strong disapproval of the board’s latest mistake that cost co-op members $1 million, firing its general manager days before the election of two new board members. In June, PEC seated its first ever 100 percent democratically elected board. This decision could have and should have waited until the new board members, duly elected by the members, were sworn in.

The two outgoing directors were part of the legacy board that allowed for and participated in the mismanagement and corruption at PEC that was brought to light over the last few years. They should not have been part of any decision that impacts the future of PEC. At the meeting, I repeatedly asked Larry Landaker, PEC’s board president, to explain why he and two other board members joined forces with the last two legacy members. He could not answer the question, and furthermore, he admitted that the board did not have cause for the firing, thus costing co-op members $1 million.

These actions are unacceptable and show the irresponsibility and lack of transparency that justify legislation. What co-op members can count on, regardless of the makeup of the PEC board or who is general manager, is that Sen. Fraser and I are committed to transparency and openness at our cooperative. The legislature will reconvene in January and we will proceed with our effort to statutorily protect members’ rights. (more…)

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