Manager’s
Column
Fall Bucket List Attending an SDSU Jacks game, check; my Minnesota Twins in the playoffs, check; football season in full swing, check; attending the Garth Brooks Concert, check. With these “important” things checked off my early fall bucket list, I know what comes next is our annual meeting and a busy fall schedule. I would Dick Johnson like to thank all the people CEO/General Manager that attended our annual meeting. Congratulations to Larry Eisenbraun and Chuck Sloan for their re-election to the Board. I look forward to continuing to work with them. Thanks to the 2 challengers who ran; that is the power of cooperative membership; you are members so you can be a part of your cooperative. A heartfelt thanks also goes out to those members who attended our appreciation day events in Enning and Rapid City. In looking at comparisons, both events had increased member attendance. We are already planning for next year’s events. We look forward to any comments you may have. Hats off to our employees who put it all together and worked so hard. As long as I am thanking everyone, we had 400 of our members who recently were a part of a telephone survey conducted for us by Touchstone Energy Services. We greatly appreciate taking time from your busy schedules to answer a few questions. I hear the question many times on why we spend the money to have such a survey. I feel it is very important for us to look at what we are doing right and especially those areas where we could step it up. We also receive a score from the ACSI; American Consumer Satisfaction Index that will show us how we compare to other Touchstone coops, utilities and businesses. We had a great 2 November 2 0 1 7 • COOPERATIVE CONNECTIONS
score last year and are confident it will be good again this year. There is always room for improvement though! I will let you know in the future how our results came out. One of our major projects this year has been the rebuild of the Box Elder substation. It was an old substation that needed upgraded for increased load and had older equipment. This sub was also not as safe as we would like. The substation is being moved slightly from its current location up Radar Hill Road next to our Rushmore transmission sub. We expect the substation to be energized by the end of the year. It will mean higher capacity and new, safer equipment. Our members in that area might also notice our contractors digging in new circuits around the Box Elder area to increase the capacity and reliability too. 682500 I haven’t said much lately on the 2 year anniversary of the Clean Power Plan (CPP). You may recall the CPP would have cut carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired power plants on a state by state basis. It would have had a significant impact on your cooperative and lead to increased rates. In March 2017, President Trump issued an executive order directing the EPA to review the CPP and establish a process to repeal or revise the rule. After consideration of Trump’s order, and a motion by EPA to the Appeals Court to hold the CPP in abeyance, the DC Court of Appeals removed the oral arguments on the upcoming court case. Actual CO2 emissions have gone down just due to plant retirements and especially the increased use from a glut of wind energy and natural gas fired plants. I think most people in the industry would like some sort of rule but a more workable solution. When it comes to the cost of environmental regulations, I noticed a clip the other day that Basin Electric paid about $181 million in expenses for environmental controls and regulation last year alone. I hope you all have a wonderful fall, get those items off your bucket list, and stay safe in your fall activities!