New NRECA chief hopes bipartisan clout will protect customers

Jim Matheson, a Democrat who was elected to seven terms in the U.S. House from a reliably Republican district in Utah, knows something about what it takes to work across party lines and buck political headwinds. He'll need that experience in his new job as CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which argues that the Obama administration's climate regulations will drive up consumer costs and put some of its many coal-dependent co-ops out of business. President Obama's Clean Power Plan is the cornerstone of the U.S. pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris accord. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has pledged to implement the regulations if she's elected, and has called for taking additional steps to reduce carbon emissions. Donald Trump opposes the regulations. For now, the Supreme Court has put a hold on the plan while lower courts consider a lawsuit in which NRECA is a lead plaintiff. But if the courts eventually allow the rules to take effect, the threat to co-ops is so serious that NRECA may have to go to Congress, or to the next administration, to seek some form of relief, Matheson says.