| Posted in: Public Power Champions
On July 24, members of the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Policy Maker Council (PMC) met with their elected representatives and congressional staff on issues critical to public power.
Four Missouri River Energy Services (MRES) communities from the states of Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota, are represented on the PMC.
The members are Eric Moerman, council member from Sioux Center, Iowa; Gary Nansen, board of trustee member from Detroit Lakes, Minn.; Carol Laumer, council member from Willmar, Minn.; and Jack Powell, mayor of Vermillion, S.D.
Moerman, Nansen, Laumer, and Powell, along with MRES staff, met with Congressional representatives from their states to discuss priority issues for the public power community.
In particular, the issues are: 1) concern with S. 3157 (The STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act) which would repeal the public power exemption from Federal Communications Commission pole attachment regulations, and 2) opposition to the proposed Trump Administration’s recent report on government organization to divest the transmission assets held by the Tennessee Valley Authority and three of the Power Marketing Administrations: Southwestern Power Administration, Western Area Power Administration, and Bonneville Power Administration.
The PMC has 45 members, which include elected or appointed officials on the governing bodies of public power communities. The APPA PMC meets twice a year in Washington, D.C., and visits with elected representatives and congressional staff.
