The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
The great 2024 Gunnison County Electric Association election is underway. Co-op members have until June 18 to get their physical ballots back or until June 16 to submit an electronic ballot.
While District 6 incumbent Polly Oberosler is running unopposed, the District 7 at-large seat is empty and three people are running for that position. Frank Stern, Shannon Hessler and Edward Howard have all thrown their hats in the ring. The Crested Butte News will be asking those three questions for the next couple weeks to provide voters a better understanding of their positions on the issues. All GCEA members are eligible to vote.
—Mark Reaman
Shannon Hessler
Where do you live in the GCEA service area?
Mt. Crested Butte
Why do you want to sit on the GCEA board?
I am a town planner in Mt. Crested Butte, where, every single day, I am reminded how important local actions are. I work for the town and want to be on this board for the same reasons — I care deeply about our mountain communities and our way of life — and want to be a board partner who can bring the experiences of our workforce, the next generation of ranchers, business owners, and moms and dads, to the GCEA team.
I am passionate about solutions that can reduce costs, increase local renewables, and help diversify our supply for a more independent future. I am running to work with our great board and staff to work on options with you, and our members, and to make smart choices together for the long haul.
What experience do you have that would benefit the board and the co-op membership?
I’m running as a young working professional voice who walks in the shoes of our workforce. I don’t bring a decades-long resume and a readymade answer to every problem. I do bring current frontline community development experience leading local teams tackling our biggest issues of energy cost, lifestyle affordability, and land use. I am a town planner, trained environmental engineer, and Western Colorado University Master in Environmental Management grad.
As a Town Planner, I work with our boards and stakeholder teams daily to engage members of our community on projects that are important to them – and we have a diversity of folks with diverse needs and values here in the Gunnison Valley.
It’s no secret that our towns and rural residents have very different needs and values. I grew up in Fairplay, home to historic mining, cattle, wind, incredible sunsets, and not much else. I hold those rural values of independence and self-sufficiency dear. As a town resident today, I also know the cost of living and the housing crisis firsthand. Our rural residents are looking for solutions that help them save on ranch and heating costs, alongside options to diversify their income with a solar installation — if they choose. Our towns are looking for electrification options, unlocking thousands of dollars of savings each year through new appliances and vehicles. I’m running to be a partner for all our residents, working on solutions that honor our needs.
If elected, what would be your top priority in terms of issues or direction of GCEA?
We should continue to work on projects that simultaneously benefit our members and our planet — things like energy efficiency rebates, beneficial electrification, and clean energy projects. Besides saving our members money and decreasing our overall impact from greenhouse gas pollution, efficiency, and renewable projects have many co-benefits for health and human safety. I want to ensure that those benefits are shared equitably among all our members.
Edward Howard
Where do you live in the GCEA service area?
I live in district 3, Ohio Creek.
Why do you want to sit on the GCEA board?
I truly enjoy the energy industry. I have been fascinated by it since I was a child, when one of my responsibilities was to go out and write the numbers from the meters on a postcard that was mailed back to GCEA so that they could prepare our monthly bills. Both my grandfather and father served on the GCEA board and related to me the importance of electricity distributed to our homes and ranches in Powderhorn. It is something that we never took for granted.
I remember in the 1970s or 1980s my father telling me about how Colorado Ute, which ultimately became Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, implemented natural gas-powered generation and other technologies in order to reduce the carbon released from the older coal fired plants. It is amazing to me to have watched the evolution from those early coal fired generation plants to the current renewable energy generation that is approximately 34% of the energy portfolio of GCEA.
Just as the decisions made decades ago by the GCEA board and employees are benefiting us today, I would like to be a part of the decisions today that benefit the future generations. I am running for the board because I would like to help navigate the future of GCEA for all the members and continue providing electrical energy safely, reliably, and as affordable as possible.
What experience do you have that would benefit the board and the co-op membership?
My experience is threefold. First as I indicated above, I have been associated with GCEA, for over 40 years either as a family member or having a meter in my name. I understand the mission of GCEA and the importance of the electricity supplied to the members.
Second, my background in the energy industry as Vice President/Controller of a NYSE company combined with years of understanding complex financial transactions and contracts will provide members with representation regarding the significant financial issues of GCEA. I am familiar with cost benefit analysis and understand not only the extremely large capital requirements for the infrastructure necessary to provide the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, but the methodology of determining the rates charged to members in order to recover these capital costs and maintain and upgrade our grid system.
Finally, I consider myself to be a thoughtful and pragmatic person. Meaning, I read and research a very wide range of diverse information to gain knowledge and understanding about issues and I value people’s thoughts and opinions so to understand their viewpoint even when it is different than mine. I think this allows me to look beyond a hard financial numbers approach to understand and balance the human thoughts and concerns about the future of GCEA and our responsibilities.
If elected, what would be your top priority in terms of issues or direction of GCEA?
I would say that I really don’t have an agenda for GCEA. My top concerns, however, are related to the inflationary pressure on materials and wages over the last few years and how that will affect the cost of maintaining our infrastructure, the availability of employees and how all of this will impact the rates that GCEA has to charge to balance the affordability and reliability for all members. All the while we need to continue to evaluate renewable energy options and technologies to make the best plans for future growth as we gain more population and the demand for electricity increases.
FRANK STERN
Where do you live in the GCEA service area?
Unincorporated Gunnison County, Slate River Estates
Why do you want to sit on the GCEA board?
I would like to serve the community. I believe my expertise and experience in the electric utility industry will benefit GCEA.
GCEA is a small fish in a big, complicated, changing pond. The North American electric system has been described as the most complex machine in the world. It is undergoing a massive change away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy, efficiency, and storage. GCEA has some of the highest electricity rates in Colorado. The long-term debt of Tri-State, GCEA’s main provider, has been downgraded once or twice by all three credit rating agencies, and may be headed towards greater financial difficulty.
GCEA needs a board member with deep understanding of the electric utility industry. The current board has dedicated and capable members, but with the retirement of Mark Daily, none of them have any electric utility experience outside of GCEA.
What experience do you have that would benefit the board and the co-op membership?
• Over 30 years of experience in the electric utility industry with a focus on clean energy programs and wholesale energy markets.
• Directed an engineering team with 80 diverse staff for seven years.
• Managed multimillion-dollar, multiyear projects.
• Analyzed and/or negotiated over 100 power contracts.
• Valued electric generation assets, both fossil and renewable, worth over $10 billion.
• Colorado registered professional mechanical engineer.
• Author of over 30 professional publications about cost-effective, reliable, clean electric energy.
• Worked with electric co-operatives on issues related to cost-effective supply and financial restructuring necessary due to poor investment decisions.
• GCEA member for 20 years.
If elected, what would be your top priority in terms of issues or direction of GCEA?
Help GCEA maintain or lower current rates while maintaining a reliable system and meeting its existing strategic goals for 2030 of 70% renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 90% compared to a 2015 baseline.
This is going to require reliance on the larger electric utility industry. Cheap rates and energy independence sounds nice but is a pipe dream. It makes about as much sense as expecting to get cheaper cars by building them in Gunnison. Costs of electricity generation, like cars, are subject to massive economies of scale. The electric utility system and the rural co-operative system are great examples of INTERdependence, working together for the common good. Also, GCEA’s service territory does not have particularly good renewable resources. Wind is not nearly as good as eastern Colorado or Wyoming, solar resources suffer from snow and limited site availability, hydro and geothermal are limited. There are likely to be some specific situation for local renewable generation, like the Taylor hydro project in progress. But if GCEA wants to meet its strategic goals and maintain reliability while keeping its already high rates from going higher, we are going to have to rely on the outside world.
And we will likely be better off by continuing to rely on Tri-State Generation and Transmission for most of our electricity. I would not have said that five years ago, when Tri-State was still focused on coal generation and had little interest in change. However, Tri-State has made an impressive change in direction under its new CEO. It is making excellent progress towards its goals of 80% reduction in CO2 emissions associated with wholesale electricity sales in Colorado and 70% clean energy supplied to members system-wide by 2030. Also, GCEA signed a 44-year contract with Tri-State in 2006, when Tri-State was trying to build a giant coal plan in Kansas. GCEA will not be able to exit this contract without paying an expensive contract termination fee. While some bigger Tri-State members have recently left or are leaving Tri-State, it is unclear that any have financially benefited. A small co-op like GCEA, would be greatly challenged trying to go it alone.
