Revenge Of The Coop
Posted on June 26, 2008 at 9:10 pmCongressman Jim Cooper responds to allegations that he improperly obtained access to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s website:
I was attacked today by a desperate Washington lobbyist who found it easier to make false charges against me than to defend the scandals in his industry.
After a four-hour hearing on electric co-ops, the head of the trade association for co-ops, Glenn English, got tired of defending the wrongdoing by a Texas co-op and lashed into me. Two top executives from the Texas co-op are currently evading subpoenas from federal marshals, and Mr. English did not want that to be the headline. He did not want people to know that his clients had stolen millions of dollars from their customers. So instead he made a false accusation against me.
Mr. English’s specific charge is that he was told that I was under investigation for accessing his trade association’s password-protected website without authorization. That is not true: I had full authorization, repeatedly, from a top co-op insider. That insider gave me their name and password to use for the website. If Mr. English wants to get mad at someone, perhaps he should look at his own organization.
Mr. English is trying to prevent Tennessee co-op customers from ever receiving the refund check that I think co-ops owe them. Tennessee co-ops hold nearly $1 billion of customer money, or roughly $1,800 per customer, but have never told Tennesseans exactly what they own, or how to get the money. I have been fighting Washington lobbyists in order to get Tennesseans their money back. Naturally, the folks who currently enjoy the benefits of that $1 billion are fighting back, hard.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman also decried the tactics of the NRECA:
“In 1994, when I was investigating the tobacco industry, a cigarette company threatened me with jail unless I turned over my files to them. Their lawsuit was quickly thrown out of court, but it gave me first-hand experience with corporate intimidation. In my view, attempting to intimidate the Committee when we are investigating serious issues is a mistake. We won’t be intimidated and we will continue to try to protect the interests of co-op customers by looking into any credible allegations of misconduct by the co-op boards.”
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One Responses to “Revenge Of The Coop”
I can never get anybody at my co-op to answer phone calls when the power goes out. They simply don’t answer the phone at the emergency number. Ever. Duck River Electric. And the mags they send are a little too slick. Good thing no one is in an iron lung at my house.