Keeping LPEA on track

The La Plata Electric Association Cooperative started supplying power in 1940, and it served to turn on streetlights, improve agriculture and foster regional commerce. Electricity serves the same purposes today; but how power is generated, delivered and consumed has changed significantly – and rapid change continues. 

Fortunately, LPEA is embracing change to assure that our power needs will continue to be provided in an economically efficient and environmentally responsible manner. 

For six years, as a member of the LPEA Board of Directors – and with encouragement from members – I’ve worked to keep the co-op’s mission focused on the future. We still have much work to do. And I am announcing my plans to serve another three-year term representing District 3, which encompasses the Durango city limits.

In 2024, the board voted to end the power supply contract with electricity provider Tri-State. The contract – not due to expire until 2050 – allowed little autonomy for local electricity production and tied LPEA to Tri-State’s polluting fossil fuel plants and its $3 billion-plus debt load. Specifically, it worked against our co-op’s best interests. 

The current contract expires in April 2026. So starting next spring, instead of paying “rent” to a financially struggling “landlord,” LPEA will use co-op members’ dollars to finance and build our own economically and environmentally sustainable “powerhouse.”

I ask for your vote to keep LPEA focused on the future. (Opinions stated here are strictly my own.) 

Ballots will be mailed to LPEA members in late April and are due May 20.

– Joe Lewandowski, Durango