Mason County is a rural county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. At the 2010 census, its population was 4,012. Its county seat is Mason. The county is named for Fort Mason, which was located in the county.
The United States Rural Utilities Service (RUS) administers programs that provide infrastructure or infrastructure improvements to rural communities. These include water and waste treatment, electric power, and telecommunications services. it is an operating unit of the USDA Rural Development agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It was created in 1935 as the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), a New Deal agency promoting rural electrification.
The Rural Electrification Act of 1936, enacted on May 20, 1936, provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the United States.
A utility cooperative is a type of cooperative that is tasked with the delivery of a public utility such as electricity, water or telecommunications to its members. Profits are either reinvested for infrastructure or distributed to members in the form of "patronage" or "capital credits", which are dividends paid on a member's investment in the cooperative.
The Southwestern Power Administration (Southwestern) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. Southwestern's mission was established by Section 5 of the Flood Control Act of 1944. The agency is a power marketing administration responsible for marketing the hydroelectric power produced at 24 United States Army Corps of Engineers multipurpose dams. By law, the power and associated energy are marketed to publicly held entities such as rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. Southwestern has over one hundred such "preference" customers which ultimately serve over 8 million end use customers.
Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2017, over 1 billion people worldwide lack household electric power – 14% of the global population. Electrification typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into obstacles in developing nations. Expanding the national grid is expensive and countries consistently lack the capital to grow their current infrastructure. Additionally, amortizing capital costs to reduce the unit cost of each hook-up is harder to do in lightly populated areas. If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development.
Glenn Lee English Jr. is a U.S. Democratic politician who represented Oklahoma's 6th congressional district for 10 successive terms. English is formerly the chief executive officer of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative, Inc. is a rural utility cooperative headquartered in Douglassville, Texas that was formed in 1937. The cooperative currently serves 35,152 meters with 6,073 miles (9,774 km) of line. Its territory includes portions of Bowie, Cass, Franklin, Morris, Red River and Titus counties, all located in Northeast Texas.
Brazos Electric Power Cooperative is an electrical generation and transmission cooperative based in Waco, Texas. In March 2021, it filed for bankruptcy protection as a result of losses arising from the February 2021 North American ice storm.
Fort Belknap Electric Cooperative, Inc. is a non-profit rural electric utility cooperative headquartered in Olney, Texas.
West Florida Electric Cooperative, Inc. (WFEC) is a not-for-profit rural electric utility cooperative headquartered in Graceville, Florida. It is a member of the Florida Electric Cooperatives Association, the National Rural Electric Association, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative and the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives alliance.
The National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) is a member-owned nonprofit cooperative that provides financial products to America's rural electric cooperative network. CFC was established in 1969 to raise funds from the capital markets to supplement the loan programs for electric cooperatives offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS), previously Rural Electrification Administration (REA).
Texas Co-op Power magazine is the largest circulation monthly magazine in Austin, Texas. It goes to more than 1 million homes and businesses and is read by approximately 3 million people. The BPA audited statement for June 2009 put circulation at 1,188,965.
Jackson Electric Membership Corporation is one of 39 not for profit membership-owned electric cooperatives located in the U.S. state of Georgia with service in the North-East metropolitan Atlanta area. Power is supplied by Constellation Energy and Oglethorpe Power Corporation which supplies generation capacity to most all EMCs in Georgia with the exception of a few supplied by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The Reeve Electric Association Plant, now known as the REA Power Plant Museum, is an historic structure located near Hampton, Iowa, United States. In the 1930s only 10% of rural homes and farms in the United States had electricity. The first mention of rural electrification in Hampton came in March 1936.
Are you interested in getting a high line by your farm to enable you to have electricity on your farm? The federal government has made arrangements to finance this program for all interested farmers. To secure this aid we must have enough farmers in the county who are interested to make the construction of the line practical and to organize a cooperative to carry on the work. In order to get some idea of the amount of interest in this project we would like to have each farmer who would like to see this work started send us a card telling us the location of his farm and if possible the names of any neighbors who are interested. As soon the weather and roads permit we will have a series of meetings at which time we will have a representative of the federal government present to discuss the program with you.
First Electric Cooperative is a non-profit rural electric utility cooperative headquartered in Jacksonville, Arkansas. The cooperative was organized April 26, 1937, as the first electric cooperative in Arkansas under the federal Rural Electrification Act of 1935. The cooperative energized its first lines April 15, 1938, near Jacksonville with three employees and 150 members.
Allegheny Electric Cooperative is an electric generation and transmission cooperative that generates electricity for 14 member electric cooperatives in the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the United States. The cooperative, which was founded in 1946, is based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
