OAEC 2023 Legislative Guide
As late as the mid-1930s, nine out of 10 rural homes were without electric service. Oklahoma farmers and ranchers banded together to bring themselves the gift of electricity, creating the first distribution electric cooperative in 1936.
Today, Oklahoma’s electric cooperatives are not-for-profit utilities that bring power to more than 523,000 Oklahomans plus over 125,000 consumers in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas. We serve 93% of Oklahoma’s landmass, providing service in all of Oklahoma’s 77 counties.
Oklahoma’s electric co-ops formed the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives 80 years ago to serve as a unified voice for electric co-ops and to collectively perform services, which would not be economical or practical for each individual co-op to perform alone.
One of those key services is engaging with the political process through a non-partisan approach to ensure co-ops are enabled to improve the lives of those we serve and to become an innovative force for the future of energy.
Because co-ops primarily serve rural and low-density areas, co-ops have unique issues that are important to be addressed for the purpose of safeguarding our mission to deliver safe, affordable and reliable power.
Much like each consumer-member has a voice and a vote in how their co-op is run, we also believe in the importance of constituents engaging with their elected officials. To help facilitate this interaction, we offer this free legislative guide with helpful information about each member of the Oklahoma Legislature as well as elected federal officials.
We thank our elected officials for partnering with us in our mission, and we honor the legacy of those first co-op consumer-members by continuing to invest in a bright energy future for all.
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