Getting Benham Electric Power Board to Reverse Illegal Rate Increase

KFTC members & residents of Benham Get Benham Electric Power Board to Reverse Illegal Rate Increase - Work for Energy Savings & Alternative Energy!

            The city of Benham, in Harlan County is one of 46 cities in Kentucky providing electricity.  About two years ago KFTC members Carl Shoupe and Roy Silver, as part of the High Road Initiative, began working on bringing alternative energy to Benham and educating their community of the benefits of energy conservation (at that time Roy Silver was serving his 13^th year as chairperson of the board).

            The Harlan County KFTC chapter developed partnerships with the Community Innovators Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development.  In January the chapter cosponsored an Energy Savings Workshop at the Benham United Methodist Church.

            Betty Howard, who served as mayor of Benham for three terms, discovered that the January bill had a rate increase that was not voted on by the Benham Power Board.  Many residents believed this increase was illegal and some paid their bill minus the rate increase.  At a special called meeting the board voted to make the rate increase "retroactive.â€ They also sent out "notices of terminationâ€ that to avoid a cut off the "offendersâ€ had to pay ten times the amount owed.

            At the February 12 Power Board meeting KFTC members and other residents informed the board that their actions were illegal. 

I can sympathize with you. I know you need the money,â€ said Howard. "My point is it could have been just as easy for you to have gone and told (the clerk) to put $50 on everybody’s bill, and we wouldn’t have known the difference.â€

After a one-hour debate the board unanimously voted to rescind their illegal increase.

            The Harlan County KFTC Chapter is committed to fairness, working with their community to save energy.  It is also exploring renewable sources of power.  Benham and Lynch, Kentucky are located in the shadow of Black Mountain.  It is the tallest mountain in Kentucky and has the greatest potential for wind power of any place in the state.  (The Harlan County KFTC Chapter led the fight that saved the upper 600 feet of Black Mountain from strip mining in the 1990s.)