Customer-Owners, Rural Electric Cooperatives, Green Power and Transportation Solutions
Join Wednesday's Solutionary Perspectives interview, August 29, 5pm/8pm (Pacific/Eastern) as Liz Veazey, a leader in clean energy, multimodal transportation systems, and rural electric cooperatives, explores the potential of bringing renewable energy to rural electric cooperatives, and more.
RSVP below (scroll to the bottom of this page) to receive email instructions for accessing the call. 
At Solutionary Rail, our work toward building a holistic, just and green network of transportation systems involves both a recognition of longstanding and ever worsening economic trends for the majority of U.S. residents - as covered last week on the front page of The New York Times, Bull Market Hits a Milestone: 3,453 Days. Most Americans Aren’t at the Party - and exploring solutions that decarbonize our collective energy use, eliminate diesel pollution in communities nationwide, democratize the U.S. economy, effectively address climate change, and dovetail with our Solutionary Rail approach to transportation.
One innovation designed to bring fairness and much-needed financial relief to people in the U.S. is the expansion of worker-owned and customer-owned cooperatives, as recently outlined in the Harvard Business Review: Why the U.S. Needs more Worker-Owned Companies.
This approach is also generating economic opportunity outside our country. For their New Economy platform, the U.K.’s revamped and influential Labour Party is shining a spotlight on what they call The Preston Model, a story of an English city whose economy is on the rebound, thanks to a consultancy with U.S.- based Democracy Collaborative, the group that created Cleveland’s successful Evergreen Cooperatives.
As for an economic model relevant to Solutionary Rail, rural electric cooperatives could play a key role as providers of distributed renewable energy. In the U.S. 75% of our land mass is served by member-owned rural electrical cooperatives, equal to 11% of total sales and electricity nationwide. Most rural electric cooperatives use troublesome fossil fuels to generate energy. A newly released report by The Rocky Mountain Institute explains how Western States could save $600 million by using more renewable energy. Here’s the report: A Low Cost Energy Future for Western Cooperatives: Emerging Opportunities for Cooperative Electric Utilities to Pursue Clean Energy at a Cost Savings to their Members.
Liz Veazey, our next Solutionary Perspectives guest, is a leader in clean energy, multimodal transportation systems, and rural electric cooperatives. Liz will explore the potential of bringing renewable energy to rural electric cooperatives, and more.
About Liz Veazey: Liz Veazey is excited to be building on 15 years of clean energy and social justice work in her role as the Network Director at We Own It. We Own It is a new, independent, national member-owner movement that helps with organizing, outreach and education. Liz’s experience includes launching and leading a regional and a multi-national organization, as well as experience on the board of an 80-year-old social justice organization and a young multi-modal transportation advocacy group. As Network Director, she’s supporting We Own It’s Cooperative Energy Democracy Fellowship program, webinars, information and resource sharing to support our national network of folks organizing member-owners to democratize their rural electric cooperatives.
In the summer of 2016, she was elected as the Rural Caucus member on the RE-AMP Steering Committee; she was re-elected in 2017 and now serves on the Executive Committee. In 2004, she co-founded the Energy Action Coalition now the Power Shift Network, and is currently co-chair of PSN’s board. She’s also on the board of a local multi-modal transportation advocacy group where she lives in Omaha, NE with her husband and 5 chickens. From 2009-2014, she served on the board of the Highlander Center in Tennessee. She’s an active customer-owner of Omaha Public Power District.
She has a MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Oregon and a BS in Environmental Science from University of North Carolina. She received the Morris K. Udall Scholarship for Excellence in Environmental Policy and Leadership in 2002 and 2003.
Join the Solutionary Rail Team as we learn more from Liz on rural electric cooperatives, green power, and transportation solutions, Wednesday, August 29th, 5pm (Pacific)/8pm (Eastern.) RSVP below to receive call in information by email, so you can be part of the call!
