PROGRESS Rising costs, workforce shifts, and climate: Inside the toughest era for rural electric cooperatives

Ozark Border Electric Cooperative was more of a wild, progressive idea 87 years ago than it was a reality.

David Schremp, general manager of Ozark Border, knows the story well. He has heard the stories of his parents and grandparents. He has heard of the time when Southeast Missouri was known as “Swamp East” Missouri. He knows of the time when rural Missouri was decades behind the rest of the nation in getting electricity.

Then, as now, two factors wrote the story of the progress of Southeast Missouri. Those factors were emerging technology and the cost of implementing that technology in a part of America that lacked both infrastructure and a workable economy.

At that time, the area was almost entirely agricultural, sparsely populated by farmers. Many acres were largely covered by water until the drainage projects created more tillable land.

The technology for farming and for creating electricity was in its infancy. Electricity was considered a luxury and light for evening chores was provided largely by kerosene lanterns.

By the 1940s, Delco batteries had been created that could power very basic electric appliances.

As the technology progressed, small electric companies emerged, but it was not economically feasible to provide electricity to the far-flung small farms of the area. Even by the 1930’s only about 10% of the nation’s farms had central station electric service. In rural Missouri, it was even less.

Then the stock market crash of 1929 abruptly ended the small progress that had been made.

President Franklin Roosevelt changed all that with the organization of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) as part of his “New Deal” to reinvigorate America out of the Great Depression.

Many Americans, including farmers themselves, didn’t see the need for electricity in rural America. But some communities started holding meetings in one-room schoolhouses and other small meeting rooms.

And thus was born the Ozark Border Electric Cooperative, where neighbors literally helped neighbors to get electricity at a reasonable cost.

Despite the passage of 87 years, Schremp says the challenges of providing electricity to rural Missouri are not much different than it was in the beginning of the development.

“It’s still really about emerging technology, and the cost of bringing electricity to our communities,” said Schremp.

The difference is, the technology is better, but increasingly expensive.

“And now there are a whole lot of societal issues that enter into the business,” explained Schremp. “Now we are concerned about the impact of producing electricity on our planet. Certainly, in the beginning days of the power business, no one thought about such things as climate change. Now it is like walking on the edge of a razor, weighing environmental costs versus the economic costs of producing electricity, or in some cases, not producing it.”

Technology like AI requires a lot of power, yet many communities do not have the power infrastructure to support huge draws of electricity.

“We kind of get put in the situation of deciding what is best for the economic growth of our communities, and what is in the best interests of our traditional rural customers. It’s not fair to them to basically take their power and give it to huge industries. With electric cooperatives like ours, our everyday consumers are our first priority,” explained Schremp.