Electric Cooperatives were created when President Roosevelt signed and executive order in 1935 creating the Rural Electrification Administration. A cooperative is a form of business owned and operated by its patrons. Members of the cooperative work together for a common goal, and share in the excess margins of the cooperative based on their patronage.
Today there are 864 distribution and 66 Generation and Transmission cooperatives that serve:
40 million people in 47 states
17 million businesses, homes, schools, churches, farms, irrigations systems, and other establishments in 2,500 of 3,141 counties in the U.S. (80 percent of the nation’s counties)
12 percent of the nation’s population
To perform their mission electric cooperatives:
Own and maintain 2.4 million miles, or 43%, of the nation’s electric distribution lines, covering three quarters of the nation’s landmass
Deliver 10 percent of the total kilowatt hours sold in the U.S. each year
Employ 67,000 people in the United States
Pay more than $483 million in capital credits annually
Pay more than $1.2 billion in state and local taxes
