CO-OP PEOPLE

INDUSTRY LEADERS

“We need to be careful not to let aspirational goals like “carbon free by 2035” impose arbitrary limits on our ability to maintain a reliable and affordable supply of electricity.”

– Patrick O’Loughlin | President and CEO

Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives

“What concerns the industry as a whole is 2035, and what you’re hearing from the industry is a recognition that we need to get it right. We can’t compromise reliability.”

– Lisa Barton | Executive vice president and COO

American Electric Power Co.

TRADE ASSOCIATIONS

“Where’s the technology today that can allow that to happen? What are going to be the commercially viable, always-available, and affordable carbon-free technologies to provide electricity? People can set goal X, Y, or Z, but are the lights going to go on whenever consumers flip the switch? And will they be able to afford it?”

– Jim Matheson | CEO

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)

“It’s not something we can do in a very short period of time, and it’s going to come at considerable costs.”

– Desmarie Waterhouse | Vice president of government relations

American Public Power Association (APPA) ENERGY ANALYSTS

“The key threat is that too much investment too fast would raise customer bills more than customers might be willing to spend.”

– Travis Miller | Equity strategist Morningstar Research Services

“The pace of wind and solar isn’t going fast enough to meet the 2035 target. But even if it was, there would also have to be contributions from new technologies like batteries, carbon capture and storage, nuclear, or hydrogen.”

– Tom Rowlands-Rees | Head of North American research

BloombergNEF

LABOR UNIONS

“We support the transition to renewable energy but disagree with arbitrary numbers that don’t take into account our current energy mix and energy needs. 2050 is certainly better than 2035.”

– Yvette Pena O’Sullivan | Executive director

Laborers’ International Union of North America

“We will not support policies that accelerate the closure of coal plants. The closures are already happening more rapidly than communities can deal with and are leaving economic devastation behind them.”

– Lee Anderson | Director of government affairs

Utility Workers Union of America

GRID OPERATORS

“When we start looking at what 2040 looks like, you look at the performance of existing assets and the storage capabilities of existing battery technologies. All our models suggest there are just enough days when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun is shielded, and not enough battery storage to fill those gaps.”

– Richard Dewey | CEO

New York Independent System Operator (NYISO)

“In transmission terms, 2035 is like tomorrow. It feels challenging to me.”

– Jennifer Curran | Vice president of system planning

Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) ELECTED OFFICIALS

“I think that we can do [the clean energy transition] and move forward, but we’re not going to eliminate. You can’t just say we’re going to eliminate using all fossil and coal’s going to be out, oil’s going to be out, everything else, gas is going to be out of it.”

– Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)

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Some gave all

Retired co-op employee builds a deeply personal war memorial in his own backyard.

BY VICTORIA ELLWOOD

See and hear Gary tell the story at www.ohiocoopliving.com/ backyard-memorial.

Through the years, Gary Snyder’s had plenty to keep busy, what with a 43-year career at Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative; raising three kids with his wife, Karin; and all the mowing and chores on his 6-acre property just outside Millersburg. Yet in the back of his mind, Snyder, a Vietnam veteran, always mused about finding a way to honor his brothers-in-arms who didn’t come home from the war.

It was the pandemic that moved him to action. “I was just sitting around, getting outside, kind of bored,” he says. “We have a lot of space out here, and I started thinking I ought to put in a memorial for my buddies who didn’t make it back.”

And so, he did. With the help of landscapers, stonemasons, contractors, and monument-makers, Snyder funded and built an impressive military memorial right in his backyard.

Situated in a peaceful setting, surrounded by towering trees, the memorial centers on a hexagon-shaped stone terrace enveloped on three sides by stone walls of varying heights. Topping one wall are stone markers honoring the four U.S. service branches — Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines — along with POWs.

A massive bronze plaque honors Snyder’s comrades. Among them, Larry Barton, his best friend from high school, who was killed in ’Nam in 1967 just 200 miles from where Snyder was fighting. A cousin, Jerry Spitler. A few other classmates. And a pilot who “was my rear seat-pilot in an F4 fighter bomber,” Snyder says. “He later was shot down over Cambodia in 1970, and his remains were never found.” Snyder grew up in Holmes County and served three Vietnam tours in the Air Force and Army from 1967 to 1969. Once he got back home, he worked for four decades at Holmes-Wayne Electric — he’s still a member — starting as an apprentice lineman before serving as first class lineman and foreman and later overseeing line projections and service plans.

When he first returned from Vietnam in 1969 to an apathetic America, a bright spot was meeting Karin. “I was just driving around one afternoon in Wayne County and saw her driving the other way. I thought, wow, I have to meet that girl.” So he turned his car around, flagged her down, and they’ve been together ever since.

Today, the couple enjoys puttering around their property with rescue dog Summi and spending lots of time with their grown children and six grandkids. The couple likes to light the firepit at the military memorial in the evenings and relish the peaceful setting.

But it’s times alone that Snyder really feels the presence of his buddies.

“If I’m out there by myself, I can think about them, I can see their faces, and you know it’s just like they’re with me,” he says.

“They never became husbands. Never became fathers or grandfathers. I try to live my life to honor them, and I hope I did a good job of it.”

PHOTO BY TIM BALDWIN