Abstract
The US government has been involved in providing financial support for rural electrification for nearly 50 years. This support, combined with the creation of member-owned, electric cooperatives in 46 states, led to a dramatic growth in the number of rural households receiving central-station service. Through organizations such as the Agency for International Development and the World Bank, rural electric cooperatives have become established world-wide. This article provides a review of the political and economic climate which currently faces US cooperatives and compares this position with the rural electric systems in other countries. The implications of the forecasts of the US cooperatives' load growth developed from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Rural Electric Energy Demand (ORNL-REED) model are evaluated. A short description of the econometric model, which is estimated for five US regions using state-level, annual data from 1969 to 1979, is included. The article concludes with an outline of the probable impact of several policy options on the growth of US cooperatives.
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