REA brings electricity to rural America
Once upon a time, electric service was a luxury enjoyed only in cities, where the concentration of people was high enough to make it economical. Meanwhile, in sparsely populated rural areas where electrification wasn't profitable, people were left in the dark - and left behind.
In 1935 only 6.4 percent of the farms in Missouri had electricity - more than many other states in the mid-South. Yet, more than 90 percent of farms in France, Germany, Holland and Switzerland were electrified during the same period. Rural Americans simply didn't have the economic clout to obtain the one commodity that more than anything else could increase production and improve the quality of their lives - electricity.
Finally, the federal government realized that if rural America were ever to be electrified, the country as a whole would have to lend a helping hand. So in 1935 Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Rural Electrification Administration. A year later Congress gave the agency the money and power needed to promote rural electrification by providing low-cost loans to build transmission and generation facilities.
Rural cooperatives formed rapidly to take advantage of the favorable financing. Farm by farm, village by village, the lights went on across rural Missouri and rural America. And as electrical needs grew, the REA continued to provide low-cost financing. Eventually, Associated's major generation facilities, built primarily during the 1960s and 1970s, would be financed with help from the REA.
The electrification of rural America often is described as the single most dramatic event to touch the daily lives of this country's farming families. It helped make this nation's agriculture industry the most productive in the world, and it enabled the rural economy to grow in even more unexpected ways.
As late as 1961, the year Associated was formed, a large majority of its electric consumers were involved in farming. Today, about 20 percent claim to receive their income from agriculture. Meanwhile business and industrial customers have grown to more than 26 percent of member energy sales.
As the major provider of power to electric cooperatives in Missouri, northeast Oklahoma and southeast Iowa, Associated takes seriously its vital role in the fabric of the regional rural economy. Not only does it strive to keep rates as low and as stable as possible, but it also works with communities to attract and develop industry. In addition, Associated is an active member of the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, which assists rural electric cooperatives and promotes growth and development of Missouri's rural electric system.
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