By Sherrod Brown

U.S. Senate

Right now, electric cooperatives provide more than 380,000 homes and businesses in Ohio with affordable and reliable electricity. It’s why I’m working to stop federal red tape that would make it harder for these co-ops to stop electric bills from going up.

Rural communities depend on these cooperatives. They’re locally owned, support good-paying jobs, and have a stake in the community.

They’ve been powering rural communities since the 1940s, when they first helped bring electricity to every corner of our state.

It’s simple: electric cooperatives are a key part of our communities and our local economies, and a key part of preventing rising electricity costs.

A big part of my job is supporting their work by making sure they have the resources they need and aren’t being hit by red tape that does more harm than good.

That’s why when Ohio co-ops brought their concerns to me about a proposed EPA rule, we took action. Together, we’re encouraging EPA to revise the rule with input from the Ohioans this rule would affect.

The proposed rule aims to reduce pollutions but risks reliable electricity, and Ohio energy jobs. It could mean more outages, fewer jobs, and higher electric bills.

Rural Ohioans who depend on co-ops for electricity would feel it the most. These are communities that have been overlooked time and time again. We can’t let that happen now.

Things are already too expensive as is. Ohioans are seeing it at the grocery store and at the gas pump. We need to keep fighting to lower costs, not raise them.

And let’s be clear, we don’t have to choose between keeping electricity costs low and protecting the planet. We can do both.

We need effective rules that prevent pollution without raising energy costs for rural Ohioans who are already dealing with costs that are too high.

This is an opportunity to work together with the EPA to revise the proposed rule, so it reaches all of our goals by reducing pollution while maintaining affordable power and protecting rural co-ops.