Cooper calls on TVA to allow co-op refunds

U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, at a Nashville news conference, urged the TVA board to allow refunds to customers of 50 Tennessee Valley co-ops. Many of the 880 co-ops outside the reach of TVA send refund checks to customers when revenues allow. Cooper has been in the forefront of House oversight hearings on abuses of co-ops that fail to return money to members. In some cases members' money went to high executive salaries and expense-paid vacations. Electric co-ops, owned by their customers, have been largely responsible for the electrification of rural America. The Nashville Electric Service is not a co-op.