L. Michelle Moore - Rural Renaissance: Revitalizing Americas Hometowns through Clean Power

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2022 by L. Michelle Moore

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021950888

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Keywords: agrivoltaics, broadband, clean power, cooperatives, Department of Energy, electric grid, electric vehicles (EVs), energy democracy, energy efficiency, energy financing, energy justice, energy policy, energy storage, microgrid, the New Deal, public power utilities, resilience, rural America, rural electric cooperatives, Rural Electrification Administration (REA), smart grid, solar panels, solar power, US Department of Agriculture (USDA), utilities, wind power

ISBN-13: 978-1-64283-197-9 (electronic)

To Curtis Wynn, my dear friend, respected mentor, and visionary rural cooperative leader.

As CEO of Roanoke Electric Cooperative, Curtis built the utility of the future in Eastern North Carolina. The rural community he served has energy efficiency to save on the bills, community solar, energy storage, a restorative program that sites solar on Black-family-owned farms, electric vehicles, vehicle-to-grid charging, and, increasingly, affordable broadband.

Curtiss influence extends beyond North Carolina. He is a national leader with four decades in the rural cooperative community, which includes serving as the National Rural Electric Cooperative Associations elected board president. His ability to pair gentle encouragement with a bold challenge led the NRECA to take the biggest step forward in governance that it has taken since its foundingadopting a national diversity, equity, and inclusion policy resolution in March 2021. Curtis now serves as CEO of SECO Energy, a two-hundred-thousand-member electric cooperative utility in Central Florida that is among the ten largest cooperative utilities in the country.

With gratitude, Rural Renaissance is dedicated to Curtis.