East River Electric 2020 Annual Report

“The legislative committee spent a lot of time and
effort to work with all parties involved to adopt the
compromise and we were disappointed in the outcome
of the compromise bill coming to a standstill,” said
Sahr.
2020 Legislative Session
After conversations ceased regarding the compromise
bill, our family of cooperatives and the IOUs worked
with Rep. David Anderson (R-Dist. 16) to introduce
House Bill 1262 as a middle-of-the-road approach
that would finally bring a higher degree of fairness to
the issue of municipal government taking of electric
service territories. While it wouldn’t stop a municipal
from growing into another utility’s territory, HB 1262
aimed to give South Dakota’s electric cooperatives
and IOUs a voice in the process.
Specifically, HB 1262 required adequate notice of
a municipality’s intention to take service territory
from an incumbent utility; required good faith
negotiations allowing the parties to work on a
territory agreement; in some circumstances, allowed
for a third-party, unappealable court review of the
municipal government taking, and preserved the
current compensation formula for utilities that lose
service territory. On Feb. 26, 2020, the South Dakota
House of Representatives passed House Bill 1262 by a
vote of 48-20.
14