Amelia Wardle Stacey

Professor Freeman
November 26, 2023

Field Research - Keith Taylor

When the Matton bagel factory moved to Mattoon Illinois in 1986 they didn’t know the
impact they would have on a young Keith Taylor. He watched as the initial boom of jobs they
brought to the community waned over time, and became inspired to pursue a career in
researching and understanding different models of economic development.

Today Dr.Taylor works as an Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension and

Community Economic Development at the University of California - Davis, a role he has held
since 2017. After earning his doctorate in Human and Community Development from University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Taylor joined the world of partisan politics. Taking
inspiration from the winner of the 2009 nobel prize for economics Elinor Ostrom, he ran for
county office on a liberal platform based on the ideal of not relying just on the market or the
state to support economic development. After his own political endeavors, as well as working for
a member of congress for several years Dr. Taylor decided to step away from the world of
politics and explore other, less commonly researched, methods of economic development
including cooperative models stating, “Academics, policy makers, are all informed by how
investor owned utilities operate because they are big and they’ve got investor money. That’s not
where the innovation is coming from - it's actually over here.” To help spark this innovation, Dr.
Taylor collaborated with Gabe Chan from the University of Minnesota to form the Electric
Cooperative Innovation Center (ECIC). “ECIC is being developed to coordinate university
research activities surrounding the development of co-ops.” Looking forward, Dr. Taylor hopes to
continue to connect ECIC with more extension professors across the country as well as partner
with municipalities and CCA’s in local California communities to help support the formation of
utility cooperatives.

When asked about the potential for the development of an urban network of utility
cooperatives Dr. Taylor, without hesitation, believes that, “Actually they would work even better
in urban areas.” Rural cooperatives have created economically viable models and learned to
economize under the poorest economic and geographic conditions. Because of this, “Unlike
investor owned they [co-ops] form complex industrial systems to get efficiencies.” These
increased efficiencies that cooperatives have developed to thrive in rural communities would
result in even greater savings for member consumers in urban settings. The main barrier to the
development is the fact that here in the United states we have formed the belief the cooperative
models don’t belong in urban settings. In fact throughout his career Dr. Taylor has found that,
“people who are critics of the model, they are usually critics because they can’t believe it works.”
This is not all just hypothetical either, there are, in fact, real life examples of current electric
cooperatives operating within urban regions across the united states from Atlanta to Kauai and
internationally Taylor points to, “examples in northern Italy and Spain where there are a lot of
urbanized co-ops.'' The reason that urban models have not been developed thus far is not a
result of their lack of potential but rather our unwillingness to innovate in what has been a
historically stagnant industry.

When discussing the energy transition in California, the development of CCA’s and
power struggle of “zombie” IOU’s cannot be ignored. Dr. Taylor sees great potential for the
CCA’s as a jumping off point for the development of urban cooperative models.
“If your question is, could we convert PG&E service territory to co-op, the answer to that is
absolutely yes you can.” Dr. Taylor then goes on to explain how in current buyout negotiations
PG&E tries to claim a market value that, when considering the government subsidies they have
received as well as the number of times they have been bailed out of bankruptcy, is much higher
than their “real value.” Because these IOU’s receive government funding, provided via taxes
collected from rate payers, these IOU’s have an obligation to provide reliable, affordable energy
to their service area - something that they have continually failed at. Additionally, when these
IOUs require bankruptcy bailout, it is not their shareholders that are faced with the bill but the
ratepayers who this financial mismanagement is passed onto. Dr. Taylor argues, “municipalities
interested in taking over the service territory should make the case for the real value, for which
when you factor in the bankruptcy, the debt and everything else, is probably pretty close to
zero.”

Historically these buyouts and asset redistributions have failed because there were not
organizations or professionals with the knowledge and understanding of grid systems to take
over IOU’s physical assets. The proliferation of CCAs is currently building a body of
professionals that already work and understand the complexities of the grid and are perfectly
positioned to more effectively manage the physical assets currently held within the IOU’s. When
considering CCA’s development and the potential for collaboration with already existing utility
cooperatives, Dr. Taylor believes, “There is no reason why they couldn't do this.”

However, unfortunately, “Society as a whole in the United states has really been tainted
to think that these models don’t work.” Not only is this not true, but there are many examples
(Blue Diamond Almonds, ACE Hardware, Sunkist Soda) of cooperatives that are aggressive
and competitive within a capitalist society. Cooperatives are able to generate profits, perhaps
not to the extent to which current shareholders may expect within a system of IOUs, but if we
hope to tackle this climate crisis and create stronger communities, we can no longer afford to
line the pockets of the wealthy with taxes collected from the poorest. Additionally, cooperatives,
due to their more local nature, produce more positive social outcomes, something that is
absolutely essential in life but not associated with a specific monetary value and therefore
overlooked in investor owned models.

Because cooperatives have elected boards of directors, individuals can run for the board
of and impact how their local cooperatives operate within their communities.

“Co-ops that exist are a latent community capacity for social change.”
 We, as invested community members, need to better utilize cooperatives that already
exist, work to create the changes we want to see, and, “Remind people of their civic
responsibility in a democracy. They have to put skin in the game and they have to sacrifice in
order to maintain what we have and grow.” One key benefit of cooperatives though, is that,
“unlike non-profits, they actually generate revenue.” The revenue generated can then be used to
compensate board members for their time and provide resources, such as child care, that will
allow a larger percentage of the community to participate. This varies greatly from non-profit
organizations whose board members are volunteers meaning that a less representative group of
individuals is actually capable of serving on these boards and effecting change. Cooperatives
and community based resource generation is the future, “It is on us to create groups to educate
ourselves to get into these positions, to take these jobs, to get on these boards, and make them
work in the benefit of the community; The capacity is really there”