Congressional Subpoenas
Subpoenaed Witnesses Evade House Oversight Committee
Cooper and Committee unearth fraud in electric co-op industry--and their lobbyist doesn't like it
WASHINGTON--Congressman Jim Cooper and fellow members of the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee today held a hearing on fraud
and abuse in the electric co-op industry, but two key witnesses didn't
show. Bennie Fuelberg and W.W. Bud Burnett, the former general manager
and president of Texas' Pedernales Electric Cooperative, evaded
Congressional subpoenas, indicating through attorneys that if they had
testified before Congress they would have invoked their Fifth Amendment
right not to self-incriminate.
Fuelberg and Burnett are accused by angry co-op members of stealing
millions of dollars of customer money, spending it on their own
exorbitant salaries, lavish trips and even second homes in nearby New
Mexico. Pedernales' exploits have been documented by reporter Claudia
Grisales of the Austin American-Statesman. A civil lawsuit in the case
is currently on appeal.
Cooper, meanwhile, documented a pattern of co-op mismanagement in an article he wrote for the
Harvard Journal on Legislation.
The article was included in the Congressional record at today's
hearing. "Too many electric co-ops have turned away from their historic
role as exciting, pro-consumer organizations and have instead taken on
deeply troubling anti-consumer behaviors," Cooper wrote in the article.
"
Carefully considered, member-friendly reforms are long overdue in
order to protect the rights of the co-ops’ legal owners, including
members’ rights to receive refunds of $3 billion to $9 billion of
capital credits. In addition, the conservation and
environmental impact of co-op decision-making must be considered. It is
time for members to take back their property and their co-ops, for the
good of themselves and their country."