Pedernales Electric Cooperative Inc

Pedernales is a somewhat well-known cooperative,
reputed to be the largest REC in the country, with a
huge service area for 270,000 members in twenty (20)
counties in the Texas Hill Country between Austin and
San Antonio made famous as the site of former President
Lyndon B. Johnson’s ranch and radio stations among
many other things. Pedernales has seven (7) board seats and is rare
among all cooperatives in the South as being the only
cooperative with a majority of board seats held by
women with four (4) seats compared to three (3) held by
men. At the same time more than one-third (1/3rd) of
the population is African-American or Hispanic in the
broader service area, but all seven (7) of the seats are held
by whites. The elections are at large. Pedernales is well
known within cooperative ranks for a corruption scandal
involving bribes where the chair and CEO were indicted
and removed. There has also been contention over
moving away from energy supplied by coal-fired plants.