About a million and a half Hoosiers get their power through utility cooperatives, known in southern Indiana as REMCs.
These electric cooperatives were created in the 1930s with assistance from the federal government to bring more affordable electricity to rural areas.
Every ratepayer is a cooperative owner with a voice about REMC policies.
The members of the co-op – the ratepayers – are supposed to be in control. They elect leaders to represent them on a board of directors but with the same people getting re-elected year after year, ratepayers in the Western District of Indiana feel like their voices are getting lost.