BAKER CITY Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative will return $1.2 million in capital credits to its members, the board of directors announced this month.

Unlike investor-owned electric utilities, which distribute their profits to stockholders, OTEC is a non-profit electric cooperative. Electric co-ops operate at cost collecting enough revenue to run and expand the business but with no need to raise rates to generate profits for distant shareholders. When OTEC has money left over, its allocated back to our members as capital credits. When the co-ops financial position permits, the co-op retires, or pays, the capital credits to members.

The Cooperative works hard to keep rates as low as possible, said Werner Buehler, General Manager of OTEC, and it is reassuring to know that when there are margins, they go back to the members.

Since our founding, OTEC has retired approximately $23.5 million to our members money that as stayed in our communities.

Capital Credits distinguish cooperatives from any other business model in the utility world, said Buehler. It is always good for our Board to be able to return Capital Credits to our members during the holiday season but especially during these tough economic times, he continued.

Additional information is available at www.otecc.com