(a) This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the “Rural Electric and Community Services Cooperative Act.”
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 65-25-101

  • Area coverage: means that a service will be available to patrons in accordance with a financially feasible plan without regard to how thickly or sparsely patrons' premises may be located in a cooperative's areas of service. See Tennessee Code 65-25-102
  • cooperatives: means one (1) or more nonprofit cooperative membership corporations heretofore or hereafter organized under or otherwise subject to this chapter, including corporations transacting business in this state pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 65-25-102
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • services: includes sales, exchanges, rentals, repairs and maintenance of land, facilities, equipment, machinery, appliances, accessories and goods and the financing of their acquisition by patrons. See Tennessee Code 65-25-102
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b)

(1) The general assembly finds that rural electric cooperatives, since their inception fifty (50) years ago, have proved to be ideal business organizations in providing adequate and reliable electric services at reasonable rates throughout the rural communities of Tennessee. There are growing needs and demands for other comparable utility services in Tennessee’s rural communities, including the need for television reception and programming services which are already available, for the most part, in the state‘s urban areas. As proved to be the case in providing electric service in rural communities, it is vital that the area coverage principle be applied in providing other utility services in the more sparsely settled areas of the state. It is, therefore, in the public’s best interest that rural electric cooperatives be empowered to provide such services and that new cooperatives may be organized for such purposes.
(2) The general assembly finds that unfair and unwelcomed efforts may be made in Tennessee, as they recently have in other states, whereby absentee-owned profit power companies will attempt the acquisition of properties and the take-over of the businesses of rural electric cooperatives, and thereby disrupt Tennessee’s long-standing and successful policy of providing rural electric services through nonprofit, cooperative organizations. It is, therefore, in the public’s best interest that laws affecting such efforts will provide fair and equitable due process procedures and standards so as to ensure that such acquisitions will not be accomplished if inimical to the best interests of the rural citizens who will be affected.
(3) The general assembly further finds that Tennessee statutes currently governing electric cooperatives have not been comprehensively revised since their initial enactment. It is, therefore, in the public interest that cooperative business organizations, their respective members and the rural communities of the state would be better served by updating such statutes to make them more compatible with changed conditions and to appropriately reconcile such statutes with the new Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act, compiled in title 48, chapters 51-68.
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