EMC History

Georgia’s Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs), and electric cooperatives throughout the United States, grew out of a program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. During his many visits to Warm Springs, Georgia, where the healing waters of the springs offered therapy for his polio-stricken body, Roosevelt noticed that very few homes in this rural part of Georgia had electricity. The same was true throughout rural America. While cities around the country had enjoyed the benefits of electricity since the turn of the century, the rural areas and farms were left behind.
    Roosevelt believed that bringing electricity to rural areas of the nation would transform the nation’s heartland and revolutionize American farm operations. In 1935, he announced creation of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to provide low-cost loans to encourage utilities to run electric lines into rural areas. 
    At first, the idea was not successful. Investor-owned electric utilities were not interested in serving sparsely populated areas where the return on investment would be very low. Then, farmers, ranchers and neighbors began forming their own electric cooperatives to take advantage of the program and build their own electric systems. Within a few years, electric co-ops were springing up all over the country. Today, there are more than 900 retail electric co-ops in the United States.