HURON — Dakota Energy Cooperative held its annual member election and meeting Thursday. In a very close election, Daniel Langbehn defeated Scott McGaugh for election to the board. Langbehn received 155 of 300 votes cast, with McGaugh receiving 143. One write-in ballot was cast along with one ballot deemed spoiled.

After announcing the results of the election, Dakota Energy board members and representatives of Dakota Energy, East River Energy, and Basin Electric held a question and answer session with Dakota Energy member-owners.

Chris Baumgartner, the vice president of membership and external relationships for Basin Electric, fielded a large majority of the questions asked as members were curious about impending rate increases and potential fallout from a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruling against Basin Electric that was released June 11 by FERC judge Scott Hempling.

Baumgartner stated that while pending appeals to the ruling do limit what he can specifically say about Hempling’s ruling, he did note that the FERC oversight board had initially ruled in Basin Electric’s favor and that Hempling left his position with FERC almost immediately after issuing the ruling.

The primary dispute comes from whether costs related to Dakota Gasification Company, also known as DGC, can be included in rates charged by Basin Electric to its members.

Baumgartner and Bob Sahr, the CEO/General Manager of East River Electric, thanked members for difficult questions and answered, as best they could while remaining in legal complaince with an ongoing appeal, throughout the question and answer time.

Sahr thanked all members and Dakota Energy staff for attending and their open dialogue at the meeting. Baumgartner agreed, emphasizing, “this is the way a co-op meeting should work.”