Abstract: The paper focuses on rural electric cooperatives (RECs) retail pricing policies. The primary objective is to examine the relationships between REC prices and internal factors. Several recurrent issues are analyzed including the extent to which REC prices deviate from cost-of-service criteria, whether system scale significantly influences inter REC price variations, the effect of property tax exemption on user group prices, the price influences of REC self-generation and the beneficiaries of consumers' density subsidization. REC provides power to a wide segment of the population of the U.S. As a result, their operating and pricing practices influence the well-being of many individuals. The findings clearly suggest that user classes differ in the extent to which they benefit from scale economies, self-generation, and consumer density. They also differ in the extent to which prices are primarily cost related. There is evidence that residential and commercial prices are more significantly influenced by power costs and state-local tax treatment than are industrial prices.

　　Subjects: CONSUMER cooperatives; COOPERATIVE societies; PRICES; PRICING; TAX exemption; TAXATION; UNITED States; Public Finance Activities; RURAL electrification; ELECTRICITY