Energy Cooperative is an electric, natural gas, and propane cooperative serving more than 65,000 members in east central Ohio. Our mission is to provide safe and reliable energy to our members with highly responsive service, consistent with the Cooperative Principles. Why Were Cooperatives Formed? By the mid-1930s, almost every urban area in the United States had electric service. In rural areas, only 10 percent of people had electricity, and investor-owned utilities could not justify building miles of line to service only a few consumers. Today, Ohio’s electric cooperatives serve nearly 380,000 homes and businesses in Ohio, and there are nearly 900 rural electric cooperatives across the nation serving 42 million consumer-members. The Energy Cooperative Family: In October of 1998, Licking Rural Electrification, Inc. acquired National Gas & Oil Company and its subsidiaries, National Gas & Oil Corp., Producers Gas Sales, NGO Development Corp., NGO Transmission, Inc., and NGO Propane. The Energy Cooperative is the trade name used by LRE and its subsidiaries, which operate as separate corporations.