Overwhelmingly, the customers of the Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) voted to exempt themselves from the Renewable Energy Initiative, or Amendment 37.  In November 2004, the state of Colorado voted in favor of Amendment 37 which would have required IREA to purchase 10% of its energy requirements from renewable resources, like wind power, by the year 2015.  However, Amendment 37 allowed the customers of a municipal electric utility, or a rural electric cooperative to exempt themselves by a simple majority of the customers.  Early in 2005, IREA mailed ballots to customers to vote on the issue.  The vote was 79% in favor of exemption from Amendment 37.