The general assembly hereby finds and declares that cooperative electric associations which are owned by the member-consumers they serve are regulated by the member-consumers themselves acting through an elected governing body. It is further declared that the regulation by the public utilities commission under the 'Public Utilities Law', articles 1 to 7 of this title, may be duplicative of the self-regulation by the association and may be neither necessary nor cost-effective. It is therefore the purpose of this part 1 to determine the necessity of regulation by the public utilities commission by allowing cooperative electric associations to exempt themselves from regulation by the public utilities commission.L. 83: Entire article added, p. 1567, § 1, effective July 1. L. 86: Entire section amended, p. 1162, § 3, effective May 27.