General Manager’s Message – November 2025
Be Thankful & Responsible
November — which seems to come along a lot faster than it used to — always gives me pause to consider the things I’m thankful for.
First and foremost, I’m thankful for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to represent Him in my work, my family, in all aspects of life. I’m thankful for Him giving me that chance. It is a daily challenge to serve Him to the fullest.
I’m thankful to live in a country where people have entered military service, whether drafted or voluntarily, to defend this country so we all may have the right to speak our minds — not to mandate, brutalize or intimidate, but the freedom to speak our beliefs.
Lastly, I’m thankful for my mother, Nan Rae Wilson Roth. This is her birthday month, and I’m thankful for the mother she has been through the years, a rock providing me with the base to live my life in a positive manner.
But I also look back and ask myself this question: Where are we going with all this stuff that’s being spewed out in the electric industry? You hear about climate change and about how the electric industry cannot serve future demand with the projected growth in data centers and organic growth. There are real challenges out there. The electric demand challenges will definitely have to be addressed. The demand challenges are solved by building a generation power plant, which comes with a high cost.
Politics can help with some of those challenges or hurt, but people will have to act on these challenges.
We must get rid of all the hoopla surrounding what politicians or groups want our electric industry to look like and focus on an electric industry that really works. The common-sense electric industry model must continue to develop solutions in a cost-effective and reliable manner. The solutions mandating 100% renewable by 2035 by various states with no regard to reliability and cost, are like my college accounting teacher used to say, “That’s just drugs; it will not work.” There are people or groups that think the renewable path is the answer — I guess they like drugs!
The way I see the challenge of members wanting to install renewables for their electric needs on their property is to go for it. But if those same members wish to connect to the cooperative’s distribution system, then they should have to pay for the cost to connect. This issue is a challenge for distribution co-ops. If the renewable electric member wants electricity just for backup in case their renewable energy doesn’t work, then other members could be subsidizing the renewable member. Another big issue with renewables is that they normally do not work without subsidized costs from our government.
If it works, I’ve said many times, capitalism will provide the method for it to work. If it has to be held up by the federal government, then it’s not a reliable answer.
This issue did not occur overnight. Politics can give a direction. People must solve it. There’s no greater model of federal government providing direction, not subsidizing, than back in 1935 when the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was developed through politics with an executive order under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The following year, it was funded through Congress. The REA funding provided loans to rural electric cooperatives, not subsidized grant funding. They opened the door, but people made it work and got it where it is today.
The board of trustees, your cooperative employees, and our generation and transmission cooperative employees will address future electric challenges head-on.
Over the past 2 and a half years, we have been fortunate enough to plan the operations of South Alabama Electric Cooperative (SAEC) so as not to require rate increases. It is our goal to keep going in that direction, but we must understand that when we are projecting to build and supply electric power to our membership, the cost to do so is going to increase.
We work for you, the members, and must look at being efficient and building our system in a positive, reliable manner, not through whims that come down the pipeline. I have faith that we will develop solutions that work and come forth to give you the best, reliable electric service at a reasonable cost.
Politics will not solve this; the people and member-owned cooperatives will.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, and be thankful for the great country that we have the pleasure of living in. Also, give thanks to God for the many blessings that we have.