Friendly Advice

This time of the year is like starting with a clean sheet of paper. Nature blossoms with new growth. Fruit trees begin to bloom with an array of colors. We start planting gardens and flowers in our yards.

People start exercising more because the weather is warmer, but not yet hot. I try to exercise throughout the year. I know the older I get, the stiffer I become. So, I know that motion is lotion to my joints.

Some days I go for a walk at the Troy Recreation Center. The outdoor track is wonderful. It’s great to see all ages out exercising, but I’ve noticed a trend among the younger people exercising. They do not speak to you — even after you speak. It’s not just the younger individuals, but the number of nonspeakers is growing.

This is Alabama. We are so Southern-friendly that we wave to individuals while traveling on our interstates. Why are we losing our Southern nature of being friendly, respectful, and our wonderful hospitality? In my opinion, it is this thing about 3 inches wide and 6 inches long called a cellphone. People are so addicted to their devices that they are willing to endanger their lives, as well as others’, to read a text that’s showing a thumbs-up emoji. It is sad to see individuals operating a vehicle while texting someone. The information is not that important, and if you deem it to be important, then stop your vehicle. Our crews have spoken many times of the near misses they experience while working on the roadways.

With all that being said, these devices can be a great asset when used to communicate with our members. It allows your cooperative to notify you when your power’s out. Before you say it — sure, I understand you know your power is out when you're at home, but our text notification also lets you know when you’re not at home. We also let you know when it’s restored. Communicating with you assures you that we are working on your outage.

With our South Alabama Electric Cooperative (SAEC) app, you can perform a long list of functions. Once you set up your account information, you can view your current statement, which looks identical to the statement you receive in the mail. You can make a payment or click on the account billing history, which stores 12 months of history. You can view the number of billing days and total kilowatt-hour usage for a particular month. Heck, you can even view the actual bill sent to you back in that month.

My favorite SAEC app tool is the usage tracker. There is a default date range of the last 7 or 30 days, or you can select a custom date range. This energy information shows our members the impact of their electric use during cold and hot weather. When we have cold weather, as we had in late January and early February, this usage tool gives you a heads-up on what to expect on your next electric bill. My least favorite tool of the SAEC app is the outage function. This function allows you to report an outage, view your account outage history, and view our current system outage status. I don’t like to see outages, but they do happen.

The SAEC app is a powerful tool for our members, but never access any apps when driving. If you need any assistance with our app, please contact 1 of our member service representatives, and they will help you on your app journey.

We are pleased that a large percentage of you appreciate the daily usage text notification on your electric account. But information is only as good as a current cellphone number. If you change your cellphone number, please let the cooperative know the new number.

Use your phone and our wonderful app, but don’t use them when driving or walking. One may cause you to lose your life or take an innocent person’s life. The other will cause you not to show off our great Southern hospitality and miss God's wonderful creations around us.

Finally, enjoy the new seasonal time because each year they get less and less. God has blessed us with life to serve Him and enjoy his creation. I hope you have a great month.

The Next Chapter

Well, the college football season is over. The Alabama deer season is fast closing. But it’s still winter, so what else is there to do?

For romantic guys like me, you need to turn your focus to your wife or girlfriend. February is the month of love, and Valentine’s Day is February 14.

Lately, I’ve been writing about the changes in the electric industry, but I would like to focus on a specific change at South Alabama Electric Cooperative.

1 of your long-term cooperative employees is retiring in February. Chris Sanders has served the cooperative faithfully for over 40 years. Now he has decided to focus on another chapter in his life.

Chris and I have worked together at the cooperative for 33 years, but we have known each other our entire lives. Yes, we are second cousins, but we are as close as any brothers. Just ask his wife, Tammy. Her regular complaint about our long phone conversations: “Don’t y’all see enough of each other that you don’t have to talk to each other all the time.”

Chris is the general foreman for your cooperative. He has basically held every position for the outside employees. To say I am proud of Chris is an understatement. I think about how God blessed us both with great careers. If you had told us about our cooperative careers over 40 years ago — when we worked together at the peanut-buying point in Ariton — we would have laughed our socks off. No way we could see this in our future. God is definitely good.

Chris’ attention to serving cooperative members is unparalleled. He has done all he can for members and fully understands they pay for us to have jobs and retirements. I don’t want to paint our working relationship as all serious. Laughter fills the office many afternoons, which is why I will miss him.

Chris and I grew up in a time when dads were tough on male children, wanting them to be the best. Chris is younger than me, but I remember a football game in his senior year at Zion Chapel High School. He played running back when he normally played center and linebacker. He scored four touchdowns. We celebrated on the field after the game, and Chris’ dad, Johnny Sanders, known as J.A., came up to Chris and said, “Son, on that last run, if you would have cut it back to the right sideline, you would have gotten touchdown number 5.”

That was how dads were then, always pushing us to be better.

Chris and I have talked about how the tough way they raised us made us into the men we are today. J.A. would be proud of the career Chris has completed.

1 of the hardest things to do in leading your cooperative is saying goodbye to employees/friends because we are family here. Not working with Chris will be tough, but I know his next chapter will be as full and fun as the chapter he’s closing at South Alabama. I may not see him as much, but I’m sure we will burn up the phone, and I am sure I will hear Tammy in the background saying, “My goodness, don’t you all ever get tired of talking to each other?” Well, Tammy, the answer is no.

Happy retirement to my cousin, brother, friend, and employee. You have earned it, and I have to tell you just 1 more time as your boss, “Tighten up, Cod.”

Now that the South is basketball country, February is a warmup to March Madness. But February can produce some very cold weather, and electric bills can still be high. So, please conserve electricity use.

I guess I should address my earlier statement about being romantic.

I am as romantic as an elephant is eloquent moving around a china shop. My first date was to the movies with my to-be wife to see the romantic classic “First Blood.” Being the romantic guy, Rambo was setting a great example for us other romantic guys.

So, I’m not romantic, but I will say Happy Valentine’s to my wife and daughters. Enjoy your time with all your family. It is all way too short.

Think About It

A new year serving the members of South Alabama Electric Cooperative has begun. The older I get, the faster the years seem to pass.

As a young lad in 1966, the first season of “Star Trek” aired — I was trying to use some Scottish words (“young lad”) to honor my favorite character, Scotty. On the show, Captain Kirk would order Mr. Zulu to go to warp speed. All I know about warp speed is it was fast, and I feel the years passing by at Warp Speed 7.

I don’t like New Year’s resolutions because most are broken very quickly. I like to think! Mostly, I think about my character as it relates to my faith and service to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Next, I think about my character as a husband, a father, and PawPaw to my grandsons. If I don’t think about these attributes of my character, Satan will get a foothold in my life. I ask Jesus each day to guide me down his path, not mine.

The other day, I read about an organization where all they do is think.

The article addressed the issue of artificial intelligence data centers sponging up excess energy capacity. There are areas around the country where electricity prices have increased twice as much as inflation. This increase is hovering around 18%. Your cooperative has not changed any electricity rates in more than 2 years. For 2026, we budgeted a slight increase of 3.2%, mainly due to the higher cost of power, higher interest rates, and the cost of building an electric distribution plant.

The think tank blames soaring energy demand on AI data centers. But the real impact of data centers is not on the electric grid yet. When you look at the data, which I’d expect those thinkers would do before throwing out solutions, the initial capacity shortage is from regulations causing power generators to close baseload fossil fuel plants before their end of life. These were either not replaced or were replaced with intermittent power facilities like solar or wind. When you close more than you build, you fall short!!

If you can get equipment like generators and transformers, building a baseload natural gas power plant takes about 4 years. Over the past 2 decades, electric use has been flat. Manufacturers have long lead times supplying utilities because they are not tooled up to the new demand for these generators and transformers.

Is the surge of AI data centers causing more electricity demand? Yes. Can we solve that problem? Yes. I believe in capitalism and the American can-do spirit.

The think tank’s road map to solving the problem includes AI data centers putting heat pumps in households currently using inefficient electric heating, cooling or water heating. They also want data centers to provide batteries and a 5 kW solar panel system for suitable homes.

They say it’s time to reject the idea that the solution is adding more fossil fuel power plants to the grid, while ignoring the missed opportunity inside millions of households with existing links to the grid.

We don’t need to be exclusively in any 1 source of energy. We need to be diversified in our energy portfolio. But let me address each roadmap scenario.

First, heat pumps work best when a home is properly insulated. Otherwise, homeowners may use more power to get to their comfort level. How will manufacturers produce all those heat pumps, and who will install them? It puts us back into the same short supply scenario as we are in with generators and transformers.

Second, investing in home batteries and 5 kW solar panels. As my oldest grandson, Kristian, would say, “Pawpaw, what would happen if?” What would happen if we were to have 10 days of extremely cold weather with some snow and limited sunshine? The batteries die, and the solar panels do not produce. The electric grid would have to be able to support the additional demand from those homes. This has already occurred, sadly, in February 2021. The electric system failed in Texas, and people died. This scenario from the thinkers increases that risk.

In my opinion, the underlying goal of these thinkers is not to solve the electricity demand issue. It’s to push their plan for exclusive renewable energy at any cost.

Your cooperative has a reasonable, not perfect, track record for serving our members. We’ve been pushing energy-efficient heat pumps and insulated homes over my 33-year career.

Y’all have a great month, and think about it.

You Know, There’s Hope

I am truly amazed when I read something in the Bible that prophesies about things centuries before the event occurs. That brings me to the Book of Isaiah.

Isaiah started his prophecy approximately 740 years before Jesus Christ was born, which is referred to in time as B.C. or Before Christ. Isaiah urges the people to care for the poor and the needy, commit to following God’s ways, and pursue social and economic justice. Sounds like more people today need to study the Book of Isaiah.

But he also wrote about the sign of Immanuel. In Isaiah 7:14, he wrote, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

Immanuel means “God with us.” Again, in Isaiah 9:6, he tells us that God’s son will be born as a baby and called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” On December 25, we celebrate these prophecies coming true in the birth of God’s son, Jesus, as the Messiah. In this truth, there is hope!

As I write about things in the Bible or types of energy sources and climate change in my monthly column, I would be naive to think everyone agrees with me. But the freedom to express yourself is 1 of the greatest attributes of living in the United States of America. This column is my platform to express my beliefs and insights into the electric industry. The reader can agree or disagree and civilly express their opinions to me.

It saddens my heart to hear the hate speech and attacks toward individuals who believe differently. This evil has led to a Bible-based conservative being murdered in front of thousands of college students and a presidential candidate being shot while at a political rally. If you cannot accept that not everyone is going to believe as you and you cannot discuss your thoughts in a civil manner, then follow the Bible’s guidance. If someone does not want to hear what you have to say, knock the dust from your feet and move on.

We must look toward the Prince of Peace. He fully understands the hate and evil of this world because the worldly hate was directed toward him over 2,000 years ago. But he overcame the worldly hate, and that gives me hope.

We need to take time this holiday season to look at ourselves and our words. Speak or write your beliefs and accept civil debate, but do not call people Nazis or Hitler unless you fully know the history of those individuals or the party that you’re comparing them to.

In 1972, I lived in West Germany. I had a wonderful teacher who believed in showing his students the history of Germany — not just in words but by seeing it. We took field trips to castles, toured vineyards, and visited West Berlin.

But the most profound trip was to the Dachau concentration camp. This camp, the first established by the Nazi government, was originally formed for political prisoners or opponents of the Nazi regime. Later, prisoners included Jews and homosexual individuals. These prisoners were used as forced laborers and in medical experiments, including those to test how long a human could survive in various water temperatures, mainly cold water. I saw the gas chambers where prisoners were killed and later cremated or bulldozed into mass graves. I asked my teacher what caused people to do this. He said, “Pure evil.”

My time at Dachau was 27 years after it was liberated by the American forces in 1945. Let me be clear, there are no places like Dachau in the United States, including Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Please, if you’re going to use terms to express the actions of others, follow the lead of the Wonderful Counselor and express yourself with civility and, most of all, love.

We should be grateful and thankful as the luckiest human beings alive to live in this country. At this time, the United States is the greatest country to ever exist, and I hope we all can agree on that. So, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus as Christians, we are to share our faith. We are all sinners, but we do have hope.

As I reflect on this season, the most important thing in my life is my faith. Merry Christmas to you all.

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.

Leaping Into Fall

October is a wonderful month. It’s a time when we may have some hot weather, but by the end, it is usually beginning to feel a lot like fall.

Farmers are gathering their crops of cotton, peanuts, and corn. And there are many outdoor activities, from hunting to high school football. For the college game in our great state, we’re fortunate to have the University of Alabama, Auburn — War Eagle for those of you who are fans — and Troy University playing great football throughout October. Best of all, October is my anniversary month, so happy anniversary, Nelda!

Also, October is what we electric cooperatives call a shoulder month. What does that mean? For our members, it means your power bill is usually not as high. As temperatures start to cool, your air conditioning doesn’t work as hard to keep your home comfortable.

This is also the month when South Alabama Electric Cooperative holds its annual meeting. By now, you should have received your meeting package with the annual report and voting instructions for trustees in districts 1 and 2. These trustees are voted on by the members, and the winner will serve as your representative to the co-op for the next 3 years.

1 of the 7 principles of a cooperative is Democratic Member Control. What does that mean? As a member of South Alabama Electric Cooperative, you can exercise that principle by voting for your trustee of choice. The trustees are elected among the membership and are accountable to the members. The members have equal voting rights — 1 member, 1 vote. If that isn’t reason enough to vote, you can even lower your power bill simply by filling out the ballot. The process is very quick, and you will get a $20 bill credit.

So, take the time to complete your ballot — make sure to add your email and cellphone numbers — and exercise your voice by voting for the trustee you wish to serve you.

I also hope you will take a few minutes to look over the annual report. With costs continuing to climb, as they seem to have done everywhere over the past few years, I am happy to say the cost of your electric service from SAEC has not changed in over 2 years. That is a great accomplishment, and I would like to give a shout-out to all our employees who help manage the costs of running your co-op in a financially responsible manner.

I would also like to express the same appreciation to the current board of trustees. We recently said goodbye to board member Douglas Green, who represented District 6 for over 40 years. Everything is always changing. As I was sad to lose a man who truly believed in me, the trustees changed, too. This change made way for David Lowery from South Crenshaw County. We are excited and honored to welcome Mr. Lowery, who has had a long career as a football coach and educator in the public school system, most recently in Brantley.

So, if you see Mr. Lowery, congratulate him and let him know how much you appreciate his service to our cooperative. I am confident he will serve the members in a way that will make us all proud.

Finally, you may have noticed that I gave a “War Eagle” earlier in my column. That was a shoutout for all our members who pull for the Tigers. But as a graduate of Troy University, back when it was Troy State University, I always have to leave room to say, “Go Trojans!” And as a huge Alabama football fan, you know I had to squeeze in a “Roll Tide!”

Until next month, enjoy a beautiful October as we leap into the fall of the year.

How Is Your Attitude?

I would like to write this month about attitude, specifically, my attitude. This summer, I was traveling across our wonderful country when a criminal broke into my vehicle and stole my checkbooks, camera, and approximately a dozen SD cards from my camera bag.

I immediately took steps to protect my bank accounts, but those SD cards were priceless because they contained pictures from past vacations and family events over several years. The criminal obviously did not care about our personal treasure on those cards, and we cannot get those moments back.

As you can probably guess, my attitude shifted from joy to grumbling about how unlucky I am and why this would happen to me. After getting the window repaired and cleaning the glass from inside the vehicle, we continued our trip. Soon, my attitude turned around, realizing that the incident could have been much worse and only set us back by about 4 hours.

Life is always going to happen. Philippians 4:4 states, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I say again: Rejoice!” When we can rise above life’s circumstances, we see things from a different perspective, and it shows in our attitude.

How is your attitude toward your electric cooperative these days? Over the past year, South Alabama Electric Cooperative (SAEC) has been forced to make some changes to how we do business. There have been hiccups, from issues with members receiving their monthly bills on time to the cooperative receiving payments effectively. I have tried to apply Philippians 2:14 to these situations. “Do everything without grumbling or arguing.” I failed this verse under the theft situation, but I tried!

So, how are we trying to fix this issue? The speed of light is faster than tires on the road, so we are strongly encouraging all of our members to receive their bills via email. We call this an e-bill or going paperless.

This is how it works: When the cooperative creates a billing file to be printed and snail-mailed to you, the members who have signed up for e-billing will get an email letting them know that their bill is ready. From there, members can log in to their SAEC account and view their bill. The digital version is “identical” to the bill you would receive in the mail, but about 2 weeks faster.

Why would your cooperative want you to go paperless? For one, it saves money on mailing costs. But, as electric bills continue to rise, it also guarantees you will receive your bill on time, giving you more time to prepare payment.

There are also other benefits to setting up an online account. Each year, between the end of January and April 15, we get an uptick in calls from members wanting to know how much they paid in the past year. It is the time of year that we all love. No, not football season or deer season. It’s tax time!

With an online account, this information is only a click away and available to all members, no matter how your bill is delivered to you. Even without signing up for e-billing, we can set up a text notification letting you know that your e-bill is ready to be viewed online about 12 days before it is due. This function provides you access to your electric bill, just in case the mail service loses or is late with your bill.

If you choose regular mail and don't receive your bill, please log in to see the bill online. It is just a few clicks away. And always remember Philippians 2:14: Don’t grumble about change, but rejoice because change can be good.

If you have any questions, our member service representatives will be happy to walk you through the process. Thank you for your positive attitude toward your cooperative, and I promise to continue working on my own.

Believe in You

Have you ever had someone fully believe in you?

Most of us can answer that question with mom or dad. Maybe a grandparent. I’m asking about outside of your family — a teacher, a coach, or someone you work with. I have been blessed to have several people outside my family believe in me.

Do you know how I know Douglas Green believed in me? He told me.

He also told me he loved me. I think it’s rare for men to express their feelings and to encourage others. That did not stop Mr. Green.

On June 10, 2025, I lost my true believer, and cooperative members lost a true advocate. Mr. Green served South Alabama Electric Cooperative for 41 years, never losing focus on who he was there to serve — the members.

At the beginning of the 32 years I knew Mr. Green, I wasn’t sure how to take him because he was always picking on me. Even after I became the general manager, he would tell wild stories about me at employee functions for all to hear. By then, I knew if Mr. Green picked on you, he liked you. Every time he saw my wife, Nelda, he joked about what a good job she did writing my monthly articles. She would respond and say, “No, he writes them.” He would reply, “You don’t have to cover for him.”

Mr. Green was a special person. He was a special leader with a talent to apply common sense to leading young people and a large corporation like South Alabama.

Mr. Green, an educator and principal at Zion Chapel School, had a wonderful approach to giving young people a second chance. If a student got in trouble, he would write the child’s offenses on a piece of paper. He told these students if they never returned to his office for a disciplinary matter, he would not tell their parents and would destroy their files after they’d finished school.

If the student kept their promise, Mr. Green kept his promise.

Mr. Green applied that common-sense approach in the boardroom. I saw him take complex issues and bring management and other trustees to a simple solution that was always fair to the cooperative and its members.

As much as I admired Mr. Green’s problem-solving and leadership abilities, what I regarded in him most was his faith. The trials Mr. Green faced could only be supported by a strong faith in God. Mr. Green was married 3 times. Each one of his wives preceded him in death. He was blessed with 2 children, Larry and Karen. Mr. Green buried his only daughter and watched his son battle cancer. These challenges are not easy to navigate even with strong faith, but Mr. Green leaned on his faith in Jesus Christ hard and was able to show how Jesus Christ carries you during your worst trials. When Mr. Green prayed, it was like he was having a conversation with Jesus.

Today, I know he is having a face-to-face conversation with his Lord. I say that not to comfort his family, friends, or myself. I make that statement because his presence with the Lord is a fact.

It’s difficult to move forward without a man who truly believed in me. But, as I learned from him, I will lean on my faith to get me through losing Norman Douglas Green.

As I looked down at Mr. Green at his funeral, he cracked me up one last time. In our South Alabama Electric headquarters building, you need a security badge to enter the office. Mr. Green often lost or forgot his security badge. But as I looked down at him, he was wearing his South Alabama Electric Cooperative security badge, and I just smiled. He no longer needs that security badge because he already had his heavenly security badge laminated years ago.

I will see you later, Mr. Green. Thank you for being a true believer in me.

Who Is Guiding Your Plan?

At my church, we recently completed a long study of the Book of Genesis. For the unfamiliar, the summary is that God had a plan when he formed the universe and Earth from nothing. The sin of man did not shock God because he knows everything, so he had a plan to save us.

That is why he formed the Israelite people with his promise to Abraham. God took the evil from Joseph’s brothers and used it for good, helping him save millions of people from starvation, including the Israelites. You could say that God used Joseph to save the world. But he certainly used him to save his people, so the Messiah could later save the world from man’s sin.

The Israelites would go on to spend centuries in Egypt as slaves, but God had a plan for them, too. That is not until the book of Exodus, though, which could be our next study.

This July, the United States will celebrate 249 years as a country. Like in Genesis, God had a plan at the beginning of this governing experiment. When you study a detailed history of our country, there are many times events could have gone another direction in the blink of an eye, and the experiment would have died.

For example, early in the Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington moved most of the Continental Army to Long Island to defend Brooklyn. The British attacked on 3 fronts, catching Washington’s army off guard and outnumbering. Only a series of fortunate events saved the Americans.

Their only hope was to retreat across the river to Manhattan. British ships set sail to cut off that retreat, but there was not enough wind for them to make it. That gave Washington the night to secretly get 9,000 men to safety.

But as the sun rose, much of the Continental Army, including Washington, remained in Brooklyn. That is when God smiled on the Americans a second time. A heavy fog settled over the area, giving Washington and the remaining army the cover they needed to cross safely. Without a lack of wind and some heavy fog, there may never have been a United States of America.

If you believe, like I do, that God has a plan for everyone and everything, that plan was also evident when President Franklin D. Roosevelt formed the Rural Electrification Administration with an executive order in 1935. The next year, God had a plan to fund the REA and change rural communities in the U.S. forever.

At your cooperative, it is our responsibility to seek God’s plan to provide reliable and affordable electricity to our members. This responsibility includes creating an annual projection of the co-op’s load over the next 10 years that is updated and approved by the board of trustees.

This load forecast is then delivered to PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, our generation and transmission co-op, so it can plan to supply each of its member cooperatives with the energy they need. This ensures that when you flip a light switch or turn on the AC, your electricity is working.

We also develop a 4-year construction work plan to address forecast needs and use engineering data to upgrade possible problem areas on our system. By doing so, we can build the proper electric infrastructure to provide for members without overbuilding.

Why is this important? Because an electric utility has only 1 way to generate cash — through electric rates. If we do not plan and build properly, rates may have to increase to pay for this over-build. That is why we take our planning process very seriously.

1 thing we cannot plan for is criminals stealing copper wire from distribution lines. This thievery has cost our membership hundreds of thousands of dollars and can also lead to rates going up.

The management and board at South Alabama Electric Cooperative take this very seriously. We have developed a process with our local county sheriff’s department to apprehend these criminals and address the companies purchasing stolen property. If you see something, please report it to your local sheriff’s department. You could say this is part of our planning, too, but it is not how I would like our resources to be used.

Finally, ask yourself who is guiding your plan? As we celebrate our great country’s birthday, my hope is that our country and each person in it is following God’s plan. Have a happy July Fourth because many men and women have given their lives for our freedom.