Our energy future

We all like know­ing when folks have our back. It’s nice to solid­i­fy sup­port with like- mind­ed peo­ple who val­ue the same things you do, but it proves to be even greater when you are open to sug­ges­tions and seek to first under­stand what pro­vides the great­est good for all. This com­pro­mise and greater solu­tion pro­vide a sense of accom­plish­ment and val­i­da­tion that you are doing the right thing to help and serve oth­ers. This month, we are going to high­light the law­mak­ers who do just that. They are always on our side and the side of our mem­bers seek­ing to do the right thing for the right rea­sons.

Cre­at­ing the laws that gov­ern our state is no small feat. These brave men and woman are elect­ed to stand up for what is right and the voic­es of those they serve. As a co-op, those same voic­es are those of our mem­bers, and it mat­ters to us that the laws and elect­ed offi­cials in our state look out for the peo­ple and their qual­i­ty of life, which is what we val­ue most. For­tu­nate­ly, we have an out­stand­ing del­e­ga­tion that aligns with our own per­son­al mis­sion to look out for our mem­bers. They under­stand co-ops are here to do good and serve oth­ers. Togeth­er, our inter­ests con­tin­ue to sup­port what is best for our com­mu­ni­ties and our neigh­bors.

H.5118 is an exam­ple of how our sup­port impacts our mem­bers. This leg­is­la­tion, which is called the “South Car­oli­na Ener­gy Secu­ri­ty Act,” is co-op sup­port­ed because it secures our ener­gy future in South Car­oli­na. Not only does it pro­mote things like ener­gy effi­cien­cy and renew­ables, but it also allows for a joint con­struc­tion project to build a nat­ur­al gas plant in the low­er part of the state. Co-ops aren’t mak­ing any­thing on this bill. It is sim­ply the right thing to do for our econ­o­my.

I’d like to say a spe­cial thank you to the fol­low­ing mem­bers of the South Car­oli­na House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in our del­e­ga­tion who vot­ed in favor of this bill: Raye Felder, Bran­don Guf­fey, Randy Ligon, Den­nis Moss, Mike Neese, Bran­don New­ton, David O’Neal and Tom­my Pope. Sim­i­lar­ly, Sen­a­tors Wes Climer, Mike Fan­ning, Michael John­son and Har­vey Peel­er were instru­men­tal last year in sup­port­ing our coop­er­a­tive and let­ting the voic­es of our mem­bers be heard at the state lev­el. We con­tin­ue to be grate­ful for the con­sis­tent sup­port we receive at the State House.

I’d also like to take a moment to wish one of these rep­re­sen­ta­tives well as she retires from serv­ing after 12 years. Raye Felder has not only helped the coop­er­a­tive sup­port the voic­es of our mem­bers, but she’s also been a great friend and neigh­bor to my fam­i­ly. When we lived in her neigh­bor­hood, I fond­ly remem­ber her Christ­mas soup par­ties and was always grate­ful for the easy access she and her hus­band gra­cious­ly grant­ed our kids when they would cut through her yard to see their grand­par­ents. Well done, Raye, and thank you.