CEO Column

PowerSouth Energy Cooperative is the generation and transmission arm formed to serve the interests of 18 distribution cooperatives and four municipal systems representing over 1.2 million lives in Alabama and Northwest Florida. These 22 members have delivered light to every corner of this footprint since electric service first became available in the 1930s and 40s.

It is interesting to look back at how electricity was first developed and used.

Early on, electric systems had their highest loads in the middle of the night. Electric light replaced kerosene lamps. People today still say they must pay their light bill when, in fact, lighting represents less than 5% of electric demand in the home.

I can still hear Coach Hoffman yelling on the football field at Walnut Hill, where I was a lineman and played offense and defense. He always encouraged us to maintain our block or pursue the ball.

Pages are turning, but the song and verse remain the same. Gary Smith, long-time PowerSouth President & CEO has retired, and I have been named his successor. Allow me to introduce myself and my purpose.      

By the time you read this, I will have retired and started the next chapter of my life and career. It has been a long journey. I am proud of all we accomplished in my 26 years as President & CEO of PowerSouth.

Long-time readers know I grew up in Corinth, Mississippi, in Alcorn County, in the red clay hills of northeast Mississippi. It was and is Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) country, about 20 miles from Pickwick Dam, one of TVA’s large series of dams on the Tennessee River. With that location, Alcorn County Electric Power Association (known to all of us as “ACE”) was created by the Roosevelt Administration in 1934 as the first electric cooperative and a test case for the rural electric cooperative model which would become known as the Rural Electric Administration or, to most everyone, the REA. Because ACE was headquartered in Corinth, it was often called “The Corinth Experiment.”

The history and legacy of the Alabama Black Belt have always been mysterious. At the start of the Civil War, it was the wealthiest area in the country. Now it is the poorest. There are too many ghosts across the Black Belt. They still cast long shadows that can’t be escaped.

This month I offer a paper prepared by Jesse Ausubel for the American Electric Power Board in 2019. Jesse is the Director of the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University in New York City. Jesse and I have been friends since we served together on the EPRI Board in the early 2000s. You are not the smartest person in any room he is in. I have revised Jesse’s paper to fit the space.  

Through the years, I have written articles centered on climate change and different people’s beliefs and demands around climate change. Many readers say they appreciate my articles, because I address the extreme beliefs of climate change advocates. However, my articles infuriate some readers. I receive negative responses that most often call me names, criticize my ignorance of science, and demand that Alabama Living stop printing my articles. Just last month, one cowardly, anonymous reader sent me a copy of my November article with handwritten notes reading: “This is Bull—-” and “Your opinions have no place here.” In short, some of my readers advocate a “cancel culture” that prohibits people who don’t share their values or beliefs from expressing their own opinions.