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Embracing the Energy Challenge Together in 2009
     A message from the Tri-County EMC Board of Directors

Welcome to 2009. The New Year always brings with it new challenges, hope for the future and reflections from the past. Two thousand and nine will not be an exception. As your electric cooperative since 1939, Tri-County has worked to provide you, our member-owners, with the most affordable, reliable electricity possible. And for 69 years we have met that challenge. We will continue to meet that challenge as we prepare for the New Year.

Tri-County’s goal for this year is the same as in the past; to insure that you, the member-owner, have adequate, reliable electric energy to meet all your needs at the lowest possible cost.

During 2008, the nation saw many new challenges. Fuel prices increased dramatically driving up the costs of every commodity you can name. An economic slowdown reduced purchases of every commodity. Fewer purchases caused durable goods prices to fall. However, the price of electric energy works in reverse. Fixed costs remain the same. With less kilowatt-hour sales to spread costs to, the price per kilowatt hour increases. Also, higher operating costs and fuel prices, and new environmental regulations for generating plants contributed to the rate increases you saw in October.

The challenge for us this year is to find innovative ways to control the price you pay for energy. Those costs will continue to increase—there is no way to sugar coat that reality. The trick is to keep the increases to a manageable level. The economy should begin to stabilize during the next several months. We see continued growth in our service area, maybe a little slower than in the past, but still growth. We have completed contracts for power supply for the next several years. And, we have begun an aggressive campaign to build the generation needed for the future.

We need your help. You hold the answer to meeting our future needs for electric energy. Join with us in our "Our Energy, Our Future" campaign. Contact your elected officials, and encourage them to voice your concerns in Washington and Atlanta. Join Tri-County’s "No Sweat" conservation program. Send us your ideas for energy efficiency. Sign up for "Green Power." And support our efforts to build the generation necessary for the future using all technologies available: nuclear, coal, gas, renewables and energy efficiency.

We can meet the challenges that face us. But, we have to ask tough questions. And we must be willing to accept. Do not blindly accept the rhetoric that special interest groups, the news media and some politicians want to hand you. Investigate. Ask questions and demand straight answers.

This I know. The cooperative business model has worked, and will continue to work. That means you have to get involved. When we all work together, we can meet any challenge, "No Sweat."

For information on these programs and any energy issue, please contact us. <<