I just want to take a moment to address the upcoming election of board members for the Sangre de Cristo Electric Association.
My vote goes to Joe Redetzke and Michael Robinson because of their education in all phases of electrical service at SDCEA and other formal education and experience, together with their years of service at the association and their desire to work toward the common good of all members and the association.
After attending a meeting of the solar group AVEH, it is clear their goal is to be completely solar at the expense of nonsolar members for line service and maintenance and no expense to themselves, even though solar customers will be benefiting from line usage and maintenance service provided by SDCEA when their solar setups are not generating power, i.e., nighttime and cloudy days.
Their agenda includes breaking away from Tri-State who currently provides the power for SDCEA. Tri-State is currently providing 40 percent renewable energy, which is well ahead of government regulation and the national standard.
AVEH members do not address the cost and energy usage of manufacturing, purchasing and transitioning to solar panels and batteries and the replacement cost of panels and batteries in the future. They are very expensive now, so bear in mind what the cost could be 10 years from now. And just as a side note, most of these panels and batteries are made in China.
In closing I would just like to encourage members to consider the agendas and what the future cost could be to individual families and would all members be forced to go solar in the future.
