The issue of Alabamians’ power bills and the structure of our state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) has prompted some big policy fights in the Legislature this year. Two bills affecting this issue – one good and one bad – are on the move at the Legislature.
Email your state legislators now and urge them to support real PSC reform.
HB 475 by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, would ensure significantly stronger protections for Alabamians. This bill would require rate hearings to justify electricity charges, a public protection that the PSC hasn’t used for more than 40 years. This bill also would allow the PSC to issue subpoenas, giving real teeth to a regulatory authority that largely has deferred to business interests for decades. HB 475 is a strong bill that would help Alabamians squeezed by rapidly rising power bills.
SB 360 by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, on the other hand, would strip the PSC of meaningful regulatory authority. This bill does include a good provision that would increase community control of PSC seats by electing one member per congressional district. But it also would leave the newly expanded PSC’s agendas largely subject to control by a single unelected person: a new energy secretary appointed by the governor. SB 360 effectively would undo the public’s ability to hold the PSC directly accountable for its actions at the ballot box.
HB 475 passed the House and now moves to the Senate. SB 360 passed the Senate and has been assigned to the House Transportation, Utilities and Infrastructure Committee, but the bill is not scheduled for consideration in that committee yet.
Email your state senator now and urge them to SUPPORT HB 475. And email your state representative and ask them to OPPOSE SB 360.
Alabamians have felt the pain of rising prices for too long now, and our electricity costs have been some of the greatest contributors to that pain. We shouldn’t pay 20% more than Louisianans and Tennesseans for electricity. We shouldn’t pay more than Georgians or Floridians for the same amount of power from a utility owned by the same company. Please contact your legislators today and urge them to stand for real PSC reform.