Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger's Island, speaks to reporters in the Alabama House of Representatives on Feb. 12, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The Alabama House Thursday pulled a bill sponsored by Brown that would have ended popular elections of the Alabama Public Service Commission, the state's utility regulator. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama House of Representatives Thursday pulled a bill that would have ended popular elections to the state utility regulation board prior to a scheduled vote.
Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, said Thursday that HB 392 was removed from the schedule to allow lawmakers to further discuss the potential ramifications of the bill, which would end elections to the Alabama Public Service Commission by 2030.
“We are still looking at ironing some things out on that,” Brown said Thursday. “At the end of the day, the whole issue is about affordability, and Alabama has the highest utility rates in the Southeast.”
Brown said he had the votes for the bill in the House, but that they were “still analyzing” whether the Senate would support the measure. House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said at a news conference Thursday that the bill needs additional support in the Alabama Senate.
“We had the votes in the House,” Ledbetter said. “We had enough to pass it. It just comes down to the fact that we didn’t have, for sure, (enough) in the Senate to get it out.”
Ledbetter said he was not sure if the legislation will be brought back for consideration, although lawmakers will continue to discuss it.
“At the end of the day, it is about rates, it is about costs,” Brown said. “That is what I am concerned about is lowering our costs. And we have been kicking the can down the road with the Public Service Commission for over 100 years, reelecting people who are a catchy name on the ballot to try and modernize the Public Service Commission and to make them more customer friendly.”
At a House committee meeting on Tuesday, renewable energy advocates strongly criticized the measure, saying it would do little to cut bills and limit public input in utility regulation.
“This bill would strip Alabamians of the right to vote for the Public Service Commission and replace public elections with political appointments, shifting oversight of monopoly utilities away from voters and toward insider politics,” said Energy Alabama, a nonprofit that advocates for more renewable energy in Alabama, in a statement on Thursday. “It would move electric bill decisions further out of public view at the exact moment customers need more transparency and stronger accountability.”
The statement also said that “public pressure is working.”
The legislation would authorize the governor to appoint the president of the Public Service Commission when current PSC President Cynthia Almond’s term expires in 2028, and to appoint the two associate members of the board starting in 2030. Those commissioners would be appointed from a list provided by the speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives and the Alabama Senate president pro tem.
Alabama has long had high electricity rates. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said that Alabamians paid an average of 16.08 cents per kilowatt hour in November, the highest in the South. Critics have pointed to the PSC’s use of a process known as rate stabilization and equalization (RSE), which guarantees utilities a profit and limits public input into rate-making as a reason for high rates.
Brown said he is open to other changes that would help with affordability, including RSE, but did not provide specifics.
“I want to have comprehensive Public Service Commission reform,” Brown said when asked about RSE.
The legislation comes months after two Democrats won election to the Georgia Public Service Commission on an affordability platform and with current PSC Commissioners Jeremy Oden and Chris Beeker facing challenges in the May Republican primary and from Democrats in the November general election.
Brown said that lawmakers are reviewing the legislation to determine how to make it more favorable to customers.
“The main feedback I get is that people are concerned about their rates and about the policies of the Public Service Commission,” he said.
The representative said that Alabama Power, the state’s largest electricity supplier, is neutral on the legislation.
Brown touted portions of the bill, including requirements for an appointee to have a business, utility or energy background.
“I had a conversation with someone from Florida recently, and the person that they just picked to head up their Public Service Commission is a retired nuclear physicist,” Brown said during the news conference. “It is a different type of professionalism. I think you could have a better job of economic development and setting long term strategy.”
The bill prohibits candidates under consideration cannot own stock, be employed or have a connection with a public utility. It prevents people who are appointed from receiving benefits from public utility companies making requests before the PSC.
The story was updated to include comments from House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville.
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Author: Ralph Chapoco