Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger's Island, speaks with colleagues on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on Jan. 22, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. An Alabama House committee Tuesday passed a bill sponsored by Brown on Tuesday to end elections to the Public Service Commission and make it an appointed body. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
A House committee Thursday approved a bill that would end popular election of the Alabama Public Service Commission, as well as legislation targeting data centers.
HB 392, sponsored by Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, would stop elections for the commission, the body charged with regulating utilities in the state, by 2030. In its place, the governor, the speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives and the president pro tem of the Alabama Senate would appoint members.
Speaking to the House Transportation, Utilities and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday, Brown said that the bill’s requirements that appointees have background with “utility regulation, energy or infrastructure policy or issues, regulatory issues, economics, law, engineering, finance, accounting, business, or economic growth issues” would mean a PSC that could better evaluate the prices charged by public utilities.
“I think that if we move toward an appointed Public Service Commission, we have an opportunity to reset things and at least have an opportunity to try and get our rates lower,” Brown said.
The bill does not address the PSC’s use of rate stabilization and equalization (RSE), a process used since 1982 that guarantees utilities a certain return on their profits. Critics have charged that RSE, unlike a formal rate hearing, does not allow public input into a utility’s requests or proper scrutiny of the data used to justify rate increases.
Brown’s bill drew criticism from ratepayers and energy advocates, who said it would do little to lower Alabama’s region-leading residential energy prices.
“This proposal does nothing to actually address affordability and the high rates, and the higher profits that companies receive, that people are facing, and that is why people are paying attention,” Tait said in an interview following the meeting. “Our organization will never advocate for any piece of legislation, no matter what, that takes away people’s right to vote.”
As filed, Brown’s bill would allow the governor to appoint the president of the Public Service Commission, starting in 2028. The House speaker and Senate president pro tem would appoint the other two members starting in 2030.
The committee adopted an amendment introduced by Rep. A.J. McCampbell, D-Linden, that would give all PSC appointment powers to the governor. But the two associate members could only be appointed from a list of six individuals submitted by the House speaker and Senate president pro tem. Individuals appointed to the commission will serve four-year terms and must be confirmed by the Senate. The selection process repeats if the Senate fails to confirm the individuals who are appointed.
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. Several customers told lawmakers Tuesday they are concerned that the legislation will likely further increase their electricity rates.
“This is going to privatize it even further, take more away from us,” said Ashtyn Kennedy, a Montgomery resident.
Tabitha Isner, vice chair of the Alabama Democratic Party and a candidate for Alabama Senate, said that the bill will allow utility companies, particularly Alabama Power, to influence the selection of commission members by the Governor and the Alabama Legislature.
“The appointed commissioners will be folks who are in the pocket of Alabama Power,” Isner said in an interview following the meeting. “Reducing the number of voters from 3.5 million to 35 makes it a whole lot easier for advocates and big-money groups to influence the outcome.”
Several lawmakers on the committee attacked Energy Alabama. Brown claimed that Energy Alabama is funded by George Soros, a billionaire who supports liberal causes, a charge Tait flatly denied.
“Our funding comes from our members,” he told the committee. “We have regular people from all over Alabama.”
The legislation comes on the heels of voters electing two Democrats to the electric regulatory agency in Georgia, both of whom campaign on affordability concerns.
Brown defended the legislation in an interview with the media following the meeting.
“Currently, in Alabama, this is the only regulatory board that we actually vote on,” he said. “We don’t vote on banking, we don’t vote on insurance, we don’t vote on the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, we don’t vote on the Alabama Ethics Commission, we don’t vote on Soil and Water Conservation. This puts us in line with all the other regulatory agencies in Alabama.”
The Committee also approved HB 403, sponsored by Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, that requires the Public Service Commission to require data centers to pay for additional electricity that they use when it approves contracts with utility companies instead of spreading out the additional cost to other rate payers.
Members of the committee also approved HB 399, sponsored by Rep. Leigh Hulsey, R-Helena, that reduces the time that data centers are exempt from paying property taxes from 30 years to 20 years. It also requires data centers to pay taxes on real property, sales and use taxes that will be allocated to the General fund budget.
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Author: Ralph Chapoco