Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, speaking to Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth on the floor of the Alabama Senate on March 12, 2026, in the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Butler sponsored a bill passed by the House earlier this month that would require the Alabama Public Service Commission to hold formal hearings on electricity rates. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
Alabama lawmakers returning to work this week will decide how to handle two bills aimed at reforming the Public Service Commission (PSC), each of which has passed one legislative chamber and each of which faces significant opposition in the other.
HB 475, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, would require the PSC to hold formal hearings on electricity rates, something that hasn’t happened in over four decades.
SB 360, sponsored by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, would create a state secretary of energy with significant power over the PSC and change the make-up of the commission from three members elected statewide to seven elected from each of Alabama’s U.S. House districts.
“I personally don’t think the Senate will pass our bill, and I don’t think the House will pass their bill,” Butler said in an interview on Thursday. “The goal is to take the better components of each piece of legislation and do one bill that would work.”
Messages seeking comment were left with Chambliss last week.
Alabama has some of the South’s highest electricity rates, and rising electricity bills nationwide have become key in many state elections. Last year, Georgia voters elected two Democrats who ran on affordability issues to the state’s Public Service Commission. It was the first time Democrats won election to a Georgia statewide office since 2006.
Alabama’s PSC, which regulates electricity prices, uses a process known as rate stabilization and equalization, which guarantees utilities a certain return each year. Critics say the process hides reasons for rate increases and excludes the public from the process.
Legislators in this session have targeted the PSC. Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, sponsored HB 392, which would have ended popular elections to the PSC by 2030 and replaced the commission with an appointed board. The bill, which a lobbyist signaled had the tacit support of Alabama Power, was withdrawn prior to a Feb. 12 vote after it became clear the legislation did not have Senate support. Two weeks later, Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, later declared the bill “dead” for the session.
Shortly afterward, Butler introduced HB 475 that requires the PSC to hold a hearing every three years to review public utility rates in the state, particularly for electricity, which has been increasing significantly for the past several years. The House approved the bill on March 17.
Under the legislation, members of the PSC could be impeached for failing to convene a hearing or not attending one. The agency will notify the public before the hearing takes place and must allow the submit comments and speak at the hearing. Commissioners may also conduct its own investigation into “cost trends, reliability, resilience, general infrastructure investment plans, competitiveness with peer states, economic development impacts, and other regulatory issues the commission deems relevant.”
The legislation would also limits the amount of profit that public utilities such as Alabama Power can earn.
“The bill does a good job of requiring a full rate case as we need to crack open the books for Alabama Power to make sure those rates are justified,” said Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama, a nonprofit that advocates for more renewable energy use in the state.
A few days before passage of the House bill, the Alabama Senate approved SB 360, sponsored by Chambliss.
Under the legislation, the governor would appoint four additional members of the PSC by July 15. Elections of new members from the state’s congressional districts would be phased in through 2030. Two commissioners would be up for election this fall; three would be elected in 2028 and another two would be in 2030.
SB 360 also requires the PSC to discuss public utility rates annually but not through a formal hearing requiring sworn testimony.SB 360 also establishes a secretary of energy appointed by the governor, who would oversee and set the agenda of the commission.
Tait said there was “a way to expand the commission over time that doesn’t involve hurting voters’ rights” and referred to the secretary position as “an energy czar” that was “a complete nonstarter for us.”
“Ultimately, that is a gubernatorial appointment that has the ability to override, overrule, the elected Public Service Commission, and there is just no way, on God’s green earth, that we could support something like that takes away the right, or at least the impact of people’s votes,” he said.
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Author: Ralph Chapoco