Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville (right) speaks with Sen. Matt Woods, R-Jasper (left) on the floor of the Alabama Senate on March 10, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. A Senate committee passed his bill to expand the number of members to the Public Service Commission from three to seven. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
An Alabama Senate committee Wednesday approved legislation that would expand membership on the state’s public utility regulator but not address a rate-making process that critics say locks the public out and keeps power bills high.
SB 360, sponsored by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville and filed on Tuesday, would change the make-up of the Alabama Public Service Commission from a president and two commissioners elected statewide to seven members, one elected from each congressional district in the state. The bill would also create a state secretary of energy, appointed by the governor, who would set agendas for the commission and administer its business.
Alabama has some of the highest residential electricity prices in the nation, and had the highest in the South last November. Chambliss told the Senate Financial Responsibility and Economic Development Committee Wednesday that changing the make-up of the PSC would dampen the increasing cost of electricity for Alabama residents, but didn’t specify how.
“We are getting to the point where we are getting close to the states that are typically high-energy states,” Chambliss said. “We are headed in the wrong direction. This increase in rates has, no doubt, cost the citizens of Alabama hundreds of millions, maybe even billions of dollars, in the last 20 years or so.”
The legislation would also prohibit electric utility companies from increasing the retail base rate for power until 2029 and prevent them from passing on the costs from issuing grants, lobbying and advertising onto consumers after that.
Alabama Power last year requested a rate freeze that will be in place until 2027. The move came shortly after two Democrats won election to the Georgia Public Service Commission, campaigning on affordability.
Renewable energy advocates oppose the bill.
“This bill doesn’t actually address the core issues that are driving people’s bills up,” said Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama, a nonprofit that advocates for more renewable energy use in the state.
He said he opposes not only the appointments, but also the creation of the secretary of energy, who Tait said “could dictate what goes on or off the commission agenda.”
SB 360 is but the most recent bill of seven that were filed by lawmakers for the current session, with two other bills garnering the most attention. One, HB 392, sponsored by Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, would have eliminated elections for members of the PSC. The legislation was withdrawn after Senate Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, declared the bill “dead.”
The other, HB 475, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, that requires the PSC to hold formal hearings involving financial disclosures and sworn testimony on public utility rates, was approved by the House Transportation, Infrastructure and Utility Committee on Wednesday.
The Public Service Commission has not held a formal rate hearing on utility bills since 1981. Instead, the PSC uses a process known as rate stabilization and equalization, which guarantees utilities a profit. Critics call the system opaque and say it locks the public out of the rate-making process.
SB 360, like HB 392, requires the PSC to hold a public hearing each year on rates, but does not require it to be a formal hearing and allows the Secretary of Energy to set the agenda for that hearing.
“I believe that members, who are doing it as a full-time job, should decide that, not the Legislature telling them what to do,” Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, said on Wednesday.
A message was sent to Alabama Power on Wednesday seeking comment. An audio recording of a conversation between an Alabama Power lobbyist and a representative of Energy Alabama and Alabama Power became public last month in which the utility lobbyist tried to persuade Energy Alabama to support HB 392, even though Alabama Power was publicly neutral on the bill.
“After the incident that happened between Energy Alabama and Alabama Power, it seemed very evident that everybody in the state wanted to have a voice and a seat at the table,” Gudger said.
The bill phases in elections of the new commission. But it also would have Gov. Kay Ivey appoint four new members of the commission by July 15, two of whom will serve a term of two years while the other two will serve for four years. The Governor will appoint the members from a list of three names for each position submitted by the Lieutenant Governor, the House Speaker and the President Pro Tem of the Senate.
The move would mean that Ivey, who has appointed PSC President Cynthia Almond and PSC Commissioner Chip Beeker, would have appointed six of the seven members of the elected commission.
The elections to decide the commissioners will be done in phases. Elections for the seats currently held by Beeker and PSC Commissioner Jeremy Oden will take place this fall. Three elections would take place in 2028 to replace the current president and select two others, and another two will be elected in 2030.
SB 360 prohibits members of the commission, the newly created secretary of energy and any members of their families from being paid by public utility companies. It also forbids public utilities that are overseen by the commission from making any contributions to any of the candidates, and prevents commissioners from representing any organization when approaching other agencies or the Legislature if they are getting paid.
The secretary of energy will have significant sway over commission business. The commission will only be able to change the agenda the secretary presents with five of seven votes.
John Dodd, policy manager for Energy Alabama, said during the public hearing that the legislation will not address energy costs.
“It hands a governor-appointed secretary of energy, who is unaccountable to any voters, the authority to set every PSC meeting agenda and control Commission personnel. The PSC, which is the body that is supposed to regulate Alabama Power and other utilities, would almost entirely answer to the governor’s office.”
The bill moves to the full Senate.
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Author: Ralph Chapoco