When people hear about Public Service Commission president Twinkle Cavanaugh, the first two questions they often ask are: What is the Public Service Commission, and is that her real name?
Cavanaugh made a guest appearance on "1819 News: The Podcast" last week, where she answered both those questions and more, like whether Alabama's power rates are among the highest in the nation.
"When you said you probably don't even know what we do at the Alabama Public Service Commission, I was just like your listeners," Cavanaugh said. "But what I did know was that many times, it was used as a slush fund for our then Democratically led legislature. They would put a lot of money at the Public Service Commission and then go call on it and we would pay their bills. So there was a lot of excess money flowing through the agency."
"I would see the bills coming through," she continued. "And I thought, I don't know what they do, but we need to get over there and right-size the Public Service Commission. So I did a lot to try to find out what they did at the PSC at the time."
Cavanaugh said she ran for PSC president to "clean it up." After losing on her first try, she defeated the last statewide elected Democrat, Lucy Baxley, and won president of the Commission.
"And I will tell you, we have changed the Commission a lot," Cavanaugh said.
She said the PSC was founded in the 1800s as the Railway Commission and became the PSC in the 1930s. The Commission still regulates the railroad and a host of other things determined by the legislature.
"What probably we're most famous for is regulating Alabama Power Company, but we also regulate the gas companies," Cavanaugh said. "We also regulate some wastewater. We regulate Uber and Lyft. We regulate moving companies in our state. Also, taxicabs and things like that. The only real phone regulation we still do is, say, prison pay phones."
One of the more common critiques of the PSC is Alabama's high power rates, which are among the highest in the country.
"First of all, when you hear that, they don't say rates. If you'll listen to them, they'll say bills. Alabamians have some of the highest bills in the nation, is what they want you to believe," Cavanaugh said. "Well, the reality is we use electricity in Alabama to both heat our homes and cool our homes. And if you look at most states, they use it to cool their homes. They don't use it to heat because you use a heat pump to heat your home."
She said Alabama held the national record for the most home heat pumps.
"If you look at an average bill, and you're using your heat and your air with electricity, your bill is going to tend to be, because you use more, it's going to be higher than somebody that just uses it to air condition their home," she said. "That's also why in Alabama, with Alabama Power Company, they are what we call a winter-peaking company. And this makes a huge difference. That means any given minute, if you were to graph it, the most or the maximum amount of power that is sold or used is on a very, very cold winter morning. Not on a hot summer afternoon, like most companies. And so it really changes the dynamics of their company and what they need to be successful to always be on for their consumers."
She continued, "They are below the national average in cost, and they are right at the southeast average. And so if you look at the amount of power you use versus the cost, I think you'll see it's very comparable in the southeast now. Actually, in Alabama, we are below the national average. But the amount used, that's a whole other ballgame."
Cavanaugh said federal regulations, often enforced for political reasons, have also impacted customer's bills.
"I've watched EPA try to put punitive damages on us here in Alabama because they know we're a red state," she said. "They know we like our coal. We like to get our electricity through burning coal and fossil fuels like natural gas. And so they've been pretty hard on us. And what that does is you see that in bills. It is directly impacting the bills in our state. And that's what frustrates me."
To connect with the story's author or comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com or find him on X and Facebook.
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