State Rep. Chip Brown (R-Hollinger's Island) hopes his bill, which would turn the Public Service Commission (PSC) into an appointed board, will prevent environmental groups from gaining a "foothold" in Alabama and lower costs through greater transparency.
House Bill 392 passed out of committee on Tuesday despite some pushback from both Democrats and Republicans. Brown said later on FM Talk 1065's "Middday Mobile" that his bill would prevent Alabama from becoming like Georgia, where liberal groups flipped the state PSC to focus solely on renewable energy.
"One thing that we are seeing in Alabama is that there are some groups, Energy Alabama is the main one, that are backed by groups, one of them being a group called Multiplier, and these groups, along with the League of Conservation Voters, last year in Georgia, they pumped almost $3 million into the Public Service Commission races, and they flipped them and put two seats. And so now, Georgia has two Public Service Commission members that are 100% renewable energy, and what renewable energy is is solar farms and windmills. And it's not a sustainable model, and not a sustainable method," he said.
Brown said he's heard many complaints about high utility rates, which is all the more reason to change the system that caused them.
"One of the things that's interesting in the public hearing, so every single speaker said, 'my rates are too high. My rates are too high.' But yet they want to stay with the same method that we have right now that has given us high utility rates, given us solar farms going up in Stockton," he said. "So what my bill does is, currently, there are 40 states that appoint their public service commission. And, you know, the public service commission is a regulatory entity. It's like in Alabama, it is the only one that is elected. Banking, insurance, ADEM, ethics, port authority, you just keep going on and on down the list. They're all appointed by the governor. And I think we have an opportunity to bring in people that could be experts in their fields."
By appointing members instead of electing them, Brown said his bill would remove politics from the process.
"One of the things I'm hopeful on in this legislation is that it takes politics out of it. So if you have people that aren't running for office that are concentrating on lowering your utilities, then it, you know, it takes the ability for contributions from utilities or anybody associated with them out because the individual is not having to worry about running. Instead, they can focus on their job. And it's the legislature and the governor who become accountable."
Brown said his bill would require utilities to hold an annual public hearing and ban passing on lobbying and political costs to customers.
If passed into law, the PSC election this year would proceed as planned, with the first appointments made in 2028 and the second in 2030.
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