Democratic candidate sues to block Alabama Public Service Commission expansion

A Democratic candidate for Public Service Commission Tuesday sued the state over a law restructuring the commission.

The lawsuit, filed by Sheila McNeil, the Democratic nominee for Place 2 on the commission, alleges that the law — expanding the membership of the public utility regulator and giving Gov. Kay Ivey four appointments to be made before July 15 – violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment because it altered election rules after absentee voting had already started.

“When the Legislature enacted this bill . . ., without any process to protect candidates already in the field, filing suit became the only path to safeguard the rights of voters and candidates alike,” McNeil said in a statement.  “With all of the political maneuvering to restructure the Commission, there is nothing in this law that will remotely reduce utility bills.”

The lawsuit also argues that the law, known as HB 475, diluted the voting power of minority voters in violation of Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and stripped McNeil of the “protected interest of her candidacy” without giving her notice or a hearing.

“The provisions being challenged are the same ones we warned would hand two officials in the executive branch – the governor and the energy secretary – effective control over the body that sets Alabama Power’s rates,” said Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama, an organization that advocates for renewable energy use in the state. “Alabamians, who’ve been paying record-high electric bills while Alabama Power’s profits doubled, deserve something better than a law that enacts regulatory capture.”

A message was sent to the Governor’s Office, members of the Legislature and Alabama Power on Tuesday seeking comment.

HB 475 was the final version of legislation lawmakers altered dramatically as it made its way through the legislative process this spring, eventually drawing objections from Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, the sponsor of the bill.

The version Butler originally filed would have required the PSC, the agency responsible for overseeing public utilities in the state, to convene public rate hearings every three years that would require Alabama Power to justify the electricity rates. The bill aimed to address the state’s high electricity rates. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Alabama residents in February paid 16.18 cents per kilowatt hour, the highest rates in the South and up from 15.83 cents a year earlier.

However, lawmakers eventually approved an edition that mimicked another bill, SB 360, that was also circulated in the Legislature when it was considered in the Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee.

It expanded the number of members on the commission from three to seven and authorized Ivey to appoint the four additional members from a list of candidates submitted by the speaker of the House and Senate president pro tem. The move meant that if voters this fall elected two commissioners who wanted rate hearings, they could be outvoted by Ivey’s appointees.

The law also put the expanded PSC under the authority of a newly-created secretary of energy and extended a freeze on the base rate until 2029, even though the PSC already approved in collaboration with Alabama Power up to 2027.

Under the law, the PSC may only convene rate hearings after 2029 and only at the behest of the Secretary of Energy or if five of the seven members of the PSC agree.

Voters in Georgia elected two Democrats to the Public Service Commission in Georgia for the first time since 2006 in response to the increasing prices of electricity in that state.

McNeil will face Republican incumbent Chris Beeker or challenger Jim Ziegler, a former state auditor, who are going to a primary runoff on June 16.