Gov. Kay Ivey signs bill giving governor more control over PSC

Gov. Kay Ivey Thursday signed a bill that would give the governor significantly more power over the state’s utility regulator, ending a months-long battle over Alabama’s high electricity rates and what the state government would do about them.

The signature came just a day after the Senate radically altered HB 475, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City. The bill originally required the Alabama Public Service Commission to hold regular hearings on rate increases.

But the Senate turned the bill into a version of SB 360, sponsored by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, that would expand the PSC to seven members; allow Ivey to appoint four new members this summer and direct the next governor to create a secretary of energy who would supervise the PSC. The PSC would not be able able to hold a formal rate hearing until 2029, and only if the secretary of energy or five of the seven PSC members call for it.

“I have signed the bill and will look forward to building on my record of strong appointments to the PSC,” Ivey said in a statement Thursday. “Alabama is a top 10 state when it comes to cost of living, and we are the number one state for plain affordability. As I have said before, for Alabama to remain the best state to live, work and raise a family, we have to grow the state, while keeping our cost of living low.”

The Senate passed the bill Wednesday, and the House concurred in changes over the objections of Butler. It is highly unusual for a chamber to approve changes to a bill over a sponsor’s objections.

Butler on Thursday said he is proud that while he could not vote for the bill that he sponsored, he was able to make the bill better.

“I am optimistic that the new Commission is going to do a good job, treat the rate payers fair, but if not, I will be watching and will be back with more legislation next year,” he said.

Energy Alabama, a nonprofit that pushed for greater transparency in rate making, said in a statement Thursday that “this fight is not over.”

“By July 15, 2026, Governor Ivey must appoint four new Public Service Commission members,” the statement said. “The rate freeze expires January 1, 2029, which means the next legislative session becomes the next battleground for the real utility bill relief Alabamians were promised and did not get. On behalf of the people ignored today, we will be in every one of these upcoming fights.”

A message was sent to Alabama Power on Thursday seeking comment.

HB 475 supplanted another bill, HB 392, sponsored by Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, that would have ended popular election for members of the PSC and instead allowed the governor to appoint the members from a list provided by the speaker of the house and the Senate president Pro Tem.

Renewable energy advocates, such as Energy Alabama, along with those who support vulnerable communities, like Alabama Arise, spoke out against the bill when it was deliberated at the House Transportation, Utilities and Infrastructure Committee in early February.

Two days later, the House chamber was ready to vote on the measure, but it was pulled moments before because it lacked support in the Senate. Then, at the end of the month, Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, declared the bill “dead.”

HB 475 was changed in the Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee on Tuesday.  The three Democrats on the Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee voted against the substitute that merged the bills, but the measure passed the Senate unanimously the following evening.

About an hour later, the bill returned to the House floor because of the major changes incorporated by the Senate, and Butler made a motion to have the bill sent to a conference committee to try and modify the bill even further.

The House defeated his motion by a vote of 72-26 and eventually approved it for final passage to send it to the governor.