Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday appointed four people to the Alabama Public Service Commission under a law passed in the spring that significantly expanded the membership of the utility regulator.
The appointments, coming one day after GOP voters rejected the second of two sitting commission incumbents, include retired Lt. Gen. Ron Burgess; Fred Johnson, former CEO of Farmers Telecommunications; Demarcus Joiner, an attorney with Maynard Nexen in Birmingham, and Alabama State University President Quinton T. Ross Jr.
“For Alabama to remain the best state in which to live, work and raise a family, we need good people serving in public office, including on our Public Service Commission. I am proud to tap these four experienced leaders to serve their fellow Alabamians in this capacity,” Ivey said in a statement. “I expect these individuals to serve with honesty and integrity.”
Messages seeking comment were left with the commissioners. Joiner said in a statement he looked forward to working on the commission “with a laser focus on affordability, transparency, fairness and responsiveness to consumers.”
The Legislature voted to expand the commission during the legislative session this spring amid mounting anger over the state’s high residential power bills. According to the Energy Information Commission, Alabama residents pay an average of 17.15 cents per kilowatt-hour, among the highest in the South and higher than Mississippi (16.30 cents per kilowatt-hour), Tennessee (15.08), Georgia (15.01) and Florida (14.86).
During the session, the House of Representatives passed House Bill 475, which would have required the Public Service Commission to hold a rate case hearing at least once every three years. The commission since 1982 has used a method called rate stabilization and equalization, which guarantees utilities a profit. Critics say the method makes the reasons for rate increases opaque. A formal rate hearing would require a utility to justify rate increases through sworn testimony and evidence.
The Alabama Senate, however, gutted the bill, removing the rate case requirement, expanding the commission to seven members, effectively neutralizing the results of this year’s elections and putting the entire board under a secretary of energy to be appointed by the next governor.
The law bans rate case hearings on utilities like Alabama Power until 2029, and after that, only allows them with the approval of an energy secretary or the approval of five of seven members of the commission.
John Dodd, policy manager for Energy Alabama, an organization that advocates for more renewable energy in the state, congratulated the people appointed.
“It is worth remembering why these jobs exist in the first place, and that is because Alabama families spoke up about paying some of the highest electric bills in the south, and the public pressure is what built this expanded commission,” he said in an interview.
GOP voters over the past month have voted to replace two of the three current members of the commission. Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry defeated incumbent Jeremy Oden for the Republican nomination for one seat on May 19. On June 16, former Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler narrowly won a GOP runoff election against Chris Beeker III for another position.
Under the new law, Republican and Democratic leadership in the Alabama Legislature submitted proposed names for the seats. Ross, a former state senator, was on the Democrats’ list, as was Joiner. The Democrats also nominated James Gordon and Sheila McNeil, who are running against Gentry and Zeigler, respectively, for the commission.
Burgess and Johnson were on the Republicans’ list.
Read more at AlabamaReflector.com.