Oh No! Alabama Utility Regulators Face Voter Wrath Over Spiking Power Bills; One Has Already Lost Reelection Race

For some incumbents, politics have turned sour in sweet home Alabama. In the May 26 primary election for two seats on the Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulator, voters rejected one incumbent and sent another to a runoff. The electoral shakeup comes as Alabamians are increasingly concerned about economic issues, including utility prices. Polling released earlier this year showed that 80 percent of Alabamians cite economic concerns as the top issue state leaders should address.

Now, Alabama politicians have gotten their first sense of voters’ attitudes this election cycle, and the message for incumbents charged with regulating utilities is one of frustration. Commissioner Jeremy Oden, a Republican who has served on the body since 2012, lost his bid for re-election to Matt Gentry, who currently serves as sheriff of Cullman County, 75 percent to 25 percent.

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Electricity prices, in particular, have become a hot button issue across the country ahead of this year’s elections, including in Alabama, where power-hungry data center projects have begun to spring up across the state. In neighboring Georgia, utility cost increases and data center development became a major discussion in its own Public Service Commission elections, races that led to major Republican-to-Democrat flips and garnered headlines nationwide.Fear of a similar outcome in deep red Alabama has left some politicians nervous. During this year’s legislative session, lawmakers were forced to pull a bill that would have ended Public Service Commission elections altogether after significant public outcry.

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In its place, the majority GOP legislature passed a major restructuring of the regulatory body that inflates its membership from three to seven members and consolidates significant regulatory power in a newly created secretary of energy to be appointed by the governor. The new law makes it more difficult to initiate a formal rate case, effectively barring such a hearing before 2029 and subsequently requiring the approval of the secretary of energy or five of seven commission members to do so.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03062026/alabama-utility-regulators-primary-election/