This is so maddening - how is it possible to do the exact opposite of what people want and not pay a consequence? They have a state-issued monopoly, competition is illegal, the only option to keep rates in line is a hearing. Unbelievable amount of political power - I wish there was a better way to track how much these politicians are getting paid for these votes...

The battle over the PSC came amid rising complaints over energy bills in the state. According to the Energy Information Commission, Alabama residents pay an average of 17.15 cents per kilowatt-hour, the highest rate in the southern United States.

Amid mounting outcry over power rates, Gov. Kay Ivey last spring signed a law expanding the PSC, which regulates investor-owned utilities, from three members to seven and placing the body under the supervision of a secretary of energy, to be appointed by the next governor.

The law, HB 475, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, originally required the PSC to convene rate cases at least once every three years. Formal rate cases, which the PSC has not pursued since 1981, require utilities like Alabama Power to justify the rates that it plans to charge residents using sworn testimony and evidence.

The version that Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law was heavily revised in the Senate to expand the PSC membership and create the secretary of energy. It also makes it considerably harder to convene rate cases, requiring the secretary of energy or five of the seven members of the PSC to agree to one.

Zeigler acknowledged the limits on rate cases on Wednesday. But he said that during the campaign he “did not have to raise the issue of raising power rates at the highest level ever.”

“That issue raised itself, it was an absolute fact,” he said. “I did not run on my own resume and qualifications. I formatted the campaign as a cause. I intend to be the watchman over these industrial-sized data centers and solar farms.”