MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alabama House on Tuesday passed a bill to mandate that the Public Service Commission hold utility rate hearings.
Rep. Mack Butler’s House Bill 475 requires the PSC, the body that regulates Alabama utilities, to hold formal rate hearings at least every three years.
Under the bill, those rate cases would be conducted as evidentiary hearings and all parties involved would testify under oath. The commission would also have the power to subpoena utility companies in order for them to justify their customer rates.
The PSC has not held such a hearing in more than 40 years, which Butler, R-Rainbow City, called “inexcusable.” Butler said the hearings are meant to increase transparency and ultimately lead to lower utility rates.
“(Utility companies) will go under oath when they lay their cards on the table, they’re not going to just say, ‘Hey, we’re giving you a good deal.’ They’re going to actually prove to us that we’re getting the best deal,” Butler told reporters after his bill passed. “These are monopolies, and when you see a monopoly and record profits, it kind of makes you scratch your head wondering, are we really getting the best bang for our buck? And if they can justify their rates, so be it. But some of us are very suspicious about that.”
Members of the PSC could also be impeached if they fail to hold or attend the rate hearings required in the legislation.
The bill also limits utility companies’ profits from exceeding the regional average and forbids those companies from passing on lobbying expenses to ratepayers.
Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, amended the bill to require the PSC to hold both a public hearing and public comment period about any proposed solar or wind facility. The move comes after South Alabama lawmakers brought legislation to pause solar farm developments.
This isn’t Brown’s first stab at changing the PSC’s role this session.
After moving through committee quickly, a bill by Brown to turn the PSC into an appointed body rather than an elected one was pulled from the House’s agenda minutes before debate was scheduled to begin in February. House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said they took the bill off of the calendar because leadership had doubts about having enough votes to pass the legislation in the Senate.
Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, later declared that bill dead and worked with Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, to introduce Senate Bill 360 to expand the current three-member PSC to seven members elected from the state’s U.S. congressional districts. Chambliss’ bill also creates a governor-appointed secretary of energy position to oversee the administrative duties of the commission and personnel.
Chambliss’ bill passed in the Senate unanimously last week and moved to a House committee. Butler’s bill passed by a vote of 104-0 on Tuesday. Lawmakers have talked about combining the two bills. Butler said he would be open to that so long as the cap on utilities’ return on equity and the mandated rate hearings remain.
“I’m hoping we can meet somewhere, have a meeting of the minds and maybe take the best of the two bills, merge them together,” he said after the bill passed.
Butler said he was “kind of floored” by the Senate’s unanimous passage of Chambliss’ bill and said that it was “concerning” that the Senate bill does not mandate formal rate hearings or cap utilities’ profits.
He also expressed concerns about some elements of the Senate bill.
“I do know the governor would like to have an energy secretary. I don’t know that he needs that much power, and I personally don’t like, from hearing from the constituents, having any appointed component whatsoever,” Butler added, referring to Republican gubernatorial primary frontrunner and U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville as governor.
Butler’s bill now heads to the Senate. There are seven days left in the 2026 legislative session.