Twinkle Cavanaugh | President | Alabama Public Service Commission
Cavanaugh makes her debut on the Power & Influence 40 this year, mainly because the Alabama Public Service Commission has been thrust into the limelight as ground zero in the battle between environmental groups and the state’s energy sector.
In spite of the chaos, she has over the past year shepherded the PSC through rate cuts for all three of the state’s major utilities — Alabama Power, Alagasco, and Mobile Gas.
To win her seat, she defeated the last remaining statewide elected Democrat and political legend Lucy Baxley. When Cavanaugh took over, the inmates were basically running the asylum, but she managed to drastically reduce the size of the bloated state agency’s budget.
Cavanaugh has also managed to become just about every liberal editorial writer’s most despised Alabama politician. One of them created a fake Twitter account to use to attack her. AL.com’s leftwing editorialist John Archibald even called her “the George Wallace of her generation.” And why, you may ask? Because “she writes off genuine concerns for climate change as ‘the bogus science claim of global warming.'”
The PSC may not have the regulatory authority it once did, but the decisions made by the panel have a direct impact on some of the state’s largest companies, the bills of Alabama consumers, and economic development projects coming to the state.
Cavanaugh’s real strength, though, lies in the relationships she has with some of Alabama’s other top elected leaders, many of whom she worked with during her tenure as Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. She’s extremely close to GOP legislative leaders, and maintains a strong relationship with the governor.
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