The Alabama Public Service Commission recently concluded a series of historic rate reduction hearings that will soon result in lower utility bills and direct savings for customers of Alabama Power Company, Alabama Gas Corporation, and Mobile Gas.
Just as importantly, the hearings were held in a manner that saved taxpayer dollars, provided complete openness and transparency, and protected thousands of Alabama coal industry jobs that have been targeted for elimination by environmental extremists and other liberal special interest groups.
These same liberal activists and their allies pushed for the commission to utilize, instead, an overly expensive and drawn out process that operates much like courtroom proceedings and requires all parties involved, including consumers wishing to participate, to hire high-priced legal counsel to represent them.
They prefer the formal hearing process because it would allow them to delve into subjects that really have nothing to do with the rates that consumers pay, such as the effect that coal-fired energy production has on the theory they once called “global warming” but now refer to as “climate change” since studies show the planet is getting cooler, not hotter.
Their end game is not to serve consumers but, rather, to assist Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency in shutting down Alabama’s coal industry, which has historically been a major driving force of our state economy, and the 5,000 jobs it directly provides.
The truth that they don’t want you to know is that if coal is prohibited as a major source of energy production, other less proven and much more expensive methods will have to be substituted, which will cause your utility bills to skyrocket. It is apparent that those who subscribe to the ultra-liberal environmental movement are willing to sacrifice your family’s budget and economic well-being for their own misguided beliefs, issues, and left-wing initiatives.
Instead of falling prey to the trap set by the liberal activists, the majority of the commission voted to hold a series of rate hearings that, while more informal, were more open and infinitely more efficient and effective.
Instead of requiring participants to acquire legal counsel, our hearings invited all who wished to testify to participate and express their thoughts. We even held hearings outside Montgomery in cities like Mobile, Tuscaloosa, and Auburn so that consumers who wished to testify could more easily participate without traveling to the Capitol City. Overall, we heard from twenty-four different groups, with over fifty hours of testimony and hearings.
Executives from each utility also spoke and were put under rigorous questioning about their companies’ finances, production costs, profits earned, and similar subjects. Other groups as diverse as the Tea Party, labor unions, and public policy think tanks also participated. The commission even allowed the environmental activists supporting Obama’s War on Coal and other liberal groups like the AARP, one of the loudest and strongest supporters of the fiasco known as ObamaCare, to share their thoughts.
Because of the informal hearings we utilized, the commission was able to make informed decisions on all three utilities in a handful of months and at negligible cost to taxpayers. Had formal court proceedings been convened for each utility, the process would still be ongoing, and the cost meter would still be running at the taxpayers’ expense.
In the end, the commission determined that the utilities we reviewed should provide consumers a reduction in the rates they pay, and we ordered each to do so. The average savings, based upon the rates we implemented, will equate to approximately $20 to $50 a year depending upon which utility a consumer is utilizing and the amount of energy they consume.
Those changes will soon start becoming apparent in utility bills sometime after the new rate structures go into effect in 2014.
We also demanded more frequent and strict reporting requirements from the utilities we regulate, which will make it easier for the commission to track their financial performances and implement additional rate changes when circumstances demand.
Sadly, there are those who, for their own personal political motivations or dogmatic liberal beliefs, will try to belittle or deny the good that we have accomplished. I encourage you to take their criticisms with a grain of salt because the facts and evidence of our accomplishments are undeniable. Lower utility costs for consumers. Stricter oversight of utility profits. Open, transparent, and easily accessible public hearings. Substantial taxpayer savings. Protected jobs for coal workers and the families they support.
Alabamians have been served well by the work we have done, and I am proud to have been a part of this historic effort.
Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh is President of the Alabama Public Service Commission.
