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Today in the PSC: A 2% rate increase for Alabama Power customers (10:20 at ). Thank you to @StetsonStephen, @taitdl and Keith Johnston of @selc_org for showing up to ask the questions when our own elected commissioners—YEAR AFTER YEAR—can’t be bothered.
For the record, today is the weird little once-a-year hearing, which the PSC deems “informal”, at which Alabama Power decrees what it’s taking from us and our state and how much we, the people, owe them for the privilege. https://twitter.com/dennispillion/status/1336327669122621441
As was the case last year, ALJ John Garner and Balch attorney Dan McGrary bounced most questions as “irrelevant”, claiming that any question which speaks to the past or the future is not relevant to the present and is therefore not permitted.
A Russian-style rate hearing.
A Russian-style rate hearing.
What a brilliantly kneecapped system where neither our AG nor our elected Commissioners show up to advocate. Eternal gratitude to the NGOs who do show up to do the hard work, especially in the face of the vitriolic pushback fostered by those who would keep all this secret.
Despite what ALJ John Garner, who is running the meeting, says, the Commissioners never attend. This is my third year and they have never shown up to sit at the dais, nor asked any questions in furtherance of the single most important thing we elect them to do.
This was also true of the billion-dollar plant expansion hearing in March, just prior to the Oval Office Covid announcement. The Commissioners sat in the audience and asked no questions, then approved the plant in June.
That plant is the crux of this rate increase.
That plant is the crux of this rate increase.
Also, while it is wonderful (because in our new world we apparently need to thank Republicans for acting in a democratic manner) that the PSC is streaming this, to be clear, because this is what they deem an “informal” process, individuals always had the ability to stream this.
While it is clearly better that the commission itself is doing it, and keeping it for posterity (let’s see if this video survives), ALJ John Garner makes clear in the beginning that this is NOT a permanent policy change and they will slam the doors shut again as soon as they can.
If I haven’t made it clear, ALJ John Garner runs the show at the PSC. The commissioners simply nod and do what he says.
May we think of all of them as we pay our increased power bills.
May we think of all of them as we pay our increased power bills.
ALJ John Garner was the one who ejected me and @electkaripowell from the solar fee hearing a year ago for streaming it, and then proposed rules of court, which the PSC adopted, allowing Alabama Power sole discretion over who gets to record PUBLIC UTILITY RATE HEARINGS.
While my case against the Commissioners at the AL Supreme Court only held (inexplicably) that the public does not have the right to stream hearings under the Open Meetings Act, the PSC adoption of “rules of court” for media access has not been legally challenged.
It will probably be a long time before those rules are an issue as public rate hearings in Alabama are few and far between, replaced instead with decrees like today.
And to circle back to today’s rate increase, you have obviously seen your bills increase in the past. That is because there is a separate “fuel charge” comprising a good chunk of your bill that also increases. It is as much a “rate increase” as today is, but gets no billing.
How much more do we have to pay, and overpay, for power? Now is the time to start telling people what’s going on. May we be fortunate enough to have two candidates run for the PSC in 2022, and may we do the needed groundwork now to support them then.
#ReformThePSC #LetItShine!
#ReformThePSC #LetItShine!
