Gov. Kay Ivey Thursday signed a bill that would give the governor significantly more power over the state’s utility regulator, ending a months-long battle over Alabama’s high electricity rates and what the state government would do about them.
The signature came just a day after the Senate radically altered HB 475, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City. The bill originally required the Alabama Public Service Commission to hold regular hearings on rate increases.
But the Senate turned the bill into a version of SB 360, sponsored by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, that would expand the PSC to seven members; allow Ivey to appoint four new members this summer and direct the next governor to create a secretary of energy who would supervise the PSC. The PSC would not be able able to hold a formal rate hearing until 2029, and only if the secretary of energy or five of the seven PSC members call for it…