Alabama lawmakers passed a bill last week that would effectively place control of the Alabama Public Service Commission into the hands of the governor. 

Passing legislation regarding the PSC was a big focus for lawmakers this legislative session. Multiple bills were introduced throughout the session, all of which sought to reform the commission that has recently been under fire for high utility rates in the state.

HB75, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, passed after undergoing significant changes in the Senate — changes that caused Butler to object to the bill’s passage. The bill originally focused on increasing transparency around setting utility rates. The bill required the PSC to hold regular hearings on utility rate increases — the commission hasn’t had a formal utility rate hearing since 1981, but instead uses a process known as rate stabilization and equalization to determine utility rates that guarantee a return for power companies.

However, the version of the bill the Senate approved more closely resembled a different PSC regulation bill that was introduced this session: SB360, introduced by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville. This bill expands the number of members of the commission from three to seven — one for each of the state’s congressional districts. It also places control of the PSC under a new secretary of energy, appointed by the governor. 

The version of HB75 that passed the Senate expands PSC membership, but the original aim of holding regular rate hearings was gutted in the process. Under this version of the bill, the commission would not be able to host a rate hearing until 2029 — when the utility rate freeze the commission issued in December 2025 expires —  and only if the secretary of energy or five of the seven PSC members call for a hearing. 

After the Senate passed this version of HB75, Butler called for the House to send the bill to a conference committee, where House members would have to approve the changes made to the bill in the Senate. However, House members voted against holding a conference committee with a 72-26 vote, sending the bill to Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk. 

Prior to the House vote last week, Butler announced his intention to vote against his own bill.

“I want my hammer back,” Butler said. “I would like to see a rate cap, and I’d like to see regional and national limits of where the rates can be.” 

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, and Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, meanwhile, released a joint statement after the bill was passed, celebrating the unity between the two legislative chambers.

“At a time when more than $30 billion in rate increases are pending in states across the country, the Legislature took strong action to protect and shield Alabamians from higher rates for the next several years,” the statement read.

Under the bill’s stipulations, Ivey will have to appoint four new members of the PSC by July 15. Then, the elections of PSC members will be staggered, with two set to appear on the ballot in November.

Alabama top stories in brief

Ivey hospitalized, released after two nights

• Gov. Kay Ivey was briefly hospitalized last week after undergoing a procedure to remove fluid pressing against her lung. The governor was released after spending two nights at Baptist Medical Center South.
• The Governor’s Office said Ivey sought the treatment after feeling pain in her left side for three weeks, in addition to feeling short of breath.
• The office did not disclose a reason for the fluid build-up.
• Ivey, who is 81, has had previous health issues during her nine-year tenure as governor, including a lung cancer diagnosis in 2019. She announced she was cancer-free in 2020.
• Ivey is expected to be back to work in the Capitol this week.

House passes $3.7 billion General Fund budget

• The Alabama House of Representatives unanimously approved a $3.7 billion General Fund budget last week, a 1% increase from last year’s budget. 
• The Senate had approved a General Fund Budget last month. However, the House amended that bill to increase funding for the Alabama Department of Human Resources, the Alabama Department of Mental Health and the Airport Development Grant Program.
• This year’s budget also includes a 2% pay raise for state employees and $18 million in additional funding for the State Employees Insurance Board to help offset rising healthcare costs.
• The budget now goes back to the Senate for concurrence, where senators must approve the changes made by the House.

Three rural Alabama hospitals at risk of closing according to new report

• A new report from the nonprofit Public Citizen says three rural hospitals in the state are at risk of closing amid funding struggles and Medicaid cuts.
• The report says Grove Hill Memorial Hospital, Hill Hospital of Sumter County and Hale County Hospital are at risk of closing. All three hospitals are located in Alabama’s Black Belt.
• Public Citizen’s report places the blame on Medicaid cuts stemming from last year’s Big Beautiful Bill, which will cut Medicaid funding by more than $900 billion over the next decade. However, Alabama hospital officials have said financial precarity existed prior to the bill’s passage.
• “Our hospitals all over were struggling but they were before this bill,” Alabama Hospital Association executive director Danne Howard told al.com. 

Oil, gas drillers in Gulf now exempt from protecting endangered species

• The federal government’s Endangered Species Committee announced last week that oil and gas drillers in the Gulf of Mexico will be exempted from the Endangered Species Act, a move that environmental advocates say will place several species that call the waters off of Alabama’s coast home in a perilous position. 
• The move comes as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to expand domestic oil and gas production. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the committee that expanding oil and gas drilling in the Gulf was a matter of “national security” amidst the ongoing war with Iran.
• However, the move places several endangered species that live in the Gulf at greater risk of extinction. In particular, advocates are warning that expanding drilling could drive the critically endangered Rice’s whale to extinction.
• There are only about 51 Rice’s whales left on Earth, all of which live in the Gulf. Their population in the Gulf was previously harmed by the oil industry during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which decreased the whales’ numbers by 22%.

Like our work? Then support it!

Want to get early access to columns, unique newsletters and help keep The Sunrise News active? Then support us on Ko-Fi!

Support our work!