2020 has been a bad year, especially if you’re an Alabama Power customer.
The Alabama Public Service Commission (PSC), never content with how many favors it can give Alabama Power, added insult to injury today when it upheld Alabama Power’s sun tax. As many of you know, Alabama Power taxes small scale solar at one of the highest rates in the country; $5/kilowatt/month, or about 50% of the money you could expect to earn from your system. It is currently unclear if the Commission’s vote today actually INCREASED the sun tax.
In other words, the supposed supporters of small government at the PSC chose to institute an approximate 50% tax on solar for homes and small businesses in order to protect the monopoly of one the largest and most profitable companies in the state.
How the PSC Fails Alabamians
This is not the first questionable decision the PSC has made this year. Here are a few lowlights:
- The Commission failed to take any action to protect customers from disconnections or late fees amid COVID-19. Advocates like Energy Alabama had to force Alabama Power to protect consumers, but the PSC claimed its closed doors talks with utility executives were good enough and no action was needed.
- By the way, Alabama Power is restarting disconnections soon, despite its parent company earning almost $5 billion in net income last year alone.
- The Commission ruled in favor of Alabama Power, allowing it build expensive and unneeded gas, and punted on solar and energy storage projects despite them being the most cost effective.
- The Commission allowed Alabama Power to overcharge customers for fuel by more than $100 million until a group of advocates, including Energy Alabama, called them out on it. Under fire, the Commission finally did the right thing and refunded customers most of the money.
- The Commission, in an attempt to legislate from the bench, is actively blocking the recording of hearings and the use of electronic devices.
- And then today, the Commission backed Alabama Power’s tax on the sun. Alabamians of all political stripes want more low-cost renewable energy but the PSC has decided it knows better than the people.
Again, this is just 2020.
The Cost of Being a Puppet
The Alabama PSC has proven itself to be not much more than a puppet for Alabama Power. For instance, the solar tax complaint was first filed back in April 2018, yet it took the PSC more than two years to decide the case. However, Alabama Power was able to file for one of its largest expansions in history and get it approved, all before the solar tax case was decided. If Alabama Power wants it done, it gets done. If the people want it done, nothing happens.
There are real world consequences to all of this deference to Alabama Power. First off, real economic harm is being done to the people of Alabama and many of our small businesses. Our utility bills are some of the highest in the nation, the proportion of income Alabamians spend on electricity is one of the highest in the nation, and we have the worst energy efficiency in the country. But rather than make any of these problems better, the Commission continues to green light expensive and unneeded construction, allow high taxes on alternatives, and ignore any efficiency. Alabama Power does not want any of these things because it would rather you remain forcibly and 100% dependent on them.
Bluntly, the decisions of the PSC are contributing to poverty in Alabama, rather than alleviating it. Alabama has a history mired in poverty and we need our energy policy to help us break that cycle. Favoring monopolies and Wall St. over low-cost distributed energy perpetuates the struggle of hundreds of thousands of hard-working Alabamians.
And secondly, Alabama is losing out on tens of thousands of good paying jobs in advanced energy stemming directly from PSC decisions. There are tons of folks who could be employed in the energy efficiency sector, making much needed upgrades to our built environment and infrastructure. Renewable energy, such as solar and wind, are some of the fastest growing sectors of the economy in most states, but not Alabama.
Twinkle Cavanaugh, the PSC President, has often touted jobs in statements to Alabama Power-supported outlets like Yellowhammer News, in campaign materials, and even from the dias during PSC meetings. We’d encourage her to actually take her own words seriously and put Alabamians to work.
