GRAB YOUR PITCHFORKS AND STORM THE CASTLE!

Guest Opinion by Brent Woodall

After winning several early contests over Senator Bob Dole in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, Pat Buchanan said:

“They are in a terminal panic. They hear the shouts of the peasants from over the hill. All the knights and barons will be riding into the castle pulling up the drawbridge in a minute. All the peasants are coming with pitchforks. We're going to take this over the top.”

Fast-forward thirty years later and the powers-that-be in Montgomery are in a terminal panic.  The people of this state have learned some truths about how things work in our state and are ready to makes changes that will help the people but harm the powerful.  Our so-called leaders are determined to stop the peasants.  These people, who claim to be conservative Republicans, are using the Democrat handbook to take away your ability to hold those at the Alabama Public Service Commission accountable.  Alabamians are justifiably irate about the shenanigans taking place in Montgomery.  What is the cause of their anger?  It's the purported attempts to “fix” what's wrong at the PSC.

Back in November, WBRC in Birmingham ran a report that established that Alabama has the third highest electricity bills in the entire country.  Shortly after that report aired, our junior senator stated that Alabama has the highest electricity rates in the southeastern United States.  People got mad and, when they came to Montgomery, state legislators began introducing legislation which was, allegedly, offered to solve the problem of high electricity bills.  One such bill was simply going to change the way the commissioners made it to the PSC.  It would have converted that process from allowing citizens to elect the commissioners to having the governor appoint them.  After much outrage from voters around Alabama, this bill died a much needed death.  But that did not stop the legislators from continuing to try to alter, not only the way commissioners got to the PSC but the PSC itself.  Reading the most recently introduced bill, SB360, causes you to believe that the utility companies regulated by the PSC had too much input into drafting it and that its only purpose is to protect their interests.

The title of the bill, the “Power to the People Act” reminds you that one thing Democrats are really good at is giving a piece of legislation a name that does the exact opposite of its purpose.  Remember the “Affordable Care Act” that actually made health care less affordable?  How about the “Build Back Better” bill that didn't build anything back and, if it had, what it built wouldn't have been better?  That's what the people in Montgomery have done with SB360; they gave it the name the “Power to the People Act” although it takes power away from the people of this state.  How does it do this?  It does something that Democrats have mastered since the days of Obama.  It is referred to as “Never let a crisis go to waste.”  The crisis is the high electricity rates Alabamians are forced to pay.  The politicians are attempting to use it to as an excuse to change the system to benefit the utility companies that donate to them without addressing the problem of high electricity rates.  The utility companies would benefit for decades to come.  How does the bill do that?      

First, it more than doubles the size of the PSC, from three members to seven members.  This would not just dilute your vote, it would completely negate it.  When it does so and how that would occur demonstrates the contempt those behind it have for your vote.  If this bill is enacted, in July of this year, after the primary season, the governor would appoint four new members to the PSC.  They would immediately outnumber those members who had been duly elected by the people of this state.  Even though, in November of this year, you will be able to vote for the people who you want to serve you on the PSC, it won't matter.  The appointed people will be able to cancel anything your chosen candidates attempt to do.  Who will the appointed members support?  Not the people of this state but the powers that put them there.  The same powers that have benefited from exorbitantly high rates for far too long.  Who will the governor put on the PSC?  Well, first let's admit that her track record for those appointments wouldn't be classified as stellar.  So far her appointments simply rubber stamping what the utilities put in front of them which has exacerbated the problems we have.  After the WBRC report aired, the largest utility regulated by the PSC showed up in Montgomery asking that PSC freeze the third highest rates in the country and the PSC commissioners complied!  They didn't move to lower the rates; they locked them in place.  So, who would the governor put on the PSC in July?  The same people you may have just voted off the PSC!  There is absolutely nothing in SB360 that would stop her from doing so.  The powers that be in Montgomery know to whom they are beholden for their positions and they answer to them; not to you.  The governor would put back on the PSC those individuals she was told to put on the PSC.  The solution to a problem created by government is never to expand the size of government.  But that is exactly what SB360 does.

Next, SB360 would forever take away your right to vote for all members of the PSC.  Right now you have, and have had, the ability to vote for the PSC president and the Place 1 and Place 2 commissioners.  But, if this monstrosity were to actually be enacted, you would be allowed to vote for a commissioner in the congressional district in which you reside.  That's right, you would go from being able to vote for each and every member of the PSC to being allowed to vote for only one member.  Somehow that just doesn't seem like “Power to the People,” does it?  It seems more like protecting powers that are threatened by the people, instead. 

Along those same lines, if you liked two members who were on the PSC and wanted to keep them, you might not be able to under this bill.  That's because, if they were from the same congressional district, you couldn't vote for both of them because of that limitation.  Interestingly, the governor's ability to appoint members to the PSC has no such limitation on it.  She could appoint people from the same congressional district to the PSC but you couldn't elect two people from the same congressional district to serve on the PSC.  Seems like “Power to the People” should have been named “Rules for Thee but not for Me.”

What could the commissioners actually do at the PSC?  Whatever the newly-appointed Secretary of Energy allows them to do.  Under the bill, the Secretary of Energy (a position that has never existed in Alabama) would have complete control over the agenda for the PSC.  The only way the members could override his decisions regarding the agendas would be whenever a super-majority of five out of seven members agreed to change it.  Who is going to appoint the new secretary?  A governor who had the support of those people behind this legislation and who would take direction from those people.

You might also find it quite shocking who the commissioners at the PSC would be.  When I contacted my state senator and asked him to vote against this bill, he sent me a Politico article about how two Democrats had been elected to the Georgia Public Service Commission.  For some reason, he failed to point out that, under this bill that he supported, two members of the Alabama Public Service Commission would most likely be Democrats.  After the first few years of life under this bill, the people would be able to vote on the commissioners at the PSC but only by congressional district.  Because Alabama has two congressional districts that are held by Democrats, it stands to reason that two of the seats at the PSC would also be held by Democrats. 

What should our reaction be to this grossly inappropriate over-reach by the state legislature?  Grab your pitchfork and storm the castle!  Contact your state representative and tell them to vote to kill SB360 in the House of Representatives.  But, don't just tell them to kill that bill, ask them to approve another bill that has been introduced by one of their own members.  Representative Mack Butler has been working very hard for the people of his district and the entire state to provide a solution to the problem at the PSC that is a reasonable and conservative plan to correct what is wrong at the PSC without unnecessarily growing government.  His bill, HB475, wouldn't change how commissioners at the PSC are elected but would require the PSC to regularly hold formal rate hearings, something it hasn't done for decades.  If that were to happen, the PSC would be able to issue subpoenas to gather evidence and to take testimony at hearings.  Representative Butler's bill should be supported by everyone in the legislature, especially Republicans.  SB360, on the other hand, would only be supported by those who are more concerned about the powerful than they are the people.

Pick up your telephone and contact your state representative and state senator.  Tell them to kill SB360 and to support Representative Mack Butler's HB475.  Don't let them take the power you have away from you!

Brent Woodall is a candidate for the Republican nomination for Public Service Commission, Place 2. For more information on Woodall and his campaign, follow him on Facebook.

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