HB 475’s Own Author Voted NO — The Governor Should Too

From Daniel Tait, Executive Director of Energy Alabama

MONTGOMERY, AL — Today the Alabama Legislature completed one of the most brazen acts of regulatory capture in this state’s modern history. A bloc of Alabama House members voted to accept the Senate’s wolf in sheep’s clothing, a hollowed out HB 475. The House overrode the objections of the bill’s own sponsor and ignored the demands of hundreds of thousands of Alabamians, and instead delivered to Alabama Power everything its lobbyists came to Montgomery to get.

Let that sink in. The bill’s own author voted no. A bloc of his own colleagues overrode him and passed it anyway.

This did not happen by accident. It happened because Alabama Power spent months engineering it. They couldn’t stop HB 475 in the House, so they gutted it in the Senate. When the bill’s own sponsor rejected what came back, they found enough votes in the House to override him. Every provision that would have helped customers — mandatory rate hearings and a reduction in profit — is gone. What replaced them is a Governor-appointed official who controls the Public Service Commission’s agenda, its staff, and the scope of any rate review. An unelected political appointee with effective veto power over your electric bill.

The legislature just handed Alabama Power a structural takeover of the only body that can regulate it. 

Rep. Mack Butler voted no. He built this bill, watched the Senate hollow it out, and refused to put his name on what came back. 

There is one person who can stop this now. Governor Ivey, this bill is on its way to your desk. Veto it.

The people of Alabama fought for real reform this session. They called. They wrote. They showed up. What passed today is not what they asked for — it is the opposite. A veto is not a rejection of utility reform. It is a demand that the legislature go back and do it right. The original House version of HB 475 exists. It works. Pass that.

Energy Alabama is calling on every Alabamian to contact the Governor’s office today and demand a veto.

Editor’s Note: contact information Governor Ivey can be found at https://governor.alabama.gov/contact/.