“Power to the Powerful” — SB360
Your Power Bill, Their Political Appointments — Guest Opinion By Hanu Karlapalem
Guest Opinion By Hanu Karlapalem
You’re tightening your belt — but the power brokers in Montgomery are tightening their grip on your life.
When Alabama families open their power bills, they feel something beyond sticker shock — they feel powerless. Rates keep rising. Complaints pile up. And the Public Service Commission (PSC), the body charged with oversight of Alabama Power, has sat largely silent.
So Alabamians reached out to their representatives and told them not to take away our right to elect the people who control our power bills. What is the supermajority’s response? Senate Bill 360 — rebranded as “Power to the People.”
Don’t be deceived by the new label.
SB 360 expands the PSC from three members to seven. Sounds like more accountability — look closer. Governor Ivey immediately appoints four of those seven commissioners.
The bill also creates a brand new Secretary of Energy — appointed, not elected — who controls the commission’s agenda and staff. Taxpayers fund the new cabinet position. Alabamians get the bill and less say in how it’s run.
Voters demanded elected oversight. The supermajority delivered appointed control — and put an elected label on it.
This is not reform. It is consolidation of power dressed in the language of reform.
The pattern makes it undeniable. In a single session, the Republican supermajority moved to restrict who can vote, proposed banning naturalized citizens from running for office, expanded the CHOOSE Act to siphon money from public schools, threatened districts with SB5, pushed HB380, and stripped communities of oversight of their own clean water. Every road leads to the same destination: more power in fewer hands, less accountability to you.
Alabama Power has operated without meaningful oversight for 44 years. The rate freeze in SB 360 is designed to quiet public outrage — not fix the underlying problem.
Real reform would mean genuine elected accountability, transparent rate-setting, and a commission that answers to ratepayers — not to whoever holds the governor’s office.
My neighbors deserve that. They asked for that. They were promised that. They did not get it.
Contact Rep. Parker Moore — your District 4 representative — and demand he vote NO on SB360. Then contact your state senator and tell them the same. SB360 has cleared the committee and is headed for a full vote in both chambers. Your voice matters now.
I’m running for State House District 4 to build an Alabama we can afford — because the people of Morgan, Limestone, and Madison counties need a representative whose first instinct is to protect them, not to protect the powerful. Economy first. People first. Constitution first.
Hanu Karlapalem is the Democratic nominee for Alabama State House District 4, a Madison resident for 26 years, small technology business owner, UAH graduate, Life Member and former Second Vice President of the Limestone County NAACP.
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