The Alabama Ethics Commission today deadlocked on whether a member of the Public Service Commission could lease land to a solar energy company that plans to sell electricity to Alabama Power Company.

Commissioner Chip Beeker sought the advisory opinion on whether he could lease 451 acres he owns in Greene County to a company called Coronal Development Group.

The lease would pay $500 per acre, per year over 25 years, which would total $225,500 a year and $5.6 million over 25 years.

The offer came as part of Coronal Development Group's efforts to lease land suitable for solar development in response to a request for proposals that Alabama Power Company is expected to issue this month.

The PSC regulates Alabama Power Company.

The staff of the Ethics Commission recommended that the commission adopt an opinion saying that Beeker could not enter the lease agreement.

At today's meeting, Commissioners Charles Price and James Jerry Wood voted in favor of adopting that opinion, while Commission Chair Jerry Fielding and Vice Chair Frank "Butch" Ellis voted against it.

Commissioner Stewart Hill Tankersley was not at today's meeting.

Coronal Development Group has entered lease agreements with nine other landowners in Alabama, the company said in an email to the Ethics Commission.

James Anderson, Beeker's attorney, said Coronal Development Group did not know that Beeker was on the PSC when it approached him with the lease offer.

Anderson said Beeker's land was attractive for the project because it is pasture land and near a power transmission line.

Beeker, 68, has raised cattle, and the land has been in his family for generations, Anderson said.

Still, the Ethics Commission staff recommended that the commission not approve the lease.

Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton said the commission does not release copies of draft opinions that are not approved by the commission.

But he provided AL.com with information that the staff relied on in making its recommendation.

The state ethics law prohibits public officials, like Beeker, from having business interests that are a conflict of interest and from using or allowing others to use their offices for personal gain.

Also, members of regulatory bodies, like the PSC, are prohibited from accepting a thing of value from a business they regulate.

The PSC does not regulate Coronal Development Group.

But Albritton said that because Coronal Development Group planned to make a proposal to Alabama Power, the commission staff could not conclude that the lease would not be a conflict of interest for Beeker, as a regulator of Alabama Power.

"Coronal intends to offer a package of leases to a utility the PSC regulates which will include a proposal to buy the electricity generated on land which a member of the PSC owns," Albritton wrote in an email. "This is the lease's value to Coronal. The lease itself contemplates that action. The RFP has not occurred at this point, but we could not conclude that Mr. Beeker's public position is irrelevant to Coronal, nor could we conclude that the lease would not present a conflict between Mr. Beeker's private interests and official responsibilities if executed."

Albritton said no previous Ethics Commission advisory opinions were directly on point with Beeker's question.

"But the Commission has held that business relationships with entities that intend to do business with entities the public official regulates create conflicts of interest," Albritton wrote.

Albritton said that if Beeker signed the lease agreement, Beeker understood that he would have to abstain from any PSC decisions involving any agreement between Coronal Development Group and Alabama Power.

Coronal Development Group has entered other agreements with firms owned by Southern Company, which owns Alabama Power.

Beeker declined comment on the matter, referring questions to Anderson.