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I'm not saying Alabama Power is lying.

I'm just saying its mouthpieces are moving.

So when the company tells you electric rates simply have to go up $7 a month in January - thanks Obama - go ahead and believe it. When it says you're lucky it's not more, just nod your head.

It's not like you have a choice. Let's face it, the deal is done. As done as Terry Dunn.

Alabama Power Co. filed papers with the Alabama Public Service Commission on Dec. 1, arguing that it now costs more money to make money, so it deserves a rate increase to improve profit margins. And maybe it does.

The problem is the PSC - which was set up in ancient times to make sure utility rates are fair to both the utilities and the people of Alabama - was so quick to rubber stamp the increase that it didn't pretend to question anything the company said.

PSC President fulfills her promises. But to who? (Bob Gathany / bgathany@al.com)

PSC President Twinkle Cavanaugh didn't even wait for public comment on the proposed increase before she began to defend it. So the few poor saps who will show up in Montgomery today to talk about how rates affect Alabamians know from the get-go they'll be talking to the hand.

Talk all you want. Nobody's listening.

They're so cute, those squeaky little activists. They come to the regulators on behalf of old people or clean rivers, and they still somehow remain idealistic enough to believe Alabamians would be upset if they knew Alabama Power didn't have to prove that outside forces - and not its own decisions to stick too long with old ways - caused its profit margins to shrink.

They just don't know the rules.

Alabama Power says it. The PSC buys it. You will pay for it.

It is the same kind of world in which no-new-taxes Gov. Robert Bentley can support an idea that will make you pay more taxes by saying ending deductions for federal income tax is not a tax increase.

Or when Cavanaugh and fellow commissioner Jeremy Oden argued last year that hard work by the PSC resulted in a new way to figure Alabama Power's bills that would save Alabamians buckets full of money. Of course the complicated new structure prevents us from comparing Alabama's rates - which have been criticized as some of the highest in the country - to other utilities.

But that's OK. Because Cavanaugh said at the time it would save Alabamians up to $110 a year in electricity bills - or more even than this current increase is going to cost.

It was then-commissioner Terry Dunn of all people, the guy who was targeted and defeated as a whacko just for suggesting a formal rate review would have better served Alabamians, who warned that power rates would rise.

Now Alabama Power says it needs the rate increase because federal regulations increase the costs of doing business. It has pointed to repairs at coal plants as one of the culprits, even though less than a third of the added costs are from upgrades to coal fired power plants.

I suppose it had to come to this.

All three current members of the PSC campaigned on the premise that Barack Obama and his EPA are out to kill coal and wreak havoc on Alabama electric bills. All three promised to protect Alabama consumers from the nasty EPA.

Turns out they protect us by rubber-stamping rate increases without transparency or accountability.

I'm not saying either one of them is lying. I'm saying they're lying in the same bed.