opinion

PSC operating with impunity

The Alabama Public Service Commission smugly congratulated itself this month for a minuscule rebate Alabama Power customers will receive on electric bills.

As the Montgomery Advertiser’s Brian Lyman reported, the new rates will save a typical residential customer an average of $5 over the year, or about 1.3 cents a day.

That’ll just about cover a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. Or five rides for a senior citizen on a Montgomery Area Transit System bus.

Every little bit does help, but the crowing from the PSC is the kind of blarney that tells the public how out-of-touch state officials can be.

Especially since the slightly lower rates are a return of part of $146.5 million in money that was over-collected, due to cheaper-than expected fuel costs.

Alabama Power piled on, saying the decrease wasn’t larger because of regulatory costs for environmental and other protections.

Which sounds disingenuous when one notes state law essentially guarantees Alabama Power a profit, as it allows them to recover costs, including the costs to finance business.

Not bad, considering most businesses suffered from a deep recession during those years.

It’s true environmental regulations come at a hefty price. Alabama Power says it has spent $3.6 billion to date to cut emissions of pollutants to comply with Environmental Protection Agency rules.

Compliance costs for 2016 to 2020 are estimated at $895 million, including for new EPA carbon emission restrictions, plus $263 million to close dangerous ponds used to store coal ash.

Power customers ultimately bear those expenses, but they are justified by the enormous benefits that result – health-wise and for Alabama’s natural resources.

Emissions of mercury and sulfur dioxide from coal- and oil-burning electric plants, for instance, are linked to serious health impacts, from respiratory illnesses to heart attacks and nervous system damage in children.

Commendably, Alabama Power is using new technology and the closure or conversion of some coal-fired units to help meet tough emission restrictions.

But when it comes to the PSC’s claims of helping the utility’s customers keep more money in their pockets, we say “not so fast.” And not just because Alabama residents pay some of the highest prices for electricity in the South.

The commission is charged with fairly balancing the interests of consumers with the need for reliable, safe services from utilities.

Too often, however, it rubber stamps rate increase requests, operating with impunity in the dark.

A 2015 study from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found the PSC stonewalls the rate-paying public and governmental watchdog organizations with closed-door hearings and other secretive dealings.

State lawmakers should stand up for their constituents by demanding greater transparency at the PSC.

Open books and public hearings are the only way to assure Alabama residents they’re not being hoodwinked to benefit powerful utilities.