Alabama Power Company customers will see a reduction in their bills because of the federal income tax cut approved by Congress last year, the Public Service Commission announced at its monthly meeting today.

The reduction in 2018 will be for $257 million, about a 9 percent cut, the PSC said.

The cut requires no action by the PSC, which regulates Alabama Power.

The reduction takes effect in July and continues through December.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law in December, reduced the federal corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent effective Jan. 1, 2018.

The three commissioners, all Republicans, said it was good to see consumers benefit from the tax cuts promoted and signed into law by President Trump.

"This is a great day for Alabama consumers and taxpayers," Commission President Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh said.

The commission approved two requests from Alabama Power related to the income tax cut.

One would allow the company to apply up to $30 million of excess federal deferred income taxes this year to Energy Cost Recovery, a factor in rate-setting.

The other request from Alabama Power was to make several changes to the PSC's method of setting rates, called Rate Stabilization and Equalization, or RSE. The PSC said the changes would enable Alabama Power "to mitigate the credit quality impacts" resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and preserve rate stability for customers. The changes would allow Alabama Power to increase the equity share of its capital investment, the PSC said.

In conjunction with that second request, Alabama Power committed to no increases in its base rates through 2020 and to credit customers $50 million next year, the PSC said.

The commission approved the two requests from Alabama Power today after rejecting a request to delay the vote and hold a public hearing.

The request for a hearing came from Joyce Lanning of Birmingham, who regularly attends PSC meetings and has been a critic of what she calls a lack of transparency in the commission's regulation of Alabama Power. Lanning, who put her request in writing, said there was no way to know whether the proposed changes would be beneficial to consumers unless more information about the calculations and the decision was made public at a hearing.

Lanning did not attend today's meeting.

Energy Alabama, a nonprofit organization that promotes a transition to "sustainable energy" policies, including solar, wind, battery storage and energy efficiency, echoed Lanning's request for a delay in the vote and a hearing.

John Garner, administrative law judge for the PSC, recommended at today's meeting that the commissioners deny the request for a public hearing and vote on the Alabama Power requests.

"While the full effects of all the matters under consideration won't be actually known until two years or more down the road, the staff has generally concluded that barring unforeseen circumstances, the matters recommended for approval today should in the long-term result in a lower cost of capital for Alabama Power and therefore will be beneficial to the customers and the company," Garner said.

Cavanaugh, who is running for lieutenant governor, said the request for a delay in the vote and for a public hearing was based on opposition to Trump administration policies.

"It amazes me that this anti-Trump mode over the whole country right now is still continuing to want to put a cog in the progress of returning funds to the people of this state. And we're just not going to stand for it here," Cavanaugh said.

Daniel Tait, technical director of Energy Alabama, disputed Cavanaugh's characterization of the request for a hearing.

"It's completely disingenuous and it's just a deflection from the core issue," Tait said. "We want to make sure this money goes back where it belongs, to the ratepayers. We want to make sure the absolute most benefit goes back to customers, because it's their money."

This story was updated at 1:28 p.m. with additional information and quotes.