Steam rises from Alabama Power’s James H. Miller Jr. coal plant in West Jefferson, Ala. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Environmental advocates are turning to the courts to get access to fuel cost negotiations between the Alabama Public Service Commission and the state’s largest electricity provider, Alabama Power.
Energy Alabama, a nonprofit clean energy advocacy organization, has filed an appeal with the Montgomery County Circuit Court after the Public Service Commission twice rejected its motions to intervene in the docket that determines how much Alabama Power customers pay for fuel.
The legal argument centers around the definition of the word “proceeding.”
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Alabama law allows anyone impacted by the decisions of the commission to intervene in “any proceeding” of the state’s elected utility regulator.
But the elected board has twice rejected attempts by Energy Alabama to intervene in the fuel cost docket, arguing that adjusting the rate customers pay for fuel did not “establish a proceeding as that term is used in [the Alabama code].”
Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama, said the process prevents the public from having any involvement or influence in how the commission sets fuel rates that show up on customers’ bills.
“The commission repeatedly adjusts Alabama Power’s fuel prices without allowing any public involvement,” Tait said in a news release. “In other states, advocates can meaningfully participate in fuel cost proceedings and have successfully advocated for reduced rates. We can’t fight for lower rates in Alabama if we don’t have a seat at the table.”
By the commission’s definition, there hasn’t been an official proceeding on fuel cost rates since 2008. The Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents Energy Alabama, said the fuel rate has been adjusted 18 times since then, with no mechanism for public participation.
“Alabamians pay some of the highest energy bills in the nation, and those bills include the cost for fuel,” Christina Tidwell, a senior attorney in SELC’s Alabama office, said in a news release. “Instead of allowing Alabama Power customers and interested parties to participate in the decision-making process, the commission is shutting them out.”
In Alabama, rather than holding formal hearings to determine how much electricity customers pay for fuel costs, the utility submits monthly reports to the commission reporting its use of coal, natural gas and nuclear material. The commission then adjusts the fuel rate up or down depending on how much the utility has spent and collected for fuel.
Alabama Power does not earn a profit from money spent on fuel, as it does from other portions of the bill.
Consumer advocates often criticize the commission for a lack of transparency and accountability in keeping the utility in check. Alabama has the highest residential electric rates in the Southeast, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The appeal was filed Tuesday night.
A commission spokesman told Inside Climate News earlier this week that the commission “does not comment on matters that are, or could be, subject to litigation.”
Tidwell said the commission should comply with the provisions in Alabama law guaranteeing the right to public participation.
“These rules have been on the books for decades,” Tidwell said. “The commission needs to start abiding by them.”
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