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Friday, I took my lawsuit against the three Alabama Public Service Commissioners to the Alabama Supreme Court. This is a bit of a long thread, but if you care about energy in America, and/or governance in Alabama, it’s worth your time.
Alabama has a three-person commission called the Public Service Commission. They set the price we pay for gas and electricity from investor-owned utilities. Namely, Alabama Power. Alabama Power is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southern Company.
What is the lawsuit? In November, after I had declared my candidacy for President of the PSC, the PSC ejected me for recording a public rate hearing. As a “condition” of letting me return to the hearing the PSC CONFISCATED MY PHONE for the rest of the hearing.
What was the hearing? The hearing was a public rate hearing on the tax Alabama Power charges solar panel users that has blocked residential solar from most of the state.
The hearing was packed.
People in Alabama want and deserve solar energy.
People in Alabama want and deserve solar energy jobs.
People in Alabama want and deserve solar energy.
People in Alabama want and deserve solar energy jobs.
We should have the same right to solar power as everybody else in America.
But Alabama Power disagrees.
So do their commissioners on the Alabama PSC.
But Alabama Power disagrees.
So do their commissioners on the Alabama PSC.
What happened that day? About forty minutes in, as Alabama Power was failing to provide a basis for the punitive solar tax besides lost profits, the PSC suddenly declared that NOBODY could record the proceedings and that all of us in attendance needed to “shut it down.”
I continued to record.
So too did Kari Powell, former candidate for the Public Service Commission.
Because this is America.
And the law in Alabama VERY clearly gives us the right to record our public officials in action.
Our refusal to roll over did not go well with them.
So too did Kari Powell, former candidate for the Public Service Commission.
Because this is America.
And the law in Alabama VERY clearly gives us the right to record our public officials in action.
Our refusal to roll over did not go well with them.
Our duly-elected Public Service Commissioners then did what any public official panicking over transparency would do next.
THE COMMISSIONERS USED LAW ENFORCEMENT TO REMOVE US FROM THE HEARING AND SEIZE OUR CELL PHONES.
They never claimed we were a disturbance, they could not tell anybody present what law they were authorized to remove us under. They just claimed that NOBODY outside that hearing room had a right to see what was going on and they were going to make sure of it.
Here is the transcript from that day, pages 43, 48 and 122 (ejecting a third individual for recording).
https://www.pscpublicaccess.alabama.gov/pscpublicaccess/PSC/PSCDocumentDetailsPage.aspx?DocumentId=dec01995-5aa9-4f61-8b40-1aecaa2eddc1&Class=Filing
https://www.pscpublicaccess.alabama.gov/pscpublicaccess/PSC/PSCDocumentDetailsPage.aspx?DocumentId=dec01995-5aa9-4f61-8b40-1aecaa2eddc1&Class=Filing
Here is an article on what transpired, courtesy of Kyle Whitmire, @WarOnDumb, of the Alabama Media Group. https://www.al.com/news/2019/11/trampling-on-sunshine-the-public-service-commission-wont-be-live-streamed.html
But laws matter. This is your money, these are your elected officials. And the Alabama Open Meetings Act unequivocally gives ANY PERSON the right to record a public meeting. AL Code § 36-25A-6.
So I sued. And … I lost. https://www.al.com/news/2019/12/the-alabama-psc-kicked-her-out-for-live-streaming-now-shes-suing.html
You see, at the beginning of that packed solar tax hearing, the three Commissioners announced that they were just going to sit through this very public, very important, very consequential hearing quiet as can be.
The Commissioners announced that they—the ones the people of Alabama elect to represent us—were not going to ask any questions, say a word, or utter a peep. They were just going to sit there and smile through the whole thing.
THAT WORKED AT THE TRIAL.
The judge decided that no way could this very public rate hearing be a “meeting” if the commissioners just sat there in silence. So the judge agreed with them and decided I had no right to record them.
But watching your Commissioners do nothing as they hand out your money is something you very much have the right to see.
And by “we”, I mean Chris Christie, @Christie4AL, former candidate for AL Attorney General. All gratitude to Chris Christie for stepping forward to enforce the laws of the state when everybody else looked away awkwardly rather than confront the Alabama Power puppet show.
Puppet show? Wait, that’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?
No. Because this is what happened AFTER we filed the appeal:
The PSC took it upon themselves to just adopt new rules *exempting* themselves from the Alabama Open Meetings Act.
Exempting themselves from the LAW OF ALABAMA.
No. Because this is what happened AFTER we filed the appeal:
The PSC took it upon themselves to just adopt new rules *exempting* themselves from the Alabama Open Meetings Act.
Exempting themselves from the LAW OF ALABAMA.
The new rules give . . . guess who . . . ALABAMA POWER . . . total control over who gets to record the PUBLIC rate hearings and who does not. Not the legislature—the branch of government that makes the laws and did in fact enact a law that applies—but Alabama Power.
Learn more about the brazenness of this here, courtesy of @maryscotthodgin at Birmingham Public Radio, @WBHM: https://wbhm.org/feature/2020/can-alabamas-public-service-commission-ban-recording/?fbclid=IwAR0oXXjjORFfWNL3dFsdsMK8Md5zDS1OsuFB9hUxF4SFn7qlltH7vfmJSHI
