Sierra Club Fights Back Against Southern Company Fossil Fuel Buildout in Alabama

MONTGOMERY, AL -- On Monday, the Sierra Club asked the Alabama Public Service Commission (PSC) to reconsider a billion-dollar Southern Company fracked gas proposal, citing secret negotiations that the company and its subsidiary Alabama Power kept from the Commission and other parties. Sierra Club’s filing also raised a First Amendment claim against the PSC’s “media coverage plan,” which prevented public communication about the contested issues in this case.

Earlier this year, the PSC voted unanimously to approve Alabama Power’s billion-dollar expansion of dirty, gas-burning power plants, and to pass all of the costs onto its customers. The Sierra Club participated in the hearing over the gas proposal. However, it was later revealed that Southern Company and Alabama Power concealed their ongoing negotiations to form the Southeast Energy Exchange Market, a market that could very well address Alabama Power’s alleged needs at a lower cost than its billion-dollar proposal. The Companies’ concealment of their SEEM negotiations from the Commission and the other parties was a legal due process violation. Legal due process was likewise undermined by the Commission’s decision to approve Alabama Power’s gas proposal based on documents related to the COVID crisis’ effect on electricity demand that only Alabama Power has been privy to.

This case was also subject to the PSC’s “media coverage plan” - which imposes restrictive rules on press as well as the public. It requires five days' prior consent for any recording of hearings, but also grants the PSC the power to rescind consent for recording at any time, and for any reason. Additionally, the policy mandates that the PSC revoke licenses provided to persons or media outlets upon the request of any party, attorney or witness, giving broad power to special interests. These restrictions violate the state’s Open Meetings Act and the U.S. Constitution's protections for free speech, and are wildly out of step during a time when live streaming and online meetings for Public Service Commissions have become the nationwide norm.

Stephen Stetson, senior campaign representative for the Beyond Coal Campaign in Alabama, issued the following statement: 

“Yet again, we find Alabama Power recklessly gambling with our money behind closed doors. The Alabama PSC, rather than listening to the mountains of evidence we presented, rubber stamped Southern Company’s agenda, pushing a bad idea through a broken process. We will be stuck with the tab for an unnecessary fossil fuel plant and at least four decades of its pollution. Across the country we are experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis due to COVID-19 that is leaving families with bills they already can’t pay, the last thing we need is to pay even higher bills during such a precarious time.”