The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
The Alabama Statehouse
February 16, 2026 – MONTGOMERY, Ala. – This was an uneventful very dull legislative session where most legislators looked forward to passing the budgets and going home to campaign ...... until the Alabama Power Company conspired with the legislative leadership of both political parties and Governor Kay Ivey (R) to strip Alabama voters of their right to select their own Public Service Commissioners – a right Alabama voters have held since 1913. Thursday, February 12 was the day that the Legislature went into the political equivalent of a nuclear meltdown over this legislation.
House Bill 392 (HB392) is sponsored by State Representative Chip Brown (R-Hollinger's Island) and Senate Bill 268 (SB268) is sponsored by state Senator Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) – the Senate Minority Leader.
The public was not paying much attention to this session and then the debacle that was the public hearing for this bill happened.
It cleared committee on Tuesday; but infuriated any voter that watched the proceedings online. Soon members were getting phone calls from mad voters accusing them of taking their rights away. In a state where people have (literally) died to get voting rights the public takes any infringement on their right to vote very seriously.
Governor Ivey released a statement supportive of the legislation; but that only gave this legislation more publicity. It is really hard to explain to voters why their great great grandparents in World War I could be trusted to vote for their Public Service Commissioners; but they are somehow less competent to do so.
On Wednesday, one state House member told the Alabama Gazette of the calls he was getting: "They don't even know the names of the public service commission members."
Both the House and Senate versions of the bill were shelved. First the Senators met and quickly determined that even members who had cosponsored the bill weren't going to be voting for it so they decided to not move on it. That unexpected move by the Senate led the House of Representatives members to carry over the legislation. One House members told the Gazette that they "had no choice after the Senate did what they did."
The House Republican Caucus met immediately on adjournment.
House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen (R-Hartselle) announced to the group that he would be stepping away from his duties as majority leader to focus on his campaign to be the next Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. It also conveniently allowed him to step back from the effort by Alabama Power and Governor Ivey's office to pass the bill to strip voters of their PSC voting rights. He will resume his duties once the state executive committee decides who the ALGOP Chairman will be.
Some members thought that Stadthagen should be removed from leadership permanently and somebody else take over his leadership duties moving forward.
Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) went completely berserk at the closed door meeting at Stadthagen.
"I don't give a s**t about the Alabama Republican Party," Ledbetter said in a rant that has made waves across the state.
Normally these meetings are closed door and members (supposedly) can say whatever is on their mind without it being used against him; but apparently there is no honor among thieves or Alabama Republican Legislators; because not only did members of the caucus leak what happened in the room some members were recording the proceedings so they would have tapes of the event – including Speaker Ledbetter's unfortunate comments about the party he is a member of.
One of those recording then found its way to Caleb Taylor at 1819 News:.
Critics of the bill had tried to connect the motivation for the bill with the Alabama Power Company. People in the know knew that Alabama feared some of the people who were running for Public Service Commissioner and they were the master puppeteers behind this legislation.
Any suggestion that Alabama Power Company was calling the shots here was vigorously denied; until they were confirmed by the Alabama Power Company itself.
R.B. Walker serves as Director of State & Federal Governmental Affairs at Alabama Power Company, where he represents the company before the Alabama Legislature, the Governor's Office, and state agencies. His work includes strategic lobbying, policy development, and legislative advocacy.
Apparently, R.B. (like Speaker Ledbetter) either was unaware that phone conversations can be recorded and that those recordings can and will be used against him in the court of public opinion. That or they are so naive that they believe that people they know won't betray them whenever it suits their political interests.
Thursday morning a private conversation between Walker and an Energy Alabmaa staffer named John Dodd, who is a staff member at Energy Alabama. Of course the call was recorded and released to the press. One copy of that tape was shared with Dr. Bill Chitwood at Alpolitics.com.
https://alpolitics.com/breaking-alabama-power-energy-alabama-phone-call-surfaces/
Energy Alabama is a left-leaning nonprofit group that is pushing clean (in the real world that means more costly) energy.
"A Politicized Public Service Commission isn't good for really anybody," claimed Wailker. "And I know y'all are probably going to be involved in that election and stuff like that, so we're not going to try to mess with that election. But, you know, just moving forward after that, you know, the thought was, you know, a different, a different way of getting PSE commissioners and so, so, you know, it's not something I can be anywhere near. You know, it's, I mean, well, we're fine with the way it is now. But, you know, somebody brought that up as an option. And so I took it to Neil (Rafferty – D-Birmingham), and also mentioned it to Bradley Davidson, just because he and I had had the same conversation. But you know, if that was going to work, it would need to be. So I was just, I was trying to give Neal a win, you know, I got you. And I think that Neil's thought was, you know, he would want y'all support for it, which I agree with, you know. I mean, y'all are very important to Neil and his district and stuff like that. So, you know, my thought was, let's, you know, let's, let y'all have a win. You know, it was kind of how I was thinking about it, you know. And, you know, it just kind of, you know, we all could say bad stuff about us, and we could say bad stuff about y'all in the press, but, you know, but that, you know, this might be in the best long term interest of customers, which is probably the only thing that we can agree on, you know. And just kind of leave it at that."
"If there's a way that could we, there could be better people on the PSC that would allow us to do long range planning, even?" said Walker. "I would be open with working with y'all on that too, John. I mean, you, I mean, I've known you for a while, and you know, I think you're an honest guy. I'll just, I'll just, I'll just lay it down."
Walker made it pretty clear here that Alabama Power Company was the ones moving the PSC bill all along.
"I was hoping that this would be an idea that came from Neil to y'all, and we would just shut up about it and just kind of, we can grumble about it behind the scenes," said Walker. "Y'all can take a victory lap and you know, but since other people know about it, it's a situation I need to get in front of. So, I mean, why don't, why don't we do this? Why don't we let, let Neil do whatever he wants to do. He told me he's gonna meet with you. He knows I'm talking to you, and he, you know, he y'all are very important to him, and so I don't want to do anything that gets Neil in any trouble. But why don't we let Neil introduce his bill, and then we let him issue a statement, and we can, we can tell, we'll tell, I'll tell my people we're opposed to the bill. You know, if that helps y'all, or I can just say, I mean, right now our posture on anything, anything having to do with the PSE, we're going to be neutral on."
Walker made it clear that he wanted to keep Alabama Power's fingerprints off of this bill so that the public did not know they were the ones that dreamed up this legislation.
"I just don't want, you know, people going on Twitter saying the power company is trying to, that's exactly what I was trying to avoid," said Walker. "I was trying to do the right thing by talking to my friend Neil. And, you know, I mentioned it to Bradley, too..." "Look, if you get a call from a legislator, you know, most people are going to assume that we're opposed to that. And, you know, in the past, we might have been, John, but my message to Neil and Bradley was both, if that idea comes up, you know, we're, I'm not going to do anything on it."
Even though the PSC members would be appointed, Walker expressed concerns about Tommy Tuberville – who in all likelihood will be the next governor.
"We would want it to be Senate confirmed, so that, because, you know, we're not close to Tommy Tuberville either," said Walker.
The bill was modified in committee so that the legislature present a list of names to the governor that he had to pick the PSC commissioners from – severely limiting the independence of the Governor.
"I was about to say, the Governor is a little scary," said Dodd.
"None of us have that. But if it's Senate confirmable, then that gives guys like Bobby Singleton (who is carrying this bill for APC in the Senate) and Marika (Coleman), Kirk Hatcher and people like that way more of a say in who the commissioners are,"
At this point, Walker appears to be operating without the knowledge or consent of his corporate bosses at the Southern Company.
Dodd asked, "One last question, too, would this like, what's the precedent around Southern Company utilities doing something like this? Because Mississippi and Georgia doesn't."
"Yeah, all of ours are elected. So I don't know how Southern Company would feel about this," answered Walker. "Just you and me talking, I really don't care."
A state representative after reading this conversation told the Gazette off the record:
"R.B. Walker lied to us, We want his head on a plate. I expect there will be a release this week announcing that they are making a leadership change."
Rep. Neil Rafferty – who along with Walker – appears to be the brains behind this legislation did not introduce it in the House. That was Chip Brown (R-Hollinger's Island).
Brown is acting Majority Leader while Stadthagen campaigns for Republican Party Chairman.
One state Senator told the Gazette, "This bill won't come back. It's dead."
Rep. Mack Butler (R-Rainbow City) said, "I was against this from the beginning I would like to believe this is dead, but I can't be sure."
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