Two Republican candidates for a statewide seat that regulates utilities across Alabama are headed to a runoff election, with one contender pressing to put the storage of millions of tons of coal ash beside the Mobile River under closer scrutiny.
Incumbent Public Service Commissioner Chip Beeker and challenger Robert McCollum of Dadeville will face off on June 21 for the Republican nomination for the PSC’s Place 2 seat. The three-member Public Service Commission oversees essential utility services statewide, including electricity, telecommunications and water rates.
Beeker, who has held the seat since 2014 and previously served as a Greene County commissioner, led the May 25 Republican primary with 43 percent of the vote. McCollum finished second with 35 percent, edging out a third candidate, Robin Litaker, who took 21 percent and was eliminated from contention. No Democrats qualified for the race, meaning the winner of the runoff will fill the seat.
Campaign finance filings show a lopsided financial battle heading into the runoff. Beeker has raised nearly $270,000 since the start of the year, a total boosted by a $100,000 loan from his own business, Beeker Catfish & Cattle Farm in Eutaw. Political action committees have contributed another $112,450 to his campaign, with the Alabama Development PAC, Farm PAC and T-Town PAC II among the largest donors. Beeker also received a $25,000 individual donation from Jayne Colgrove of Boligee, an incorporating officer for REM Directional Drilling, a company with a history of gas pipeline work in Alabama.
McCollum, by contrast, has raised about $19,300, with $15,000 of that coming in after he advanced to the runoff. He has not received any PAC funding so far. McCollum, a California native who has lived in Tallapoosa County and built a background in construction and small business, said he sold three of his business ventures to help fund his run for office.
On policy, Beeker has emphasized what he calls a track record of keeping Alabama’s energy costs in line with the national average while resisting federal environmental mandates. He pointed to solar initiatives the commission has approved for large retailers and military installations during his tenure, and said residents should be free to add solar panels to their homes as long as they can fall back on the grid when their systems lack storage capacity.
“My top priority will be fighting liberal policies coming out of Washington like the Green New Deal that will hurt our economy and kill jobs in Alabama,” Beeker said.
Asked specifically about coal ash storage, Beeker characterized the matter as one for federal regulators to resolve, saying the commission would keep pushing for affordable and reliable power for Alabama regardless of federal pressure.
McCollum has staked much of his campaign on the argument that the commission has grown too cozy with utilities and special interests at the expense of ratepayers. He has proposed ending the practice of diverting surplus utility taxes into the state’s general fund, calling it a hidden tax that lawmakers use as a slush fund, and has pledged to push for eliminating a state solar tax while working to lower energy bills by 4 percent in his first term. Alabama routinely ranks among the states with the highest average residential energy costs, a distinction federal data attributes in part to heavy air conditioning use during long, humid summers.
McCollum has also focused attention on a specific South Alabama concern: Alabama Power’s plan to permanently cap in place more than 21 million tons of coal ash stored in a retention pond beside the Mobile River at Plant Barry, north of Mobile. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management has already fined the utility after the pond was found to be leaching heavy metals into nearby waters, and environmental advocates have long warned that a breach of the containment levee could send millions of tons of ash spilling into the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, one of the most ecologically significant river systems in the country.
“The first hurricane that hits that area head-on is going to be one of the biggest disasters we’ve ever seen,” McCollum said, arguing the commission should be pushing Alabama Power harder on how it manages the site.
The Mobile-Tensaw Delta, sometimes called America’s Amazon for its biodiversity, drains much of the state’s river system into Mobile Bay and supports fisheries, wildlife habitat and recreation relied upon across South Alabama. Coal ash contains contaminants such as arsenic, mercury and lead, and environmental groups have pressed utilities across the Southeast in recent years to excavate ash ponds near waterways rather than leave the material in place.
With early and absentee voting already underway ahead of the June 21 runoff, the outcome will determine who represents Alabama consumers on the commission that sets the rules governing Alabama Power and other utilities serving homes and businesses throughout Mobile County and the rest of the state.