Zeigler Wins Alabama Utility Regulator Primary, Ousting Beeker
Jim Zeigler, 78, won the Republican primary for an Alabama Public Service Commission seat, defeating incumbent Chris Beeker, according to Inside Climate News. Beeker had held a 5 to 1 campaign finance advantage going into the race.
Zeigler is returning to a body he once knew. He held a commission seat for a single term running from 1975 to 1979. Republicans have held the panel without interruption for years, and the last Democrat elected to it took a seat in 2008.
The primary comes during a structural overhaul of Alabama's utility regulator. The Alabama Legislature passed a law this year that grows the commission from three seats to seven and creates a secretary of energy to hold consolidated regulatory power.
In November, Zeigler will face Democrat Sheila McNeil.
The campaign ran with little public information available on large-load growth in the state. Both Alabama Power and the Alabama Public Service Commission turned down requests from Inside Climate News for a list of data centers operating, proposed, or under construction in Alabama.
How costs tied to those large new loads get allocated will run through the reshaped commission and the new secretary of energy. The seven-seat body will fill out over successive election cycles, with the November contest the next vote to settle.
Source: insideclimatenews.org (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink