Alabama Environmental Council hosts energy forum with national speakers

Alabama Environmental Council hosts energy forum with
national speakers

The Alabama Environmental Council hosted its POWER-UP energy forum at the Birmingham Public Library on
Thursday. (Alex Walsh | Alabama Media Group)

By Alex Walsh | awalsh@al.com

on December 12, 2013 at 10:19 AM, updated December 12, 2013 at 2:20 PM

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Dozens of Alabamians met at the Birmingham Public Library on Thursday morning
to continue the statewide conversation about energy, efficiency, and power bills.

That conversation gained added attention earlier in the week, when the Alabama Public Service
Commission made environmental compliance costs a key item on its public hearing agenda.

At Thursday's meeting, the Alabama Environmental Council assembled a panel of regional and national
experts to talk about energy efficiency in Alabama, and how it compares to other states.

Max Neubauer, speaking on behalf of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, noted that
Alabama power consumers in the aggregate see little savings from energy efficiency, partly due to a lack of
access to utility-run energy efficiency programs. In a dozen states, more than 1 percent of all net power
sales are recovered through efficiency programs, the ACEEE estimates. Alabama recovers about 0.08
percent of its net power sales through efficiency, the same study says.

The ACEEE also says that energy spending is high in the southeast, relative to incomes. It estimates that the
median household by income in Alabama spends 4.8 percent of its income on electricity.

Ken Smith, a consultant with the Energy Foundation, and Marylin Brown, a faculty member at Georgia Tech,
talked about long-term energy planning -- the process of writing such a plan is usually referred to as
integrated resource planning, or IRP.

Prior to this week's PSC meeting, a spokesperson for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy charged that
Alabama's planning process lacked public input. "We're very concerned that there is not a real public process
for exploring alternatives," spokesperson Amelia Shenstone said.

That stance was refuted by Alabama Power spokesman Michael Sznajderman in an email to AL.com. "We do have to justify our capital expenditures, in great detail, to the Public Service Commission," Sznajderman wrote. "We also outline in a public filing these capital expenditures, including projections for the next five years."

More information about the Alabama Environmental Council's energy forum is available here.

Comments from the ACEEE were clarified at 2:20 p.m.