A Twinkle in Trump’s Eye: A Shakeup at Alabama’s Top Utility Regulator

MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Twinkle Cavanaugh, longtime president of the state’s top utility regulator, will begin working within days for the Trump administration as the state director for rural development in Alabama. 

Cavanaugh will leave the Public Service Commission on June 1. Her move was announced by the federal Department of Agriculture among other appointees earlier this week. 

The Trump team welcomed Cavanaugh, in its official release, as a seasoned administrator and, notably, a vote getter. Cavanaugh was first elected statewide in 2010, and in 2020, “she received the most votes in Alabama history for a non-presidential candidate,” the agriculture department release said. She was first elected to the presidency of the PSC in 2012.

Cavanaugh took to social media to promote her tenure as in lockstep with the Trump agenda, both in tone and action. Among her achievements, she said, was an expansion of the state’s fossil fuel infrastructure and fighting “misguided liberal mandates.” 

“Together, we brought natural gas to poultry farmers in east Alabama, helping to sustain the agriculture industry which feeds our families,” Cavanaugh wrote in a statement. “We fought the misguided liberal mandates and burdensome energy policies pushed by both the Obama and Biden Administrations, protecting Alabamians from the devastating fiscal consequences of the far-left Green New Deal agenda.”

Cavanaugh’s 13-year tenure at the utility commission included repeated electricity rate increases for Alabama Power customers. Alabama Power services 1.4 million customers in the southern and central part of the state and is one of four U.S. utilities operated by Southern Company. All increases for Alabama Power were enacted without formal rate hearings. Alabama does not provide for such hearings–which require testimony under oath– and which are the norm in other states.

Alabama Power operates as an effective monopoly in its service area and is widely viewed as one of the most powerful political players in the state. 

Early in her tenure, when a Republican colleague on the commission called for formal rate hearings for monopoly utilities, Cavanaugh swiftly objected, describing the request as akin to joining “Obama’s war on coal.”

A year later, Cavanaugh urged people in Alabama to pray for God’s intervention to thwart federal regulations of coal-fired power plants. 

“I hope all the citizens of Alabama will be in prayer that the right thing will be done,” she said about Environental Protection Agency rules to limit carbon emissions. 

Alabama Republicans were effusive about Cavanaugh’s new position. 

“I am grateful to President Trump and [Agriculture] Secretary [Brooke] Rollins for these tremendous appointments,” Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said in a statement about Cavanaugh’s new role and an appointment earlier in the month of Monica Carroll as the state’s Farm Service Agency executive director. “Both Twinkle and Monica are outstanding champions for Alabama’s family farmers and rural communities.”

This week, Tabitha Isner, vice chair of the Alabama Democratic Party, reacted to Cavanaugh’s move with a social media post that questioned the commissioner’s integrity.

Cavanaugh’s repeated approvals of Alabama Power rate increases during her time on the commission harmed Alabamians, Isner said in an interview. 

“The job of the Public Service Commission is to serve the public, not serve the profits of the power companies,” she said. “And Cavanaugh and the commission have sided with corporations on every vote they’ve taken.”

It’s impossible to live in the modern world without access to electricity, which makes it even more pivotal that utilities like Alabama Power are zealously regulated to protect consumers, Isner said. That’s true for keeping electricity rates low, she said, and for ensuring that utilities’ decisions help to protect, not harm, the environment.

“People want to live in a safe, healthy environment—not make the climate any more inhospitable that it’s already become,” Isner said. “But Alabama Power has a different set of incentives, mainly to make money.”

The Public Service Commission is meant to balance those incentives, Isner said, and on that, she believes its members have failed. 

“Right now, they’re not balancing anything,” she said. 

Cavanaugh did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cavanaugh, who won with 1.5 million votes or just over 97 percent of ballots cast, was challenged by a write-in campaign—enough to register voter discontent. Cavanaugh received more write-in votes against her than any other candidate on the ballot that election cycle, including for President of the United States. 

More than 42,000 votes were cast in opposition to Cavanaugh. Election results showed that write-ins against Cavanaugh were notably more frequent in areas serviced by Alabama Power than those cast in areas served by the Tennessee Valley Authority, a publicly-owned utility with lower residential energy costs.

Political science professors David Hughes and Andrea Eckelman told Inside Climate News soon after the vote that rising energy costs likely drove the ballot opposition.

“I think one concern voters have is a general perception that the Public Service Commission is in the pocket of Alabama Power,” Eckelman, an associate professor at the University of Montevallo in central Alabama, said after the election. “So I think people who are dissatisfied with their energy bills going up are saying, ‘Well, this Public Service Commission has the power to stop this, and they aren’t.’”

In her new role, Cavanaugh will oversee loan and grant programs for rural areas, technical assistance for farmers and housing assistance and home repair programs for rural residents. 

Hughes, who teaches at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said in an interview Thursday that Cavanaugh’s new career shift may mean she’s plateaued in terms of her climb up the ranks of state government in Alabama. 

He said he was surprised to hear Cavanaugh planned to resign from the commission’s presidency, which he thought would be a near permanent role for the politician. 

“There’s always been a public perception that she’s sympathetic toward Alabama Power,” Hughes said. “And it’s more than just perception.”

Hughes pointed to campaign contributions to Cavanaugh from the Business Council of Alabama, of which Alabama Power is a member, as evidence of that relationship. 

“I think a lot of consumers have been frustrated that the PSC has been accommodating of the energy companies” in the wake of increasing electricity prices, Hughes said.

It’s possible, Hughes suggested, that Cavanaugh’s career move is a potential springboard to another, higher federal office. 

“We don’t have a clear picture of what her future looks like quite yet,” he said. 

“I think a lot of consumers have been frustrated that the PSC has been accommodating of the energy companies.”

— David Hughes, University of Louisiana at Lafayette professor

The governor has the authority to appoint a commissioner to serve the remainder of Cavanaugh’s term, which does not expire until November 2028. A spokesperson for Gov. Kay Ivey said she would announce a replacement within days. This would be Ivey’s second appointment to the commission, which has three members. Elections for these positions are held every four years. 

Republicans in the state have openly discussed potential replacements for Cavanaugh, including Caroleene Dobson, a Republican lawyer who unsuccessfully ran to represent a newly-created congressional district in south Alabama.

Hughes said a Dobson appointment would make sense as somewhat of a concession prize for her effort in the second congressional district. 

“She ran a robust campaign,” Hughes said. “She did everything she had to do to be a competitor. So her appointment to the PSC wouldn’t be terribly surprising.”

In September 2024, Ivey appointed Chip Beeker III to fulfill the remainder of his father’s unexpired term. Chip Beeker, Jr., resigned “due to health concerns.” Prior to his post as utility commission, Beeker III was appointed the state rural development director—the position Cavanaugh will now fill—during Trump’s first term. 

Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama, a nonprofit organization that advocates for clean energy, said Thursday that the appointment of Cavanaugh’s replacement could be an inflection point for the state’s top utility regulator. 

“This is a pivotal moment for Alabama’s energy future,” he said. “The right leadership on the Public Service Commission can help unlock new economic opportunities, lower costs for families, and position our state as a hub for clean energy jobs and innovation.”

Alabama needs “forward-looking policies,” Tait said, “that strengthen grid reliability, lower utility rates, improve transparency, and attract investment through a more modern, competitive energy strategy.”