Alabama Governor Names Four New PSC Members, Including Its First Two Black Appointees

The Alabama Public Service Commission has never had a Black commissioner in its 145-year history, but that’s about to change.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced the appointments of four new commissioners Wednesday, two of whom will become the first Black commissioners in state history when they take office next January. 

Ivey tapped four men—retired Army General Ron Burgess, telecommunications executive Fred Johnson, attorney Demarcus Joiner and Alabama State University President Quinton Ross—to fill newly created seats on the commission, which is the primary regulator for utilities in the state. 

“For Alabama to remain the best state in which to live, work and raise a family, we need good people serving in public office, including on our Public Service Commission. I am proud to tap these four experienced leaders to serve their fellow Alabamians in this capacity,” Ivey said in a news release. “I expect these individuals to serve with honesty and integrity.” 

A Turbulent Time for Utility Regulators

The commissioners will take office in an unprecedented and challenging time. There’s uproar over electricity prices, which are significantly higher than in neighboring states, and over the number of large, energy-hungry data center projects emerging in the state. 

A 2025 Inside Climate News analysis found that residential customers of Alabama Power—the state’s largest electric utility—pay the highest total electric bills of the 100 largest utilities in the country, driven by rates above the national average and very high electricity usage. 

The PSC has to approve all Alabama Power rate increases, and determines how much profit the company is allowed to earn. PSC incumbents paid the price of voters’ frustration over energy bills in this year’s elections. Both Jeremy Oden and Chris Beeker III lost their campaigns for reelection in Republican primaries this year. Current PSC President Cynthia Lee Almond’s seat is not up for election until 2028. 

A state law passed this year will expand the PSC from three members to seven beginning in 2027, with the members being elected by congressional district rather than through statewide election.

Joiner and Ross will become the body’s first Black commissioners. 

“That’s a big step for Alabama,” said Ronald Ali, president of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP.

Former commissioners included a handful of former Confederate officers, dating back to the PSC’s early days as the Alabama Railroad Commission in 1881. Notorious former Birmingham police commissioner Bull Connor even served on the body after worldwide condemnation for his brutal suppression of civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s using police dogs and fire hoses. 

Ali told Inside Climate News he was walking through a historic cemetery in Mobile with Confederate grave markers when he got the news of the appointments. 

“This displays a hope for Alabama and for America,” Ali said, adding that the governor’s appointments represent “real equality” and were not “just meeting a quota.” 

“It speaks well for the governor, and it speaks well for Alabama,” he said.

Almond said in an emailed statement that she is looking forward to working with the new commissioners.

“No doubt, their diverse backgrounds and experiences will prove to be an asset to the Commission,” Almond said. “We trust everyone will share a common goal to ensure proper oversight of the utilities that we regulate while protecting Alabama citizens.”

Ivey selected the appointments from lists given to her by the Alabama speaker of the House, president pro tempore of the Senate and minority leaders of the House and Senate, as required by the new state law. 

All PSC seats will be filled by elections on a staggered schedule, per the new law, beginning in 2028, when Joiner and Johnson’s seats will be up for election. Burgess and Ross will face voters, should they run for reelection, in 2030. 

The new commissioners will also take office with less power than current commissioners. 

There will be more of them—seven, not three—and the next governor will appoint the state’s first-ever secretary of energy, a cabinet-level position created by the new law. The secretary will set the PSC agenda and wield significant control over the body. It would take a vote of five of the seven commissioners to overrule the secretary on matters that are currently under the commissioners’ direct control.

The New Commissioners

Burgess is a retired three-star general with a deep background in military intelligence, including as the 17th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency until his retirement in 2012. Since then, Burgess has served numerous roles at Auburn University, including chief operating officer and executive vice president. 

Fred Johnson is an expert in rural telecommunications and electric distribution, according to the governor’s office. Ivey’s office said Johnson has a 40-year career in telecommunications and electric utilities, including 23 years as chief executive officer of Farmers Telecommunications. 

Demarcus Joiner is an associate at the Maynard Nexsen law firm’s Birmingham office, working in economic development and government relations. Joiner is also a previous University of Alabama Student Government Association president.

Ross currently serves as the 15th president of Alabama State University, a historically Black institution. Prior to leading ASU, Ross served in the state Senate and has more than two decades of experience as an educator, both in K-12 and higher education.