Court Opinion

ID: 9656447
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 19:48:23.650948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:32.347060
License: Public Domain

LIVINGSTON, Chief Justice
(dissenting) :
There is no conflict or dispute in the record as to the following :
AEC seeks to borrow from the Federal Government $20,350,000 to build a steam generating plant and over 700 miles of transmission lines to duplicate facilities which Alabama Power Company already has constructed or has committed to construct with funds from private investors. AEC seeks to use these funds in order to supply electricity in seven counties in Alabama and three counties in Florida in which it has never operated. As I see it, the sole justification for this expenditure of Federal funds is the desire of AEC to compete with and to duplicate investor-owned utilities. As proof thereof, there is no evidence in this record which shows or tends to show that one person who lives in the rural area will receive electricity by this multimillion dollar expenditure who is not today already receiving electric service.
So long as any investor-owned utility in Alabama is ready, willing and able to furnish ■ electric service to consumers at reasonable rates — as prescribed and continuously regulated by the Public Service Commission' — then there is no public need, nor is it in the public interest for a cooperative to borrow from the Federal Government and to build duplicating or competing generating and transmission facilities. This is the proper construction of Sec. 155 of Title 55, and this is my understanding of the holding in prior cases of Alabama Power *130Co. v. City of Ft. Payne, 237 Ala. 459, 187 So. 632, 123 A.L.R. 1337; Alabama Electric Cooperative v. Alabama Power Co., 251 Ala. 190, 36 So.2d 523.
I respectfully dissent.