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Daniel Tait

@taitdl.bsky.social

Utility watchdog. Clean energy advocate. Tips, leads, and leaks welcome. DM for Signal. Based in Huntsville, AL.

3,002 Followers  |  1,827 Following  |  458 Posts  |  Joined: 05.10.2023
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Posts by Daniel Tait (@taitdl.bsky.social)

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Tuberville floats establishing Alabama secretary of energy as… If elected governor, Tuberville suggested establishing a secretary of energy to represent the entire state of Alabama and oversee all things…

Pretty wild to see Tuberville advocating for BIGGER government. Especially considering we already have an energy department as part of ADECA!

(Un)fun fact: the State of Alabama has starved this energy division of funding. Maybe there’s a connection… πŸ€”

1819news.com/news/item/tu...

26.02.2026 22:13 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Long time Alabama PSC Executive Director and Chief Administrative Law Judge is retiring. www.al.com/news/2026/02...

16.02.2026 18:38 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Lawmakers propose ending Public Service Commission elections, appointing state utility regulators Legislation introduced Thursday would eliminate voters’ ability to elect the Alabama Public Service Commission (APSC), the three-person board that sets utility rates across the state. Instead, those s...

Alabama Power is so scared of voters that they want to take away your right to vote for utility regulators. www.wbrc.com/2026/02/05/l...

06.02.2026 03:05 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1

If your thesis is 'trust the monopoly, the regulator will save you,' you should probably not be writing it on behalf of a group funded by monopoly utilities with notoriously lax regulators.

30.01.2026 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Real customer protection looks like transparent planning, hard prudence reviews, disallowing imprudent costs, ending automatic pass-through trackers, and not letting utilities socialize risk while privatizing returns.

30.01.2026 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

So yes: cost overruns are a problem. But it’s hard to take the lecture seriously when it’s selectively aimed at competitors while the regulated-monopoly record includes some of the biggest overruns in modern U.S. energy history.

30.01.2026 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Georgia Power (Southern Company) is Exhibit A. Plant Vogtle’s two new reactors were approved around $14B and ended up north of $30B (AP reports about $35B). That’s the kind of customer protection that shows up as a line item for the next 30 years.

30.01.2026 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Cool. Now apply the same standard to the monopoly side of the house, especially Power for Tomorrow’s members.

30.01.2026 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Then comes the competitive transmission dunk: a New York project that bid 22% under the utility, then blew past its cost cap (about $74M) and landed at $249M (up 38% from the winning bid).

30.01.2026 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Also, where is this good regulation they keep bragging about? In Alabama’s regulated monopoly world, customers pay the 3rd highest average residential electric bill in the entire country.

If that’s the good version, congrats on the horror show!

30.01.2026 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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U.S. Utility Rate Increase Requests Topped $30B in 2025 A newly published review of utilities serving 81.1 million U.S. customers found $30.5 billion in 2025 rate hike requests.

The argument depends on pretending monopoly utility rates are not climbing. Meanwhile, 2025 saw a record ~$30.5B in utility rate hike requests.

www.rtoinsider.com/124520-us-ut...

30.01.2026 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The op-ed claims vertically integrated monopoly utilities β€œshield customers” and put β€œthe customer front and center.”

Sure.

Like how casinos put the customer front and center, right next to the ATM.

30.01.2026 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Where are Utilities Best Serving Customers? The governors of states in PJM’s territory met at the White House to discuss the flailing market and more.

RTO Insider ran an op-ed asking β€œWhere are utilities best serving customers?”

Spoiler: the author is an exec at Power for Tomorrow, a utility-funded group that exists to tell you monopolies are good actually.

www.rtoinsider.com/123973-where...

30.01.2026 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

executions in the street.

24.01.2026 15:53 β€” πŸ‘ 2819    πŸ” 637    πŸ’¬ 46    πŸ“Œ 21

Irreparable damage has been done to American automakers by this Administration.

12.01.2026 16:36 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Power Brokers, by Nick Bowlin What’s really behind your soaring utility bills

harpers.org/archive/2026...

23.12.2025 15:46 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

More journalists should join @emilypont.bsky.social imo and keep digging here on the unsubstantiated claims that lowering ROE rates will cause equity flight! Why is this commonly believed? What's really behind the claim? What happens? Who decides?

01.12.2025 17:42 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

No.

01.12.2025 19:50 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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This level of "confidentiality" is BS and completely arbitrary.

Shame on the utilities for hiding basic information like the estimated costs of a transmission line behind an NDA.

01.12.2025 16:41 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Resurrected lawsuit puts FPL's past controversies back in the spotlight The federal appeals court decision could re-open the company's old wounds from a series of controversies across Florida.

It was a (Not) Happy Thanksgiving for NextEra and Florida Power & Light!

Their dirty deeds with Matrix are back in the news with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against the company and kicking the case back down to the lower court.

jaxtrib.org/2025/11/28/r...

29.11.2025 14:43 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Alabama Power Seeks to Delay Rate Hike for New Gas Plant Amid Outcry - Inside Climate News Alabama’s largest electric utility has proposed delaying an approved rate increase for an extra year amid a public outcry surrounding high utility bills.Β  Alabama Power customers will still see an inc...

β€œThe fine print shows it’s a deferral strategy, not a reduction,” Tait said. β€œIt’s just a broken attempt to help the utility weather a storm of criticism for its high bills and abnormally high profits.”

insideclimatenews.org/news/2511202...

26.11.2025 01:05 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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The most basic information is routinely redacted in Georgia and it is absolutely shameful.

Here, we have 15 potential projects totaling 7 GW of power and the public is not allowed to know how much they will cost, even in aggregate!

Dereliction of duty.

19.11.2025 19:57 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Your cat when you're choking to death in your apartment

06.11.2025 21:16 β€” πŸ‘ 36196    πŸ” 7920    πŸ’¬ 1565    πŸ“Œ 725
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Good news from TVA today!

TVA is greenlighting up to 1,500 MW of energy storage and slated to be online by the end of 2029.

πŸ”‹πŸ”‹πŸ”‹

06.11.2025 19:34 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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This Georgia Upset Is the Real Preview of 2026 Pocketbook issues took center stage in Democratic victories in Virginia, New Jersey and New York Tuesday night, as well as in a usually obscure election in Georgia. Because Georgia is far more of a sw...

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

06.11.2025 18:35 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

"In Georgia, Tait said the lesson is bipartisan: β€œMonopoly investor-owned utilities are deeply unpopular.” And regardless of political affiliation, he added, β€œpoliticians need to think twice” about aligning with utility companies."

nice

06.11.2025 18:22 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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High electric bills proved a motivating issue for voters in Georgia, New Jersey From Georgia to New Jersey, rising electricity bills were on millions of voters’ minds as they cast ballots on Tuesday.

β€œThis was a referendum on Georgia Power and high electric bills,” said Daniel Tait, research and communications director at the nonprofit utility watchdog group @energyandpolicy.org

san.com/cc/high-elec...

06.11.2025 18:05 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 4
This is a message from Tim Echols, a Georgia utility regulator who has announced a sabbatical. Echols lost his seat in last night’s electiin

This is a message from Tim Echols, a Georgia utility regulator who has announced a sabbatical. Echols lost his seat in last night’s electiin

Shoutout to @tiamitchell.com for flagging this email from the now out-going, veteran Georgia utility regulator Tim Echols, who announced in an email he is leaving the Public Service Commission immediately and taking a sabbatical

05.11.2025 14:15 β€” πŸ‘ 25    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 10

My key takeaway from last night: Utilities are deeply unpopular and honestly have been for some time.

Politicians in both parties should be extremely wary of taking utility money and tying their political futures to these monopolies. It is… risky, to say the least.

05.11.2025 12:43 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Southern Company: The Administration is so great. The new nuclear deal is amazing. So promising!

Investor: Does the federal government's new $80 billion agreement make you more likely to build new nuclear?

Southern Company: No.

04.11.2025 18:48 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0