A powerful gust of conservatism blew through our state yesterday when the leaders at the Alabama Public Service Commission held steadfast to free market principles in the face of opposition from radical environmentalists. The issue at hand was an application from one of our state’s utilities to provide military bases and some large businesses access to renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.), which these entities sought out of their own choice. The PSC approved this request, but in the process held firm to ensure that absolutely no subsidies would be created for the production of energy.

For years now, environmentalists have sought to have these renewable energy projects subsidized by taxpayers. The reason why is because solar, wind and other far-flung ideas for power generation are expensive and both economically and physically unfeasible. As you might imagine, these subsidies have brought unprecedented levels of fraud, waste and abuse like we saw with Solyndra, and the results have been an unmitigated disaster for states like California.

One of our pillars at the Alabama Free Market Alliance is an all-of-the-above energy policy. This is important to us because it is an essential component to our nation’s freedom and prosperity. Implicit in a sound energy policy, though, is a complete rejection of taxpayer-funded subsidies. Government should never be in the business of picking winners and losers. Unfortunately, the radical environmentalist movement is built almost entirely upon this inefficient principle. And through their actions yesterday, the members of the Alabama Public Service Commission refused to bow down to the pressure of liberal special interests who continually seek to have you and me pay for their inadequate pet projects.

The leaders of the Alabama Public Service Commission have already proven their commitment to smaller government, so now it is gratifying to recognize them for their adherence to the type of free market principles we support here at AFMA.

Paul Reynolds is Chairman of the Alabama Free Market Alliance and a small businessman. He also serves as Republican National Committeeman for Alabama.