Energy Alabama

Founding

Energy Alabama was founded in 2014 following the 2011 Super Outbreak, a storm that brought the highest number of tornadoes in a single month in U.S. history, leaving much of Alabama without power for weeks. Energy Alabama advocates shifting Alabama’s electric grid to more weather-dependent energy which the group claims would be more sustainable and resilient to disasters. ^{1 3}

Activities

Energy Alabama advocates policies that would construct weather-dependent energy infrastructure and supports projects to install such infrastructure in Alabama and its localities. The group claims that it exclusively supports “socially equitable” and “market based” policies. Among its achievements, Energy Alabama claims to have secured a weather-dependent energy target for the City of Huntsville, obtained a $100 million refund for customers of utility company Alabama Power concerning fuel cost overpayments, guaranteed that Alabama utility customers would not be charged late fees during COVID-19, and served on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) committee. ²

Much of Energy Alabama’s advocacy efforts are focused on the Alabama Public Service Commission, the state agency responsible for regulating investor-owned utilities. Energy Alabama often testifies before the group to encourage more support for weather-dependent energy. In 2026, Alabama Energy was campaigning against an Alabama bill that would change the law to have Alabama Public Service commissioners appointed by the governor rather than elected by Alabama residents. Alabama Energy argued that under such a scenario energy companies would have greater influence over appointments. ^{4 5}

In 2024, Energy Alabama spent $35,785 on lobbying activities. ⁶

Energy Alabama operates numerous education programs. The group designs lesson plans for K-5 educators to teach children about weather-dependent energy, runs the Energy in Action program to lecture high school students on “the fundamentals of energy management,” runs field trips for students of all ages to visit environmentalist projects, and provides adult education programs through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. As of February 2026, Energy Alabama claimed its education programs had reached 12,000 students and 150 teachers. ¹

Energy Alabama’s Knowledge Center contains a database of documents related to electricity in Alabama, including a breakdown of the costs allegedly imputed into utility bills. ⁷

Controversies

In early 2020, then-Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R) launched an investigation into the funding and activities of numerous environmentalist groups operating in Alabama, including the Sierra Club, Grandmothers Act to Save the Planet (GASP), the Energy and Policy Institute, and Energy Alabama. Merrill wrote to Energy Alabama executive director Daniel Tait inquiring about his affiliation with multiple environmentalist groups (both Energy Alabama and the Energy and Policy Institute), the legal statuses of these groups, the funding sources of these groups, and the sources of his income. Merrill “underscored the irony of an alleged ‘watchdog’ group being funded by unknown sources of money.” ⁸

Leadership

As of 2026, Daniel Tait was the executive director of Energy Alabama (Alabama Center for Sustainable Energy), a position he had held since 2017. At that time, he was also on the Alabama State Department of Education’s Green Schools Committee, on the advisory council of Alabama Interfaith Power and Light, on the board of Neighborhood Concepts, and the research and communications manager of the Energy and Policy Institute. Tait previously worked as a program manager of the Nexus Energy Center, a group that promotes environmental energy efficiency in homes. Earlier, Tait was an intelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). ^{9 10} In 2024, Tait received $55,520 in compensation from Energy Alabama. ⁶

Funding

In 2024, Energy Alabama received a $250,000 grant from Multiplier, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that provides fiscal services to left-of-center nonprofits. ¹¹

Also in 2024, Energy Alabama received a grant from the PPG Foundation, the grantmaking foundation of retail company PPG. ¹²

In 2023, Energy Alabama received a $15,000 grant from the WestWind Foundation, a Virginia-based private foundation that gives grants to domestic and international environmentalist and pro-abortion-rights organizations. ¹¹

Also in 2023, Energy Alabama received a $9,000 grant from Alabama Forward, a critical race theory-aligned coalition that supports a variety of Alabama-based left-of-center voter engagement projects. ¹¹

Also in 2023, Energy Alabama received a $150,000 grant from the Tides Center, a left-of-center nonprofit created to manage the fiscal sponsorship services of its “sister” organization, the Tides Foundation. ¹³

In 2022, Energy Alabama partnered with Atmos Financial, “a climate-positive banking platform” on a program under which for every new account opened at Atmos, the company would donate $20 to Energy Alabama. ¹⁴

In 2017, Energy Alabama received a $77,680 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, an economic development partnership between the federal government and 13 states, to study the impact of coal power on certain Alabama communities. ¹⁵

In 2016, Energy Alabama received a $15,000 grant from Boeing for its STEM education program. ¹⁶