This editorial is just a place holder. We haven’t decided yet whether to write about one of the biggest issues facing Missouri legislators this year.
Our colleague Tony Messenger did. In a column published Tuesday, Mr. Messenger wrote that executives from utility giant AmerenUE danced around the “gorilla in the room” when they briefed lawmakers on energy issues.
That gorilla would be a new nuclear reactor the utility applied to build in Callaway County. Strictly as an option, of course.
“No decision has yet been made,” utility lobbyist Matthew Forck insisted. It’s the same line utility executives have used for months.
We wouldn’t want to jump the gun. But if we did decide to write about the issue, we’d mention that AmerenUE filed an 8,000-page application to build the plant with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last July. It expects the facility to cost at least $6 billion.
AmerenUE asked state utility regulators for a rate hike that includes between $5 million and $7 million a year to pay for the application. The company spent about $50 million on it last year.
Maybe it’s just us, but we wouldn’t spend $50 million and fill out an 8,000-page application unless we were pretty sure we were going ahead. Click here to read the entire St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial.
