Consumers Council of Missouri

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Senators grilled AmerenUE leaders during a hearing Tuesday on legislation allowing utilities to charge electric customers for the costs of new power plants before they come online.

Missouri law bars investor-owned utilities from passing the expenses of building a power plant to their customers before the facility starts producing electricity.

Ameren is considering construction of a second nuclear reactor at its Callaway County power plant and says repealing the 1976 state law is critical to financing the estimated $6 billion project.

A large crowd attended Tuesday’s Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment Committee hearing on the legislation, which would apply to new plants powered by nuclear energy, renewable sources or new coal technology.  Please click here to read the entire AP story by Chris Blank.

A state Senate committee is scheduled to begin hearings today on a deeply flawed bill that would remove key consumer protections for utility customers.

The measure, Senate Bill 228, would repeal a 1976 law that prohibits utilities from charging for the cost of building a new power plant until it starts generating electricity.

SB 228 is designed to benefit utility giant AmerenUE, which has applied to build a new nuclear plant in Callaway County. Whether or not you think that new plant is a good idea — whether you favor nuclear energy or oppose it — SB 228 is a bad bill. Click here and let the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board count the ways.

Missouri’s energy debate is about to go nuclear.

A state lawmaker filed a bill in the Legislature on Thursday that sets the stage for a battle between utility interests who want to build a new nuclear plant and consumer groups that are leery of the costs.

The action comes the day after AmerenUE chief executive Tom Voss visited key decision makers in the Capitol to lobby for the bill.  Click here to read the entire St. Louis Post-Dispatch article which includes quotes from John Coffman, our lobbyist.

Ga. Power bill introduced Friday
by Tom Crawford

Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville) confirmed that he will introduce on Friday a bill that would allow Georgia Power Co. to start charging ratepayers six years in advance for the construction of two nuclear generation units at Plant Vogtle.

The Balfour bill is expected to be one of the most controversial measures debated this session, with environmentalists and consumer groups dead set against the “construction work in progress” (CWIP) proposal put forth by Georgia Power executives.

The $14.4 billion nuclear project would not result in electricity generation until 2016 or 2017. Georgia Power is asking the Public Service Commission for permission to start charging ratepayers for $1.6 billion in construction financing costs starting in 2011, at least six years before the reactors would be finished.

Balfour’s bill would authorize Georgia Power to charge the CWIP rate regardless of what the PSC decides to do on the company’s request.

Georgia Power contends that charging ratepayers for the nuclear units before they go into operation would eventually save ratepayers $300 million. Critics of the plan say the utility is trying to shift all the risk for the project from shareholders to ratepayers who may never benefit from six years of higher monthly power bills.

“If Kroger raised grocery prices because they wanted to build a new store, you can just go to Publix,” said environmental lobbyist Neill Herring. “Where else can Georgia Power customers buy power?”

“This is an abuse of power because Georgia Power can cut off your power unless you pay for something you are not even getting, may never get, don’t need, and for which Georgia Power cannot even tell you the ultimate cost,” Herring added. “Only arrogance can explain their seeking this kind of rate increase when everyone is hit so hard by this economy.”

Balfour contended that ratepayers, in the end, are going to bear the costs of the nuclear plants anyway, regardless of how early their rates are increased.

“The EMCs and MEAGs already can charge off this interest and principle – the only company that can’t is Georgia Power,” Balfour said. “The ratepayer is going to pay the cost of that plant.”

“Contrary to the assertion that recovery of financing costs during construction lowers risks to investors, it actually helps maintain quality credit ratings, thereby lowering interest payments to investors and keeping costs lower for customers,” said Ann Daiss, Georgia Power’s chief accounting officer.

The nuclear payment legislation is already causing nervousness among some legislators who don’t want to be blamed for sudden increases in their constituents’ monthly power bills.

“Why are legislators, who go before the voters every two years, being asked to vote for this when the PSC can take care of it?” asked a state senator.

© 2009 by Capitolimpact. com

Consumers are rejected in late night meeting with legislators

by Michael Sorkin, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Consumers complain that they don’t get much respect from Missouri legislators, even in an election year.

A group of consumer representatives asked a key legislative committee to block surcharges that could be tacked onto consumer electric bills starting this year. Critics say it could add millions of dollars to monthly electric bills statewide.

The legislators agreed to hear the consumers — at 10 p.m. Tuesday, on April Fools’ Day. Please click here to read the full story.

Home water rates are going up

By Michael Sorkin of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The price of water in St. Louis went up Tuesday, and residents of St. Louis and St. Charles counties and Southern Illinois may be next to pay more when they turn on their water faucets at home.
St. Louis residents buy water from the city. The Board of Aldermen and the mayor passed a law to raise rates by 19 percent starting this month. A typical city resident will pay $58.80 every three months, up from $49.54.

Those rates will go up again on July 1, 2009, by 11 percent.

Meanwhile, the Missouri-American Water Co. is seeking rate increases for its 466,000 water customers in Missouri. The company asked state regulators this week to approve $50 million in annual rate increases.   Increases would vary by community.  Click here to read the full story.

Power switch

Missouri utilities want to change state law to encourage energy efficiency programs. They’re willing to help their customers pay for installing energy-saving equipment, insulation or even new energy-saving air-conditioning systems.

Saving power is a good thing — for the nation, for consumers and especially for electric companies. It means they don’t have to build expensive new power plants to meet increasing demand. The economic benefits for utilities are so great, in fact, that legislators should be asking why Senate Bill 1277 and House Bill 2298 are needed to encourage them.

The answer is that they are not. Not the way they’re currently written, anyway, and probably not at all.  Please click here to read the full editorial that ran in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Sunday, March 16, 2008.

Adolphus Busch IV is the proud owner of five new massive solar panels, angled toward the sun atop steel structures resembling white football goal posts. The $100,000 system makes Busch owner of the region’s largest personal solar power plant, according to energy officials. Busch, along with several proponents of renewable energy, held a news conference to celebrate solar power and its potential to become a part of the everyday lives of farmers and homeowners.

The event was intended to stress that renewable energy like solar power isn’t just for the rich or hard-core environmentalists who choose to live entirely “off the grid” of traditional electrical power. New legislation sponsored by Bray and pushed by Farmergy officials has made it easier for property owners — particularly farmers — to tie a personal renewable energy system such as solar or wind generators into the existing electrical grid, ensuring they have a steady supply of electricity when the weather goes gray.

The “easy connect” act, passed in late spring, allows owners of solar systems to get a one-to-one credit for any additional power they generate that goes back into the power grid for other users. Previously, those owners were only getting the wholesale value of their surplus electricity — about half of its value — which made it financially unreasonable for frugal farmers, said Henry Rentz, a vice president at Farmergy who helped draft the new rules.

Bray said “easy connect” along with her wish for greater incentives will make solar power and other sources of renewable energy more attractive to property owners. Please click here to read the full story by Nancy Cambria of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH EDITORIAL

In prime time, KSDK-TV was scheduled to air “A New Beginning: Johnson’s Shut-ins State Park.” Its subject, as the title suggests, was the popular Missouri state park that essentially was destroyed in December 2005 by a wall of water released by the catastrophic failure of AmerenUE’s Taum Sauk hydroelectric reservoir.

Because “A New Beginning” uses the presentation styles and techniques of television news, it looks like a news special. It is not. Because “A New Beginning” aired on a station that identifies itself as “Newschannel 5,” viewers might think that it was produced by the station’s news department. It was not. Because promos for “A New Beginning” promise to deliver “the full story” of the disaster, viewers might conclude that it tells them the full story of the disaster. It does not.  Please click here to read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s editorial on this  infomercial paid for by Ameren’s customers.

By Todd C. Frankel

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Airing in primetime on KSDK is a half-hour show on a controversial topic: the Taum Sauk reservoir disaster. A perfect subject for a news show.

The program looks and feels like a TV news show. Karen Foss, the former longtime KSDK news anchor, hosts it. Experts are interviewed. So are executives and state officials. They discuss in a seemingly frank manner the environmental catastrophe and rebuilding efforts that followed the December 2005 breach at AmerenUE’s massive reservoir, when 1.3 billion gallons of water crashed through Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park.”Get the full story on what happened,” proclaim the print and online ads touting the show.But the “full story” is actually a polished infomercial. Click here to read the full story.