Ameren Rates Rise Sharply During Recession

Now it wants to get in your pocket again!

Senate Bill 207 and House Bill 398, virtually identical bills, are working their way through the legislative process in the Missouri General Assembly.  The bills would let investor-owned utilities raise rates automatically — through a mechanism called an Infrastructure System Replacement Surcharge — without any meaningful review by the Public Service Commission.  These utilities are Ameren Missouri, KCP&L, KCP&L GMO and Empire District.

The bills gut Missouri’s rational general rate-making process that has given consumers at least a fighting chance against the utilities for many decades.

Over the past five years Ameren was allowed to raise its rates $1.1 billion — 43 percent.  That cost consumers $2.8 billion more, just when they were trying to make ends meet during the economic downturn that devastated many families.

No other state allows anything like this broadly defined surcharge.  It will drive up the cost of doing business in Missouri and could cause businesses to leave.

To read the bills, go to Senate.MO.Gov or House.MO.Gov.

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