Kehoe: Return to nuclear vote
State Sen. Mike Kehoe circulated to Senate colleagues a three-page “Open Letter to Missouri General Assembly on Missouri’s Energy Future.”
“How we plan for Missouri’s energy future is an extraordinarily important topic,” the letter said. “We have reliable and low-cost power today because we’ve taken long-term planning seriously.”
Dated Monday, the letter was signed by six men who head Ameren Missouri, Kansas City Power and Light Co., Empire District Electric Co., Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives and the Missouri Public Utility Alliance.
That’s the coalition backing efforts to modify state law, so ratepayers could be charged for the costs of a utility’s successfully applying for and getting a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s early site permit to determine whether another nuclear power plant could be built at Ameren’s Callaway Nuclear Plant site near Reform.
Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, circulated the letter on Tuesday, a day after he urged senators to consider debating, and voting for, the early site permit bill.
At the same time, he noted, the Public Service Commission currently is considering Ameren Missouri’s latest rate-increase request.
Kehoe also reminded the Senate that the PSC deals with several different rate classes in an electric utility case — including residential customers, “two or three different commercial classes (and) one rate class all by itself, that is the largest of industrial users, called ‘large transmission.’”
Without ever naming Noranda Aluminum’s New Madrid County smelter — Ameren’s single largest electricity consumer — Kehoe noted only one company fits in that “large transmission” class.
Neither Noranda nor the group FERAF — Fair Energy Rates Action Fund — were able to respond to a request for comment by Tuesday’s deadline.
Kehoe noted the group Missouri Industrial Energy Consumers has suggested the PSC change Ameren’s rates so that “residential customers … would pay 9.7 percent more (while) if you go all the way down to the largest of rate consumers, they’re asking for a 5 percent decrease.”
Kehoe also called colleagues’ attention to the results of recent PSC cases.
“In the last three years — in the last three rate cases — residential customers have had a 27.15 percent increase,” he noted. “Large, general service providers like my business have had a 23.7 percent rate increase.
“And this one, single customer — that’s in a class of its own — has had an 8.69 percent increase in the last three years.”
Also Tuesday, the group Missourians for a Balanced Energy Future (MBEF) announced its support for state Rep. Jay Barnes’ proposal to appoint a special committee to study the disparity in electric rates paid by different classes of electric consumers.
“Families and small businesses are being forced to pay a higher rate for their electricity so that large industrial corporations … can get a lower rate,” said Irl L. Scissors, MBEF’s executive director. “There are serious questions about whether the disparity in electric rates has grown too large and inequitable, and we need to take a closer look.”
Barnes’ proposal was added to a House bill on renewable energy during Monday’s debate, but the measure did not come to a final vote.
Sen. Kurt Schaefer, RColumbia, reminded colleagues that, “When you have a rate case (and) somebody comes in and says, ‘I want to pay less,’ it’s not necessarily that the company that’s producing the electricity is going to get paid less, because what it costs to produce that has already has been determined — that’s a fixed amount. …
“What that means is someone else is going to pay more.”
Both senators noted that companies opposed to the early site permit bill are not discussing the rate case issues.
“They strictly talk about the early site permit piece,” Kehoe said.
He acknowledged “that if I have to run electric to 200 homes, or to one business, it’s cheaper to run it to one business. … Because it is just one plant to send electricity to, which is more affordable than to send it to multiple meters, they get a better rate.
“And I’m good with that.”
Kehoe noted his Jefferson City automobile dealerships “would get a 10 percent reduction” under the MIEC proposal to the PSC.
“But the problem is, I didn’t get elected to represent my business,” he said. “I got elected to represent 175,000 people here in Mid-Missouri … to look at what’s best for the residential customers.”
-Bob Watson
