Less-Restrictive Renewable Energy Rules To See Lawsuit
(Jefferson City, MO) — A controversial measure to increase renewable energy projects in and near Missouri was stripped from the final version of the state’s new renewable energy law.
But much of the rule remained intact as the Missouri Public Service Commission on Tuesday voted 3-2 to send the voter-mandated renewable energy standards to the Secretary of State’s office for publication in state statutes.
Still, parties disappointed with the rule’s final shape said they would pursue the matter in court.
PSC Chairman Robert Clayton said the rulemaking in this case had been arduous and contentious.
“This is the end of a more than year-long process where we tried to work through this,” Clayton said. “And there is still a great diversity of opinion on several of these rules.”
The PSC’s approval marks the final step in a process that began in November 2008 when two-thirds of Missouri voters supported a ballot issue aimed at reducing Missouri power companies’ dependence on coal-powered electricity.
Rule Advances Without Mandate to Bolster In-State Renewables
Under the provisions of the ballot issue, Missouri utilities needed to produce at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, including wind, solar, methane, biofuels, by 2021.
The ballot issue also stipulated that the power companies could not raise consumer rates by more than a cumulative 10-year average of one percent to pay for the new energy sources.
The rule states energy companies can purchase renewable energy credits from certain clean energy projects outside Missouri. But after vigorous debate, the PSC removed a requirement that Missouri utilities could only buy such credits if the power generated by the credit-producing project was sold to Missourians.
The move represents a victory for utility representatives and major industrial power purchasers – usually at odds with each other – who joined forces to argue against limiting renewable energy credits to projects sending power to Missouri.
Such a requirement “greatly narrows the competitive options the utility has to acquire those [renewable] resources and it drives up the cost pretty dramatically,” said Warren Wood, president of the Missouri Energy Development Association, a lobbying group for several of the state’s largest utilities.
But PJ Wilson of Renew Missouri, the group that helped author the 2008 proposition, said without the so-called geographic-sourcing language in the rules, utility companies would be able to purchase energy credits anywhere without regard for Missouri consumers.
“Without this rule, Missouri utilities could buy renewable energy credits associated with electricity that is produced in Hawaii and sold to Hawaiians,” Wilson said. “That clearly was not the intent of the drafters of the initiative, nor the Missouri voters.”
General Assembly to Debate Future of Geographic Sourcing
The PSC’s move reflects the direction of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which last Thursday ruled the geographic-sourcing language exceeded the bounds of the proposition.
The PSC and JCAR recommended that the Missouri legislature debate the future of the geographic-sourcing language.
Committee member Sen. John Griesheimer, R-Washington, said the committee followed the lead of its legal counsel in making its decision.
“It was pretty clear to counsel that the language was outside of the law,” Griesheimer said after last week’s hearing. “All you can do in a situation like this is do what your legal counsel says and go for it.”
“But everybody knows, no matter what we did, this is going to court.”
Wilson confirmed that his organization would file a lawsuit to stop the rules from going into effect.
“The Missouri Supreme Court is clear, JCAR has no authority on rules that come from a citizen referendum,” Wilson said.
But Wood disagreed. He said language in the proposition sets up rulemaking under state statues that apply to JCAR.
“I have looked over the statutes involved in the proposition,” Wood said. “There are several different pieces there that refer to the authority granted by the legislature to administrative agencies to promulgate rules, and JCAR is clearly within their purview to do this.”
-Dick Aldrich
