MISSOURI STRUGGLES WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY MANDATE
Renewable mandates seem so easy when they are adopted. Just pass a law saying utilities must switch to renewable energy and the operating premises is that windmills and solar farms will grow accordingly.
Like many states before it, however, Missouri is finding it isn’t so simple. In 2008, Missouri voters adopted a referendum mandating that utilities get a modest 2 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2011, rising to 15 in 2021 with 2 percent reserved for solar electricity. There was no serious opposition.
Now that utilities companies, the Missouri Public Service Commission and various consumer and environmental groups are trying to implement the law, however, all kinds of issue have surfaced. The biggest controversy is whether utilities should be allowed to buy “renewable energy credits” from out of state.
Generating even 2 percent renewables on Missouri’s rolling countryside has proved to be difficult. So the PSC passed a rule saying a utility could buy credits for renewable energy generated in “neighboring states.” But utility and consumer groups say this is too restrictive and will raise prices. They want the area for potential credits extended across all of North America.
Critics argue that this model is ripe for exploitation. What is to keep a wind farm in Manitoba from selling its “credits” to six different utilities? Is anybody keeping track?
