Jefferson City, MO – Following up on their motion to intervene, Continental Cement, headquartered in Chesterfield with facilities in Hannibal and St. Louis, sent a formal letter to the Missouri Public Service Commission, making very clear their objection to the Noranda rate shift request.

“Producing cement is also an energy intensive business. As one of Ameren’s top-20 customers, we do not feel that Noranda is entitled to any further reduction in their rates…especially at our expense,” Continental Cement’s President Thomas Beck wrote on March 31, 2014 to the PSC.Noranda Aluminum requests that the PSC authorize a 25 percent electric rate reduction that would in turn pass roughly a half a billion dollars in rate increases onto other Ameren Missouri customers. Increases would be particularly hefty for those business customers that also utilize a great deal of power to operate. In fact, Continental Cement wrote that it would cost their business an estimated $1 million over the next 10 years.

Noranda Aluminum, which is headquartered in Tennessee and has a smelter in Southeast Missouri, already pays less for electricity than it costs to provide them with electricity, resulting in a rate that is 60 percent lower than the average Ameren Missouri consumer.

Additionally, evidence suggests that Noranda’s request for a lower rate as a need for economic relief may be baseless. The aluminum company told Wall Street investors that they were in solid financial health and paid dividends to shareholders. Not long after, Apollo Holding Corporation that controls Noranda announced it was selling 10 million shares. None of the profits will go toward sustaining Noranda. Apollo is the same company that has taken $554 million out of Noranda since its original investment in 2007 and just last year paid its CEO over $500 million.

“There’s simply no denying that Missouri business customers and local municipalities sense the injustice behind Noranda’s rate shift request. These consumers should not have to bear the burden of economic relief for a company that has the financial backing of a multi-billion dollar hedge fund,” MBEF Executive Director Irl Scissors.

PDF of the Letter: CCC letter to MO PSC – 03.31.14

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Contact: Adrianne Marsh
 (314) 827-6141

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