Statement from Missourians for a Balanced Energy Future Executive Director Irl Scissors
For more information, please contact:
Kim Carlos – 816-550-1782
kim@moenergyfuture.com
Statement from Missourians for a Balanced Energy Future Executive Director Irl Scissors
It’s clear that a large bipartisan majority of the Missouri General Assembly wants to keep the option open for new nuclear power in our state.
However, Senators Rob Mayer and Jason Crowell, along with Noranda, Anheuser Busch and Ford, are trying to kill legislation that would create thousands of jobs and keep this option open for Missouri’s energy future. This is the case even though 20 other Senators, a majority in the Senate, have signed on as cosponsors of Senate Bill 321 and the companion bill in the House passed committee by a 21-2 margin last week.
It’s clear that Mayer and Crowell don’t want to listen to the will of Missourians but rather, are more concerned about their own special interests. The big industrials enjoy lower electric rates than anyone else in Missouri. Residential customers pay about 170 percent of the rate most big industrials pay and almost 250 percent of the rate Noranda Aluminum (the chief opponent of this important legislation).
It’s disturbing that two Senators are holding hostage legislation that has widespread support around the state and among a large majority of the Missouri General Assembly in order to protect the special deal big corporations get on electric rates. And instead they have introduced their own bill calling for a special fee to be added to everyone’s utility bills to pay for more government bureaucrats. That’s not what most Missourians want. The reason these big corporations want more government employees in the Office of Public Counsel (OPC) is because OPC generally takes the side of big corporations when determining how rate hikes should be distributed.
Additional consumer protections have been added to Senate Bill 321 and instead of recognizing this, the big industrials are thumbing their nose at a bill that could help keep rates down for the rest of us.
It’s time for these special interests and Senators Crowell and Mayer to do the right thing so that Missouri can have an energy policy that benefits everybody now and in our future.
