Crowell

Near the end of a two-hour long Senate seminar on energy issues that was attended by most of the Missouri Senate, Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, cut through the Power Point presentations and fanciful language of lobbyists and got to the point.

“The 800-pound gorilla in the room is ‘What is your proposal going to be?’” Crowell asked a representative of investor-owned utility Ameren. As he had during his presentation, Matthew Forck danced around the gorilla, rather than with it.

“I heard your comments,” Forck told Crowell. “Thank you.”

Despite Forck’s continued insistence that Ameren hasn’t decided whether to seek new nuclear plant, everybody in the Senate hearing room today — the senators, the lobbyists and the press — knew what the gorilla is.

Ameren is seeking to remove a barrier in state law that will allow it to increase rates while it is building a $6 billion nuclear power plant. Ameren is telling lawmakers that without a change to the law, it won’t get financing.

Speaker of the House Ron Richard addressed the issue in his opening statement. Gov. Jay Nixon has addressed the issue. Senators have spoken to Ameren’s lobbyists and know what the issues are. But at the seminar designed to educate senators on the issue, Ameren danced around the issue, as Crowell pointed out.

Crowell said he wants to see two things out of the bill that everybody expects to be filed: He wants protections so Ameren has to keep costs under control. And he wants to see the benefit of the new property taxes go to school districts other than just the Callaway County school district that surrounds the nuclear facility.

There is widespread support among Democrats and Republicans for passage of the bill — once Ameren decides it’s ready to address the gorilla.