Judge rules against Ameren in legal battle over TV ad
JEFFERSON CITY — A federal judge today made sure Missouri Tigers fans who weren’t hitting the refrigerator during time outs were able to see television ads in opposition to a proposed new nuclear plant.
The ads were paid for by large industrial users of electricity, led by Noranda Aluminum, who are opposed to AmerenUE’s attempts to change Missouri law so they can charge consumers for some costs of a new nuclear facility in Callaway County while the plant is being built. Current law doesn’t allow utility companies to pass expenses or finance charges on to consumers until after a plant is up and running.
The Ameren-backed proposal would change the utility regulatory landscape in Missouri. It faces an important vote in a Missouri Senate committee on Tuesday.
Saturday morning, Ameren lawyers filed an injunction in federal court in St. Louis seeking to stop a group called Fair Electric Rate Action Fund from airing its television ads during the Tigers basketball game in the NCAA Tournament later that afternoon.
The ads argue that the pro-Ameren bill would raise consumers electricity rates by 40 percent over a matter of years. By using Ameren’s logo, the group might have “confused” viewers, Ameren lawyers argued.
The judge overruled the request for a restraining order and the ads ran.
“We’re communicating directly with Missourians to let them know that the Ameren rate hike plan will raise their utility rates by as much as 40% every single month,” said Gregg Keller, spokesman for the anti-Ameren group. The group is funded by Noranda, which is Ameren’s biggest customer, and the Missouri Industrial Energy Consumers, a consortium of manufacturing companies that includes Anheuser-Busch-Inbev, Monsanto, Pfizer and other large industrial consumers.
Ameren vice president Richard Mark said that he believes the ads, which ask consumers to contact their state senator and urge them to vote against the bill making its way through the Legislature, are misleading.
“We find these ads disgusting and dishonest,” Mark said. “They purport to be a message from consumer advocates, while in fact they are funded by large industrial customers of electricity who are only interested in shifting more of the rate burden onto average residential customers.”
The bill which would repeal Missouri’s “construction work in progress” law, has already passed a House committee. Senators stalled its approval, however, because many of them agreed with critics that the bill as submitted would gut consumer protection laws.
Those senators, led by Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, and Sen. Brad Lager, R-Maryville, have been working on compromise legislation that could be voted on as soon as Tuesday.
Gov. Jay Nixon has been lukewarm to the legislation, refusing to say whether he’ll sign it or not, but indicating that he believes Ameren should get a nuclear permit in hand before seeking to change Missouri law.
I saw that ad. I also see the economic benefit of building Callaway 2. I live in mid-Missouri and this will mean jobs. The ad was deceptive because it implied concern about regular folks’ electric rates going up, when in fact it is paid for by the big industrial electric customers. Did you know those big industrial customers already pay less than half per kilowatt hour what I pay at my house and you pay at yours? I think the ad is motivated by selfish large companies exploiting an image of that old lady looking all fretful. In fact they should have shown a fat cat CEO of an out of state conglomerate like Noranda Aluminum worrying that his seven-figure bonus might be short a few bucks. Too bad the judge didn’t understand the deception.
I am totally in favor of Callaway II and think all users should be taking on the costs of ensuring we have plentiful and relatively inexpensive electric power in Missouri. There is no free lunch. Let’s get the thing built ASAP. Our rates are about 50% less than many areas.
Be very leery when big business like Noranda and AB disguise themselves under the veil of a ”consumer advocacy” group. They have an agenda all of their own, that has nothing to do with protecting the consumer. It’s all about shifting their fair share to us. Building new generation capacity is inevitable, and the big boys want to make sure it doesn’t cut into their bottom lines. That results in only one outcome, residents picking up the tab.
Good point, mizzouman. The industrial interests paying for the lying ad even admit as much in Mr. Messenger’s story. Read this:
“We’re communicating directly with Missourians to let them know that the Ameren rate hike plan will raise their utility rates by as much as 40% every single month,” said Gregg Keller, spokesman for the anti-Ameren group. The group is funded by Noranda, which is Ameren’s biggest customer, and the Missouri Industrial Energy Consumers, a consortium of manufacturing companies that includes Anheuser-Busch-Inbev, Monsanto, Pfizer and other large industrial consumers.
…SO, Mr. Keller says the big industrial customers are “communicating directly” with the poor individual residential customers - the same poor residential customers those big industrial customers want to absorb the big companies’ higher power rates, so the big companies can pay even lower rates. The bid industrial customers are counting on poor individual consumers to not be smart enough to see past the deception.
An honest statement from Mr. Keller would be that the big industrial customers “are manipulating the poor residential customers into thinking the big industrial customers care one whit about the rates the residential customers pay, when in fact the big industrial customers are counting on the the individual customers to pay the big companies’ share.”
The big companies should be ashamed of this lying campaign.
Hey Ameren PR people:
Nobody’s fooled by the sudden appearance of four hyper-informed regular Joes from diverse parts of Missouri, who all just happen to post gushingly pro-Ameren comments within an hour an a half of the story appearing. On a Saturday night, no less. That’s just silly.
I don’t read anything here that suggests pro-Ameren. I read posts that suggest there are common-sensed people out there that don’t buy into the bull. I saw the ad, and it is pitiful. Do you really think companies like AB give a rat’s *$$ about you, the poor consumer? Ask the unemployed AB/In-Bev employees in St. Louis how much they care. Do your homework.
mizzoufan - There are reasons why a large industrial customer pays less:
* Ameren sends one bill for $100,000 instead of 35,000 bills for $30 each = lower cost.
* Large industrial customers have choice - we don’t.
* Lower default rate + lower collections cost.
What do you call people who help a company build a facility? INVESTORS. If Ameren wants to charge ratepayers for building the plant, then the ratepayers should be shareholders. Sounds fair to me.
Boy, the Ameren PR machine seems to be at work on the blog. Ameren consistently raises it rates and then attempts to pass a bill that would “gut consumer protection laws.” Why does Ameren want to change a law that wouldn’t allow utility companies to pass expenses or finance charges on to consumers until after a plant is up and running? I’m hoping that the Governor and other legislators will listen to their constituents and not change the law that is already in place.
Hi Everyone!
I’m a Corporate Monopoly Apologist! I totally support building another Nooklar Power Plant. I voted for John “Amnesty” McCain because he a Patriot and supports open borders! I’m an idiot. I think Nooklar waste is a good Patriotic product that Corporate Monopolies should be free to dump on poor and rural areas (just so long as it’s not in my neighborhood).