UPDATE: Ameren nuclear plant bill likely dead for this session
UPDATE: The various interest groups on both sides of the Ameren bill are weighing in on the news that the bill is likely dead: From Gregg Keller of Fair Electricity Rates Action Fund: “From day one, FERAF has negotiated in good faith towards a compromise which allows nuclear energy to be part of Missouri’s energy future but doesn’t saddle working Missourians with Ameren’s potential 40% rate hike plan. If and when a true compromise plan is put forward which doesn’t raise rates by as much as 40% on Missourians and which keeps in place crucial consumer protections, we will remain honest brokers on this issue, as always.”
Also, Warren Wood, of the Missouri Energy Development Association, which has been pushing the bill, said that if the bill is indeed dead, it might close Ameren’s window for a nuclear plant, based on two factors: Ameren’s ability to obtain federal loan guarantees and the other possible investors in the plant moving on. The municipal utilities that are considering investing with Ameren for the plant, might have to make their own decisions about new plants, and will likely move on to natural gas options, Wood said.
JEFFERSON CITY – A bill that would pave the way for a new Ameren nuclear plant has hit a roadblock in the Missouri Senate and is likely dead for the session.
One of the Legislative session’s most controversial bills, the Ameren-backed proposal would repeal the state’s prohibition on utility companies charging customers for some costs of an electrical plant before the facility is up and running.
But consumer groups and large industrial companies in the state complained that the bill also rewrote utility regulations to the point where Ameren could reap too many rate increases during the process of building a $6 billion plus nuclear plant in Callaway County.
Today, Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, indicated the bill was unlikely to come up for debate again this session.
“We’ve hit a point where the parties involved simply aren’t willing to compromise and if that’s the case, there’s simply not much to resolve,” said Schaefer, who wrote the current version of the bill that was originally offered by Sen. Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City. “Until the parties are willing to show some compromise, I don’t know that any one of us who have put a lot of time in this issue see any reason to bring it back up.”
Lewis Mills, Missouri’s public counsel, said he’s heard from many sources that the bill is dead for this session.
“It’s either the greatest misdirection in history or it’s true,” said Mills, who represents consumers in utility matters.
Two weeks ago, the bill was the subject of a late-night filibuster led by Democrats and Republicans, but primarily Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau.
Crowell and Schaefer got into a heated and personal discussion on the floor about the bill, exchanging insults about various Republican political consultants involved in the debate over the Ameren bill.
Last week, the major industrial companies opposing the bill met in Scott’s office and delivered the senator a list of possible compromise positions. The companies, led by Noranda Aluminum of New Madrid, said that they wouldn’t necessarily oppose a repeal of the construction work in progress (CWIP) law, but they were against the various changes to Public Service Commission regulations.
Also last week, Gov. Jay Nixon met with Senate president pro tem Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, and indicated that he would veto the bill in its current form if it came to his desk. Nixon has publicly said he believes Ameren should obtain a federal permit to build a nuclear plant before trying to change Missouri law to improve its ability to obtain financing for the facility.
Ameren has said the plant will not get built without a change to Missouri law, and it has said the opponents misstate the possible rate increases that would hit consumers as a result of the bill. But a letter from PSC staff to Sen. Joan Bray, D-University City, said the information Ameren is providing to senators, and the information the company provided to regulators, is different.
Over the last few weeks, Ameren and the opponents have been trading barbs in television ads that have been running in the St. Louis market and elsewhere.
Schaefer said that if Ameren doesn’t eventually build the nuclear plant, Missouri consumers will see their rates increase one way or another.
“No one is going to get a new coal-fired power plant approved,” Schaefer said, because of new EPA regulations about carbon emissions.
Mills doesn’t necessarily disagree with that, but he said the problem with this bill has been Ameren’s unwillingness to compromise from the beginning of the process.
“I think going into the session, AmerenUE thought they would get everything they wanted,” Mills said. “We were willing to give them everything they needed. There have never been any serious negotiations.”
to bs detector and north county nan, im not saying i want to pay more for electricity either, but it is more of a pick your poison situation, either fund the plant, or have your rates raised even higher for importing generated power which is well over 10 times the cost of Ameren producing it themselves
If I could sign a contract with Ameren to pay a 3% increase in rates per year, I’d sign it to lock it in. Instead of subsidizing Ameren, why doesn’t the government instead subsidize the creation of community co-ops to produce their own energy. This would help the consumer and keep electric rates cheaper than Ameren would.
We shouldn’t do something just because it means more jobs. We should do it because it makes economic sense for the taxpayer, so they can save or spend their extra money as they wish which allows more industries to be created.
I agree that Ameren shouldn’t be writing legislation. And I also agree that we’re going to need more power than wind and current solar technologies can provide. Why not a very specific exemption to the CWIP law that allows Ameren to charge consumers a very specific amount for very specific purposes and that all must be paid back if the nuclear plant doesn’t get built within x number of years. This way, the original law is still in place, Ameren can’t go hog wild, we get the power we need and Ameren doesn’t have to go out of business trying to build a plant over 10+ years that it can’t charge for until after it starts producing. Everybody wins. If Ameren isn’t happy with that, open up the industry to the free market and see how fast they come around.
We will need the power and we REALLY need the jobs that this would produce. What we don’t need is Ameren running free rein over the public. If Ameren can’t manage it and compromise to get something done, seriously let the competition have at it. I’m sure something would come out of it all than what this bill woudl allow Ameren to do.
And their next request for a rate hike will be…?
Sooner, rather than much later.
Hold on campers, that this bill didn’t pass won’t mean Ameren won’t be building a nuclear power plant. This bill would have allowed Ameren to charge us for the building, which is not something I’m willing to jump into, are any of you?
Nixon has a point: first, see if it can be built; then come back with issues on building it.
More importantly, Ameren fed different data to different groups, and I don’t know how anyone could accept such behavior.
Instead of spending billions to build a nuclear plant, lets all just try something that is free!! Conservation!!
President Obama’s target carbon footprint for you is that of a person in Bangladesh. To get there, it’s not just no coal plants, it’s selling your car and buying a scooter, THEN CARPOOLING! Read the legislation. I know that’s fed not state, but this country is going to have to get serious about nuclear, and even new COAL. There I said it. The C word. On EARTH DAY! (I feel so liberated…) Wind, solar, tide, bio, it’s all as big a joke as ethanol.
What a dissappointment, a new plant, the new jobs, the associated jobs all gone; whats more is the costs will still go up and possibly more drastically.
I hope the rate payers have deep pockets, as the Ameren existing plants age they will come to a retirement date( some in the next decade or two) after which they will have to buy power off the grid from other source companies like Excelon of Illinois. These rates will be at the beck and call of those companies and Ameren is allowed by law to pass those charges along. Even if they just build more Combustion turbine units the cost of natural gas in Missouri will rocket out of sight as well as the energy costs will also go higher.
Shareholders do not invest in a company to build plants, they invest to receive a return, and if you check the books the majority are pension and retirement funds as the majority shareholders does anyone wish to give up on retiring as their funds dry up? If there becomes a low to no return on Ameren stock there will be no investors and then no Ameren, be very careful of what you ask as it may come to fruition then we are at the mercy of another company seeking to recover their investments.
This is a bad day for Missouri, a bad day for electricity users and a bad day for the companies that could have built this and additional plants in the state, this will actually cost Missouri in the millions in lost revenues and jobs.
As I reread the comments, one that I missed was allowing free enterprise to build the new nuke, are you ready for your rate to quadruple? As the plant would come on line there would be no PSC oversight as they would not be a “Public Service Company” but a private power generator, if Ameren’s plants are shutting down at that same point the ratepayers would be absorbing the entire cost as the rates would bear it as Ameren bought the replacement power from it. Once again we all lose dramatically, this has not been thought through by any but a very few, I endorse the repeal of CWIP as it would bring jobs and we would not have to pay all at once when the plant comes on line. Ameren may be forced into liquidation if they become less of a plus for investors, it may also go out for lack of power to sell from in-house sources, that in itself will be the undoing of Missouri’s low rates.
Ameren may not be a positive public entity but they supply a great deal of money for our infrastructure, they go away and we come under a out-state owner of the electric supply here and the state loses as we also lose as the profits and investments go out of state.