Over summer, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules of the Missouri Legislature attempted to remove a critical provision from Proposition C, the Missouri Renewable Electricity Standard that voters approved in 2008. If the legislators' decision stands, the region will lose thousands of clean-energy jobs and millions of dollars in economic development that the policy was expected to create.

When the Missouri Legislature convenes in January, state legislators will have the chance to overturn the committee decision and ensure that renewable energy is sourced locally to benefit our economy, as the law originally required.

Our state legislators must overturn the ill-advised committee decision and uphold the approved standard. Doing so will spark regional renewable-energy development and put Missourians to work installing wind turbines and solar panels. Missouri voters passed the standard in 2008 with an overwhelming majority. The law requires Missouri investor-owned electric utilities to get at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable resources, such as solar panels and wind turbines by 2021.

The 15 percent renewable standard is a big step forward for Missouri. In 2005, less than 1 percent of Missouri's energy came from renewable sources and 85 percent came from burning coal. All of the coal burned in Missouri power plants is imported from states like Wyoming, costing more than $1.2 billion a year.

After voters passed the law in 2008, the Public Service Commission next developed rules on how utilities should implement the law. To inform their rule making, the PSC heard input from hundreds of stakeholders over a 19-month period.

Last June, the PSC approved a fair set of rules that clean-energy advocates viewed as favorable to the development of in-state renewable energy and were symmetrical to the law voters passed.

Unfortunately, less than a month later, the committee of Missouri legislators that must approve the PSC rules stepped outside its legal authority and removed a key 'sold to Missouri consumers" provision. The sourcing provision requires renewable energy to come from Missouri or surrounding areas to count toward the renewable standard.

Without this provision, utilities would be able to buy renewable energy credits from anywhere in the world, instead of developing renewable energy in our region.

The legislative committee removed the provision largely because of pressure from investor-owned utilities, like Ameren, which claim that they are worried about the costs of implementing the rule. This pushback is unfounded because the voter-approved standard specifically protects utilities and consumers through its 1 percent cost cap. The cost cap means that utilities would receive a reprieve from the standard if meeting the renewable-energy targets caused electric rates to increase by more than 1 percent.

Therefore, it is unclear why utilities are devoting so much time and energy to removing the sourcing provision rather than allowing the new provisions to jumpstart Missouri's clean-energy economy.

According to a 2008 University of Missouri-St. Louis study, the standard was expected to create 9,591 jobs and generate $2.86 billion in economic activity in Missouri by 2021. Without the 'sold to Missouri" provision and therefore no market for clean-energy developers to serve with new job-creating facilities in Missouri, utilities will buy renewable-energy credits from around the world, and Missouri will see little or none of these projected benefits.

Missourians passed a measure to lessen our over-reliance on coal and to create local, green jobs. Rather than buying credits from anywhere in the world, the new standard can help reinvigorate Missouri's manufacturing sector, which has laid off more than 72,000 workers in the last 10 years.

Many states already are reaping huge economic benefits from local renewable-energy development that resulted from similar laws in their states. Of the 27 states with a renewable-energy standard, almost all contain a geographic sourcing provision.

It is time for Missouri to gain its fair share of these same economic benefits. We no longer can afford to place last in the race to a new, clean-energy economy.

When the Missouri Legislature convenes in January, state legislators will have the opportunity to make sure renewable energy is sourced locally to benefit our economy. Let's keep the 'sold to Missouri" provision and make sure the job creation and economic investment of the Missouri renewable-energy standard stays where it belongs — right here at home.

Erin Noble co-directs Renew Missouri, an energy efficiency and renewable energy advocacy group, which is a project of the non-profit Missouri Coalition for the Environment.