Category: Utilities
2024 Utility Bills You Should be Aware of
The Missouri legislative session provides creative ways to enable utilities to increase their rates.Â
These bills would affect everyoneâs bottom line, hitting those with low- and moderate-income especially hard.
If you view yourself as an educated consumer, you should be familiar with these bills.
Construction Work in Progress (âCWIPâ): Senate Bill 928 (Senator Mike Cierpiot)
Misleadingly referred to as the âMissouri Clean Power Actâ, this bill provides an opportunity for utilities to require consumers to pre-pay for large utility power plants, regardless of whether the project is ever completed.
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? CWIP creates a situation where the public bears almost all the risk of something going wrong during the 10+ years of planning and construction of a nuclear power plant, with no guarantee that the project will ever produce electricity.
In South Carolina, CWIP took $9 Billion from consumers for a nuclear plant expansion. The project was never completed and did not benefit consumers. Â
PSC and OPC Overhaul Bill: SB 1280 (Senator Mike Cierpiot)
This bill would dramatically change utility ratemaking in Missouri by tipping the scales toward monopoly utilities during proceedings before the Missouri Public Service Commission. Missouri consumersâ official representative, the Office of the Public Counsel (OPC), would lose much of its independence, unreasonably politicizing the office. OPCâs ability to appeal MoPSC decisions would be severely restricted.
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? Utilities are already assured an opportunity to earn a corporate profit of at least 9.4% and do not need any additional advantages in securing rate increases before the MO PSC.
The Office of Public Counsel, representing and protecting the interests of the Missouri public, plays an indispensable role in ensuring that consumer interests are heard. Their activities have saved ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Any limitation on the OPCâs powers will enhance the power of the utilities at the expense of Missouriâs ratepayers.
Right of First Refusal (âROFRâ): SB 805 (Senator Rusty Black)
This legislation would give local utilities a monopolistic right to prevent other investors from competitively bidding on their transmission projects unless the local utility has decided that it will not construct the project.
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? âBlocking new entrants from competing on transmission projects  . . . (is) an anti-consumer, anti-free market policy that costs consumers billions of dollars in higher electricity rates,â Paul Cicio, Chair of the Electricity Transmission Competition Coalition.
MO PSC Approves Evergy’s Amended Application Seeking Tariff Revisions to TOU Program
On September 27, 2023, the Missouri Public Service Commission approved Evergy’s request to revise its Time-of-Use (“TOU”) program. The default TOU rate for Evergy customers will now be the low differential Peak Adjustment, instead of the high differential default TOU previously mandated.
Consumers Council has expressed concerns about TOU default rates, especially when customers are not provided with enough education and sufficient time to enable them to change their behavior and adjust to different rates applied to energy consumption at different times of the day.
In the most recent Ameren rate case, we argued against mandating time-based rates, saying that making them the default choice for consumers âhas the potential to cause increased cost to those who can least afford it.â
âAt particular risk are seniors, families with children under five, and those with medical need for air conditioning,â Jacqueline Hutchinson, Director of Advocacy, said in written testimony. âShifting these customers to a potentially higher rate without their knowledge, with suggestions that they should not be using their air conditioning during the hottest part of the day, could lead to increased health risks.â
Ameren rates will be going up. The question is: Who will pay, and how much?
The state authorized Ameren last month to raise rates enough to boost revenue by nearly 9% or about $220 million a year. The parties discussed at a hearing on Thursday how to divide the costs between residential and industrial customers.
âItâs just a matter of how do you split the pie,â said John Coffman, a lawyer who advocates on utility issues for the Consumers Council of Missouri, describing the case ahead of the hearing. âThatâs the one main issue that has not been resolved.â
Missouri regulators, worried Spire is stoking fear, order the company to write letter to customers
The PSCâs motion Thursday said that Spire’s recent messaging to its regional customers â including emails and letters sent with bills â âappear to reflect an attempt by Spire to mobilize public opinion, through fear, in order to potentially pressure federal authorities” âWe have heard a lot of fearmongering lately, much of it coming from Spire, itself, that residents of St. Louis are going to lose their natural gas service this winter,â FERC Chairman Richard Glick said at the meeting. âI think itâs time to turn down the rhetoric and examine the facts.â
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Nearly 650,000 homes and businesses in eastern Missouri rely on reliable, affordable natural gas from Spire STL Pipeline to fuel their lives. Learn more about the potential impact to the St. Louis community without the STL Pipeline. On September 14, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an emergency certificate to allow the STL Pipeline to keep operating for 90-days. That certificate will expire December 13, 2021.
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Utility rates could increase for more than 1 million Missouri customers next year
Low-income households, particularly in communities of color, spend a greater share of their income on utilities, according to several research studies. A report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, for instance, found Black households spend 43% more on energy costs than white households.
âWhy does the bottom line have to affect people of low income the most? The cost is rolling directly down to consumers from low-income, predominantly Black and brown communities.â
Virtual public hearings in Ameren Missouriâs rate case will be held from Oct. 5 to 8.
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