Missouri Gov – Mike Kehoe signed a comprehensive utility bill into law Wednesday.
The legislation alters a variety of policies governing how utilities operate and bill customers in the state.
“With this legislation, Missouri is well-positioned to attract new industry, support job growth, and maintain affordable, reliable energy for our citizens,” the governor said in a statement. “This is about powering Missouri for Missourians and not relying on other states and countries to produce our power.”
Soon after the governor signed the law, a group of critics spoke out in Jefferson City, claiming that it will increase utility costs for customers and exacerbate climate change by favoring energy sources that emit greenhouse gases.
The Consumers Council of Missouri’s Executive Director, Sandra Padgett, stated that the law will raise household utility bills by more than $1,000 per year.
“This bill is nothing more than a profit-driven package that benefits utilities at the expense of hard-working Missouri families,” he said.
The bill allows utilities to charge customers for power plants while they are being built, rather than after they have been completed. It also requires utilities to replace retiring power plants with a comparable-sized energy source that can be turned on immediately, which renewable energy advocates believe could eliminate wind and solar.
According to Gretchen Waddell Barwick, President of the Sierra Club of Missouri Chapter, the law will raise utility costs and pollution.
“It allows utilities to force Missourians to funnel money into risky business ventures like untried, expensive nuclear reactors and to invest in expensive fossil fuel infrastructure that won’t even be available for us to use until 2030,” Waddell Barwick, an attorney, said.
The bill includes changes to protect consumers by expanding the time when utilities cannot disconnect service when it is extremely hot or cold outside. It also increases funding for an office that represents the public at utility hearings.