Other views: Stick with voters’ wishes

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August 30, 2010

— St. Louis Post-Dispatch The Joplin Globe Mon Aug 30, 2010, 07:28 AM CDT

Lawmakers should stick with new rules for renewable energy compliance.

Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a renewable-energy mandate known as Proposition C two years ago. The 2008 Proposition C is not to be confused with the 2010 “no individual health care mandate” that passed earlier in August.

The 2008 proposition requires large electric utilities to obtain 15 percent of the electricity that they sell from renewable sources, such as wind or solar, by 2021.

It also contains a “circuit breaker” — a provision that limits the financial impact of the renewable-energy mandate on ratepayers. Electric rates can rise no more than 1 percent a year.

Seems relatively simple, doesn’t it? But when it came time to write the rules, things got a lot more complicated.

Supporters talked up Proposition C as a way to encourage alternative energy and create thousands of green jobs.

The implication was that utilities would obtain that renewable power from windmills, solar arrays or hydroelectric stations in Missouri, or at least in adjacent states.

But that’s not exactly what the initiative says. It seems to permit utilities to meet their obligations under the law simply by buying “renewable energy credits,” or RECs. They represent a subsidy that reduces the price of renewable energy so it is more competitive with energy generated from fossil fuels.

In theory, Missouri utilities meet Proposition C’s mandates by buying a whole bunch of RECs — from renewable energy sources elsewhere in the country — without actually bringing a single watt of renewable power to Missouri customers.

That may comply with the law, but not with voters’ expectations. In fact, it defeats the whole purpose of a state renewable-energy standard.

In June, the Public Service Commission finalized new rules that say Missouri utilities cannot use RECs to comply with the renewable energy mandate. Instead, the PSC’s rules would have required utilities to buy actual renewable energy from Missouri sources or prove that actual renewable energy generated in an adjacent state had been purchased for customers here.

That was the right decision, but it probably comes at a price.

Here’s a radical idea: Lawmakers could give deference to the wishes of voters instead of the dictates of lobbyists.

That means sticking with the rules the PSC approved in June. Proposition C was meant to encourage renewable energy in Missouri, not subsidize it for electric customers in other states.

— St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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Other views: Stick with voters’ wishes

Eliminating the state income tax and increasing sales tax was debated during a press day on Thursday at the Missouri Capitol. Do you favor that proposal?

Eliminating the state income tax and increasing sales tax was debated during a press day on Thursday at the Missouri Capitol. Do you favor that proposal?

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