Thu, Nov 26 2009
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Green-energy mandate could be on ballot That renewable benefit can be brought online incrementally for all Empire’s customers as the renewable standard creeps up each year and those costs already are built into the existing rates.
And last summer, Empire announced a 20-year agreement to purchase power from the Meridian Way Wind Farm near Concordia, Kan. Empire said that will generate about 105 megawatts annually for its customers, or enough electricity for 25,000 homes. That wind farm is under construction. Combined, the two wind farms will be able to provide about 15 percent of Empire’s power as early as 2009. “We were first in getting into wind energy big,” said Beecher. Empire exemption Last week, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt signed Senate Bill 1181 creating the “Show-Me Green Tax Holiday,” making certain energy-efficient appliances exempt from sales taxes on certain days. That legislation also contained a provision put in at the behest of state Reps. Bryan Stevenson, R-Webb City, and Ed Emery, R-Lamar, Beecher said. It states that any electric company that achieves renewable-energy use equal to or greater than 15 percent by Jan. 20, 2009, “shall be exempt from a requirement to pay an incentive to any customer who installs a solar-energy system and shall also be exempt from meeting mandated solar renewable energy requirements.” Empire is the only utility in Missouri that fits that exemption, and worked with local legislators to get that provision in the law ahead of the initiative. “We’re not going to be shoved into solar if it doesn’t make sense,” Beecher said. “Right now, it is more expensive. ... We could meet it but it would add cost.” Beecher said he supports the goal of 15 percent and thinks it is attainable, but he doesn’t want to see utilities tied down to specific mandates — like the 2 percent for solar — if there is a better alternative. “Right now, your main option to meet this is wind,” he said. Nor does Beecher like the idea that only investor-owned utilities are being held to the proposed standards, but not municipal power companies, such as those serving the communities of Carthage, Monett and Springfield, for example. Cooperatives also are not included. “If it is good for Missouri, it ought to apply to all,” Beecher said. Carve-outs Asked why cooperatives are excluded, Erin Noble, energy policy and outreach coordinator for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, said: “There would have been some big opposition.” 
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