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Report: Clean Energy Bill Would Produce Jobs, Boost Economy
June 19, 2009
MissouriNet
By Jessica Machetta
As clean energy and climate legislation moves through Congress, new data show that a $2.9 billion investment would create 36,000 new jobs in Missouri. According to the analysis, shifting to a clean-energy economy will help millions of low-income Americans by creating more accessible job opportunities -- with the potential for advancement -- and by lowering utility bills and transportation costs.
The two studies come from four political analysis groups: Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Center for American Progress, Green For All, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The outcome outlines how investment in a clean-energy economy would produce significant economic and job creation benefits.
Read more...
NRC Conducting Special Inspection at Callaway Nuclear Plant
June 22, 2009
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting a special inspection at the Callaway nuclear plant in response to problems discovered with an auxiliary feedwater pump during testing. The plant, located near Fulton, Mo., is operated by Ameren UE.
Operators encountered problems with the turbine driven auxiliary feedwater pump during routine testing on May 25. Operators fixed the pump and subsequently restarted it satisfactorily. The pump is used to supply water to the plant's steam generators in the event all AC power to the plant is lost.
"We want to thoroughly understand the failure and its significance," said Region IV Administrator Elmo E. Collins.
Read more...
Park Service Seeks Input on Plan for Ozark National Scenic Riverways
June 17, 2009
Southeast Missourian
By Alexander Stephens
National Park Service officials will hold five meetings next week to allow people to assess the options for a new 20-year plan that will affect development along the Current and Jacks Fork rivers.
Based on several hundred responses from meetings held in 2006 to gauge public opinion, the National Park Service developed four alternatives for a new general management plan for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.
The alternatives present a range of how much development, such as new RV sites and campgrounds, would be allowed and a range of restrictions on water vehicles. The fourth alternative proposes no new action.
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AmerenUE Moving Forward with Nuclear Reactor Application
May 7, 2009
KWMU
By Adam Allington
The St. Louis-based utility AmerenUE is continuing its application to build a second nuclear power plant in mid-Missouri, despite lack of funds to pay for it.
When CWIP legislation failed to advance in the General Assembly last month, Ameren CEO Tom Voss said UE would "suspend its efforts to build the nuclear plant."
But, spokesman Mike Cleary now says Ameren is still pursuing its application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Read more...
Farmers' Advocate Talks to White House
May 7, 2009
Columbia Daily Tribune
A Howard County farmer and advocate, Rhonda Perry, met this week with White House officials to push for better health care access for Missouri’s family farmers.
Perry, program director for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, also represented the National Family Farm Coalition on the trip. The meeting was organized by the White House Office of Public Liaison and designed to discuss issues related to rural health care costs, access and affordability.
Perry presented White House officials with a Missouri-specific report showing that burdensome health care costs are forcing farmers to take off-site jobs for the health care coverage alone. Released last year, the report, "Health Care in the Heartland: 2007 Health Insurance Survey of Missouri Farm and Ranch Operators," was produced by MRCC, Missouri Jobs with Justice, Saint Louis University Center for Health Law Studies and The Access Project.
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CWIP Hikes Charges for Delayed Florida Plant
May 1, 2009
St. Petersburg Times
By Asjylyn Loder
Progress Energy's $17 billion nuclear project has been delayed by 20 months, but its customers will continue to pay for it in their monthly electric bills.
The utility wants to start charging customers nearly twice as much next year for the Levy County project even though it won’t start producing power until March 2018 at the earliest, the St. Petersburg utility announced Friday morning. The delay may also increase the price of the project, but the utility won’t know the details until later this year.
Jeff Lyash, president and chief executive of Progress Energy Florida, defended the utility's decision to continue to charge customers for the plant. The investment will save customers money in the long run, he said. Without it, the project will likely fail.
"Nuclear is critically important in helping us hit the right balance with fuel diversity, security, greenhouse gas reductions and it’s in the best interest of our customers," Lyash said.
The utility has faced populist outrage this year against its rising rates. In January, its customers saw a monthly increase of $11.42 per 1,000 kilowatt hours to pay for nuclear projects, part of an overall 24 percent increase.
Read more...
Ameren Nuclear Plant Bill Likely Dead for This Session
April 22, 2009
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Tony Messenger
JEFFERSON CITY – A bill that would pave the way for a new Ameren nuclear plant has hit a roadblock in the Missouri Senate and is likely dead for the session.
One of the Legislative session’s most controversial bills, the Ameren-backed proposal would repeal the state’s prohibition on utility companies charging customers for some costs of an electrical plant before the facility is up and running.
But consumer groups and large industrial companies in the state complained that the bill also rewrote utility regulations to the point where Ameren could reap too many rate increases during the process of building a $6 billion plus nuclear plant in Callaway County.
Read more...
AmerenUE Should Stop 'Greenwashing' Financing of New Nuclear Plant
April 19, 2009
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial
By Erin Noble, MCE Energy Policy and Outreach Coordinator
The Post-Dispatch's editorial on the campaign to pass construction-work-in-progress legislation accurately highlights Ameren's deceptive tactics. In a recent TV commercial, Ameren "greenwashes" the CWIP bill with promises of wind and solar power. However, renewable sources of power like wind and solar do not need CWIP financing to be built. Shame on Ameren for misguiding the public on the facts surrounding CWIP.
In reality, the Office of Public Counsel reports that the CWIP legislation could lead to 40 percent increases in electric rates. The CWIP bill also requires ratepayers to finance a plant (the role of investors who would get a rate of return on such an investment) without a guarantee that the plant ever would come online. If costs soar or if the project is abandoned after billions of dollars are invested, ratepayers would end up paying the bill, while utility investors still get their guaranteed monopoly profits (currently 10.76 percent for Ameren).
In 1976, Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that prohibited CWIP charges. Today, polls shows that 82 percent of Missourians are opposed to this legislation. Voters have made it abundantly clear they do not want CWIP. Legislators should respect their decision and not overturn the will of the people they are supposed to represent.
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Do the Math on Senate Bill 228
April 14, 2009
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial
Missouri's largest electric utility wants to change state law so that customers could be billed for finance charges while a new nuclear power plant is being built in Callaway County.
No big deal, AmerenUE officials say. The result would be "a 1 percent to 3 percent annual increase in rates several years from now," AmerenUE President Tom Voss said in a letter to ratepayers. That sounds trivial.
If you do the math, a 3 percent annual increase, compounded annually, would hike electric rates by 34.4 percent over 10 years. The average residential customer, who now pays about $75 a month, would be paying almost $101 a month at the end of that time.
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Coalition Formed to Express Opposition to CWIP Changes
March 27, 2009
Missourinet
By Steve Walsh
As the effort to change the Construction Work in Progress law makes its way through the State Capitol, a coalition of employers and citizens has been formed to fight the effort. The Fair Electricity Rate Action Fund (FERAF) opposes the move by Ameren - the starte's largest electric utility - to convince lawmakers to change the law to allow the company to charge ratepayers for the costs of a second Callaway County nuclear power plant while the facility is still under construction.
FERAF fears rates will rise by as much as 40 percent to cover the estimated $7-9 billion price tag for the new reactor. FERAF spokesman Gregg Keller insists this is not opposition to nuclear power.
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The French Nuclear Industry Is Bad Enough in France; Let's Not Expand It to the U.S.
March 23, 2009
Alternet
By Linda Gunter
"Why can't the Americans be more like the French?" It's the prevailing pro-nuclear refrain, the latest in the nuclear industry's efforts at fictional reinvention.
And until the collapse of his ill-fated and poorly orchestrated presidential run, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was the choirmaster, saying: "If France can produce 80 percent of its electricity with nuclear power, why can't we?"
This clarion call to newfound Francophilia (remember "freedom fries?") is based on a number of false assumptions, the most obvious being that if France gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy, this equates with success.
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West Lake Landfill Radioactive Waste Clean Up
March 17, 2009
KDHX 88.1 Earthworms (MP3 File)
Residents of the St. Louis watershed and airshed (and everyone downstream) Listen Up! Kay Drey, citizen activist -- radioactive issues expert and MO Coalition for the Environment spokesperson -- urges you to learn and speak up about proper clean-up of radioactive wastes illegally dumped (in the 1970s) in Bridgeton's West Lake Landfill, in the Missouri River floodplain. The US EPA wants to cap this site with a rubble mix and, literally get out of town. This is the last of several radioactive waste site cleanups in our area, results of uranium refinement during World War II -- and it's one we need to have properly cleaned up. The Coalition recommends transferring cleanup to the US Army Corps of Engineers whose expertise, proper equipment and oversight will safeguard local -- and planetary -- health. Make your voice heard!
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Warning About Toxic Land in St. Louis County
March 10, 2009
KMOV Channel 4
By Matt Sczesny
An environmental group is worried that nuclear waste in a landfill could contaminate the water supply.
Nixon Says 'No' to Ameren Nuke Billing Plan
February 26, 2009
KMOX
By Kevin Killeen
Ameren UE is pushing state legislature to overthrow state law so that customers would pay for new nuclear reactor before it's built. Governor Jay Nixon says now is not a good time to hit customers with more bills.
Read more...
AmerenUE Ordered to Turn Over Callaway 2 Data
February 25, 2009
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Jeffrey Tomich
For months, Missouri Public Counsel Lewis Mills Jr. has been trying to pry information from AmerenUE regarding plans to build a second nuclear plant in Callaway County. Tuesday, state regulators ordered the utility to comply with most of Mills' requests.
The PSC ordered AmerenUE to turn over information related to 12 of 14 requests. It denied two other requests that Ameren had argued would violate attorney-client privilege. But Mills is free to ask for the information again, according to the order.
Mills request for information follows his unsuccessful attempts (at least so far) to compel the Public Service Commission to investigate AmerenUE's plans for another reactor, roughly projected to cost $6 billion to $9 billion. No one knows AmerenUE's best cost estimates because the utility isn't disclosing them.
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Ameren Seeks More Rate Hikes
February 17, 2009
St. Louis Business Journal
By Kelsey Volkmann
Ameren Corp. plans to file requests to raise rates in Missouri and Illinois, just months after the utility company got approval to raise rates in both states.
"Rising operating and financing costs are still resulting in a regulatory lag in Illinois and Missouri," Chairman, President and Chief Executive Gary Rainwater told investors on a conference call Tuesday morning. "Despite our recently granted increases in Missouri and Illinois … we believe our 2009 core earnings will be relatively flat compared with 2008 core earnings. We are navigating our company through a global recession, strains on the energy markets, lower customer usages ... and higher financing costs."
In September, the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a requested Ameren Illinois electric and gas rate hike of $162 million.
In January, Missouri regulators approved an electric rate increase of $162.6 million.
Read more...
Urge Your Rep to Support a National RES
February 12, 2009
Union of Concerned Scientists
A strong national renewable electricity standard (RES) would reduce global warming pollution, create jobs, and save consumers money. It would require utilities to generate an increasing percentage of their electricity from clean, renewable resources such as the sun, wind, heat from the planet's interior, and plant and animal waste.
Recent changes in Washington have presented us with an historic window of opportunity to pass this critical legislation. But we must ensure our representatives support a strong standard that doesn't squander our opportunity to renew our economy with clean, renewable energy. Please urge your representative to co-sponsor the 25 percent by 2025 renewable electricity standard bill that was recently introduced in the House of Representatives.
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Nixon Blasts PSC for Rejecting Callaway Study
January 27, 2009
St. Louis Business Journal
Gov. Jay Nixon blasted the Missouri Public Service Commission on Tuesday for rejecting a plan to study the effect of a proposed second nuclear power plant in Callaway County on Ameren ratepayers.
"On the very day that the PSC voted to increase Ameren's rates for electricity, they were unwilling to take a public look at what costs ratepayers will bear for the construction of this proposed plant," Nixon said in a statement. "For policymakers, more information is better. This would have provided the public opportunity to quantify the costs and obtain information on what effect the Callaway plant would have on consumer rates."
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Repealing CWIP Won't Help Families
January 11, 2009
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial
Ron Richard, the Joplin Republican who is the new speaker of the Missouri House, last week unveiled what he and his fellow GOP lawmakers are calling the "Family Recovery Plan."
Here's how it would help Missouri families recover: It would repeal a law that protects them from being overcharged by utilities.
To be fair, that's not the whole idea. There's also the vague promise of a "modest" tax cut (at a time when the state faces hundreds of millions in revenue shortfalls) and a great deal of obfuscation about creating jobs. But it's a smoke screen.
The fact is that under Mr. Richard's plan, electric customers soon would start paying higher rates for a nuclear power plant that won't begin generating electricity for a decade or more. That's a utility version of the permanent seat license scam: Pay now for the chance to buy electricity in the future at what are certain to be higher rates. Such a deal.
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Georgia PSC Slams Nuke Pay Plan
December 24, 2008
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Margaret Newkirk
Georgia Power recently got some good and bad news, as it continues its push for new nuclear reactors in the state.
The good news: Neither the Georgia Public Service Commission's public interest staff nor the state's biggest industrial customers oppose the new reactors outright.
The bad news: Both the PSC staff and the industrial customers slammed the company's proposal to begin charging for the new reactors five years before they're complete.
In filings late last week, the staff said it was recommending approval of the reactors subject to adoption of a number of financial limits. One of the limits was to deny Georgia Power's request to begin charging for the reactors early, at least for now. The staff also wants the PSC to tie Georgia Power's allowed rate of return to whether it brings the multibillion-dollar nuclear project in close to budget.
Read more...
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