SierraScape Spring 2020
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BY HENRY ROBERTSON
Energy Chair
If you've followed the saga of the Grain Belt Express (GBE), it never seems to end. The GBE is a private, wind-only electric transmission line designed to carry low-cost Kansas wind power to the east, dropping off 500 megawatts in Missouri where municipal utilities are eager to take advantage of it. We fought for five years to help the line win approval from the Public Service Commission, which finally came last year.
All along GBE has faced determined opposition from a small group of landowners along the route who worry that it will spoil their views and their property values. Now that their appeals have failed, they're looking to the legislature in Jefferson City. Bills have been introduced that would deny Invenergy, the company that would build the GBE, the power of eminent domain. One of these, House Bill 2033, has passed the House. As I write, it is in the Senate, which blocked a similar bill last year. If it passes, a single landowner could stop this multi-state project. Invenergy has now sweetened the pot by promising to add rural broadband capacity to the line's infrastructure. Call your senator and ask for a NO vote on HB 2033.
Missouri burns more coal for electricity than any other state but Texas. Ameren Missouri is the worst offender. Coal has declined to the point where the average American utility gets about 30% of its power from coal. Ameren's still at 75%.
This stubborn refusal to let go of its aging coal plants is starting to cost Ameren. It's been found liable in federal court for violating the Clean Air Act at its Rush Island plant in Festus. Fixing that problem could cost Ameren hundreds of millions of dollars.
Moody's investor service recently found that Ameren is at the highest risk from climate change of any utility in the country. Then Morgan Stanley put Ameren in a group of four utilities that could most benefit in earnings if it shuttered its uneconomical coal plants and invested in renewables instead. The investment sector has more clout with Ameren than the Sierra Club, I must admit, and they're sending increasingly loud and frequent signals.
When will Ameren see the light? One could almost feel sorry for them. They're starting to do some good things but they can't stop doing the bad things, like a driver who charges his electric car from solar panels but keeps his SUV.
Ameren did build a community solar project near Lambert Airport to let customers subscribe to solar power (for a higher rate). It sold out in no time, but Ameren is keeping a waiting list for possible future projects. Here's something you (I'm sure most readers are Ameren customers) can do: Add yourself to Ameren's community solar waiting list. Log on to your account or create one, click on Programs, then Community Solar. There's no immediate obligation.
Ameren has had to yield to the demands of major corporations for more renewable energy. They created a "green tariff" program called Renewable Choice for these customers to subscribe to wind power that Ameren will provide at no cost to other ratepayers. Ameren also made municipal governments eligible to subscribe, which means that Ameren may end up helping St. Louis meet its goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035. For that we're grateful.
Let's encourage Ameren to go on adding wind and solar to their system. But when they do this without retiring their aging coal plants, they're making us ratepayers pay for more generating capacity than we need. At some point the Public Service Commission will have to do something about excess capacity — but it mustn't be letting them burn more coal.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Contact Henry Robertson at
henryr874@gmail.com.