Cori Bush, Rev. Rodrick Burton, and Sierra Club call on Ameren for an equitable transition to 100% clean energy by 2030

St. Louis, MO -- Ameren Missouri needs to release a justice-centered transition to 100% clean energy by 2030 that will reduce air and water pollution, create jobs, and avert the worst impacts of our changing climate. That’s the message delivered today by community leaders as Ameren nears the October 1, 2020 submission deadline for its long-range energy planning strategy, known as an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).

“Decades of pollution and our changing climate disproportionately impact marginalized communities in St. Louis and throughout the world,” said Cori Bush. “Black children in St. Louis are ten times more likely to visit the emergency room for asthma than white children. Air pollution billowing from Ameren’s coal plants make it harder to breathe, especially for Black communities already burdened by decades of systemic racism like poor housing and lack of medical access. Ameren should act to make our community better now while Congress must pass the Green New Deal to ensure humanity can thrive for generations to come. The time for big change is now.”

Ameren Missouri has made modest investments in renewable energy thanks to Missouri voters approving a renewable energy standard in 2008. However, it has yet to set realistic retirement dates for its three largest coal plants that will help mitigate the global climate crisis, all of which lack modern pollution controls. The Labadie coal plant is the largest coal plant in the country without modern pollution controls for deadly sulfur dioxide pollution.

“Climate change is a civil rights issue that needs to be addressed with the same sense of urgency we see in the fight to reform the criminal injustice system,” said Reverend Rodrick Burton, Pastor of the New Northside Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis. “I’m calling on Ameren to quickly phase out its use of dirty old coal plants and put forth a just transition to clean energy. Choosing to continue relying on coal is choosing to exploit people and the natural resources that God charged us with protecting.”

Ameren’s actions over the last three years include appealing a ruling from a judge that it violated the Clean Air Act for more than ten years at its Rush Island coal plant. The state’s largest monopoly electric utility lobbied the Missouri legislature, successfully, to pass a law allowing it to leave toxic coal waste in vulnerable areas like floodplains. Ameren received Congressional scrutiny for funding a dark money effort to repeal environmental safeguards, money it tried to recover from ratepayers that was denied by state regulators. The utility has resumed utility disconnections in the midst of a global pandemic and economic crisis.

“Ameren’s CEO, Warner Baxter, literally has the power to change how Ameren does business,” said Leah Clyburn of the Sierra Club. “No amount of community donations or advertisements will change the fact that it is operating on an old business model that is harming Black and under-resourced communities. Real justice at Ameren starts with it retiring its dirty coal plants and transitioning to renewable energy that will create new jobs while making it easier for us to breathe.”