Senate rejects green energy requirement, sets goals instead

Senate rejects green energy requirement, sets goals instead

911review.org

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) ' The Senate rejected an effort Wednesday
to require utility companies to meet renewable energy standards by
2022, instead endorsing a bill that merely sets goals and encourages
companies to work toward them.

Sponsoring Sen. Chris Koster said
that while he wants something stronger, a requirement on utilities
would die in the Legislature and at least his bill sets something to
strive for.

''We could not get a mandate through. This legislation is an important step,'' he said.

Koster, R-Harrisonville, handled a similar bill last year, but it
failed when the House and Senate did not reconcile their differences.

Many
Democrats say setting goals does not go far enough and that many other
states are requiring electric companies to use a certain amount of
wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.

Sen. Victor
Callahan, D-Independence, questioned why Republican lawmakers supported
a requirement passed last year that most gasoline contain 10 percent
ethanol but have concerns about imposing any requirement on electric
utilities.

Ethanol producers also are eligible for state tax breaks.

''With
one hand this Legislature said, 'We're going to have a mandate, and
that mandate isn't even good enough to give you a market, we're going
to give you tax credits,''' he said, while with renewable energy,
''largely we have goals, aspirations, hopes.''

''It just seems to me to be a basic public policy contradiction,'' Callahan said.

But Koster also said there are problems with the ethanol mandate,
such as higher corn prices hurting cattle farmers, another reason to go
slow with renewable energy.

''It has had unforeseen consequences,'' he said.

The
Senate rejected a proposed amendment by Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia,
to require utilities to generate 1 percent of their electricity from
renewable energy by 2010 and gradually increase that to 10 percent by
2022. The vote against it was 21-11, with only Democrats supporting it.

Electric companies would have been able to charge customers up to 50
cents a month each to meet the requirements and faced financial
penalties if they didn't comply.

The measure the Senate then
endorsed by a voice vote instead sets goals for electric companies to
generate 3 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2012 and 10
percent by 2020.

Renewable energy bill is SB54.

On the Net:

Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov

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