By Marshall Griffin, KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – A substitute version of the Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) bill is being considered by the Missouri Senate.
The original bill would allow exemptions in the three-decades-old law barring power companies from charging customers for new plants while under construction.
The alternate bill, sponsored by State Senator Kurt Schaefer (R, Columbia), would instead give the Public Service Commission authority to grant such exemptions.
"The entity could develop the license once they get the license, for example, from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission...they would then have to come back with a plan, open a PSC case, (and) get approval for that...CWIP would be a tool that the PSC would have available if they think that's appropriate," Schaefer said.
Critics oppose the alternate bill, saying it still deters the will of the voters who approved the law in 1976.
Kathleen Logan Smith is Executive Director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
"I don't think that will satisfy the ratepayers of Missouri, because the PSC and Ameren(UE) have hardly met a rate hike they did not like," Smith said.
AmerenUE wants to build a second nuclear reactor at its plant near Fulton.
Officials for the St. Louis-based utility say billing customers for costs during construction is the only way they can afford to build it.