Depending on what website you reference, the state of Missouri is ranked fourth or fifth in the nation for the lowest electric rates, averaging around 10.82 cents per kilowatt. Nebraska, the corn-husker state is number one.
The states with the highest residential electricity rates are Hawaii — 44.28 cents, Rhode Island — 31.22 cents, California — 29.49 cents, Massachusetts — 28.34 cents, and Connecticut — 27.4 cents.
Do you notice a correlation? All the states with the highest rates are “blue” states.
Many factors come into play to cause a large difference in rates. It’s not just the state’s political leanings. Other components include transmission costs. Some states, including California, import a percentage of their electric power from their neighbors. Another underlying factor is the ratio of urban and rural populations.
You may have missed it, but starting in February, Ameren Missouri increased its Renewable Energy Standard Rate Adjustment Mechanism (RESRAM) charge from 35 cents to $2.04 per month. The RESRAM charge allows Ameren to recover costs associated with Missouri’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES).
That may not seem like much, but this increase is over 482 percent. Talk about inflation.
One reason we have low electricity rates is coal. Ameren generates almost half of its power from coal. On May 4, the Environmental Protection Agency released a new set of rules, one of which would require coal-fired plants to capture their greenhouse gas emissions.
The new regulations would require coal power plants that want to operate past 2039 to capture 90 percent of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032. Those set to retire by 2039 would have to capture some. Any plants with an end date of 2032 would not need to implement any changes.
This puts the Labadie Energy Center in Franklin County in the hot seat. Labadie is Ameren’s largest plant, with a 2,372 megawatt (MW) capacity—almost twice the ability of the Callaway Nuclear Power Plant, which is 1,194 MW.
As President Joe Biden continues his war on coal, China is on a coal-buying power spree. In the first half of 2023, China issued permits for 52,000 MW of new coal power. In 2023, China received 60 percent of its electricity from coal.
Environmentalists and Biden want us to switch from coal to wind and solar.
A joint report from Northwood University’s McNair Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy by Jason Hayes and Timothy Nash recently graded different forms of electric generation. The report grades natural gas, wind, solar, nuclear, coal, petroleum, geothermal and hydroelectric on five key factors: reliability, feasibility, technological innovation, environmental and human impact, and cost.
The report gives the following grades: Natural Gas—A, Nuclear—B+, coal and Hydroelectric—B-, Petroleum—C-, Geothermal—D+, Wind and Solar—F.
The question is not why natural gas and nuclear energy received the best grades but why wind and solar energy failed.
First, the authors point out that wind and solar energy can cost as much as 500 percent more than federal estimates. They also get low grades for environmental and human impact due to the massive extraction of minerals and a short life span — wind 20 years and solar less than 30. By contrast, in 2030, the Labadie plant will be 60 years old
The manufacture of solar and wind “also relies on forced labor (such as the Uyghurs in China) and even children (such as de facto slaves in Congo).” according to Hayes and Nash. “They require significant land use, threatening wildlife and huge swaths of nature. Finally, they’re inherently unreliable since the wind isn’t always blowing, nor the sun always shining. As many parts of the U.S. are learning, more wind and solar power means more blackouts.”
The report shows that the path to cleaner and more environmentally friendly electricity is to focus on natural gas.
“The worst path,” according to the authors, “is more solar and wind, yet that’s the road that policymakers have chosen. By choosing energy sources that get failing grades, policymakers are setting America itself up for failure.” They are setting us up to pay more.
