Despite passing with a two-thirds majority vote in 2008, a resolution concerning Proposition C, the Clean Energy Initiative, will be debated in the Missouri State Senate. At the center of the debate is the fate of Missouri’s future with renewable energy and job production.
Proposition C required Missouri utility companies to either purchase or generate renewable energy. This requirement also stipulated that 2 percent of sales made by utility companies in Missouri must be earned from renewable energy resources.
Upon review by a legislative committee, one of the rules was rejected: The written requirement that the renewable energy acquired by the utility companies comes from within Missouri state lines. A resolution was written to remove the rule amid controversy.
“The language of the amendment contains no express restriction on where (the utility companies) get power,” said Troy Rule, MU Associate Professor of Law.
The statute also states that every kilowatt-hour of renewable energy generated in Missouri will count as 1.25 kilowatt-hours. But the bill explicitly states the energy source may come from outside state boundaries.
Opponents of the resolution claim job creation within the state should be considered.
“Should these bills pass, the economic benefits and green jobs that the Renewable Energy Standard would bring to our state could be completely dissipated, negating some of the greatest benefits of the RES for Missouri,” Executive Campaigner at Solar Nation Chris Stimpson said in a statement.
Rule said arguments in favor of the rules based on the need for local job creation are understandable. But allowing utilities to comply with Proposition C through purchasing renewable energy generated outside Missouri’s state lines could be more beneficial for society as a whole, he added.
“Using renewable energy is ultimately a way to get at the global problem of carbon emissions, so many of the benefits of renewable energy accrue to everyone in the world,” Rule said. “Based on that perspective, one could argue that our policies should encourage the generation of renewable energy wherever it’s cheapest and where renewable energy devices will be most productive, such as having lots of solar farms in Arizona and wind farms in Kansas.”
Opponents of the resolution, however, remain unconvinced.
“Recently filed bills would allow utilities to comply with the Renewable Electricity Standard by purchasing renewable energy from places as far away as California and Canada,” Stimpson said.
The production of new jobs could also be stimulated in more effective ways such as the implementation of tax credits and certain subsidies – ways, Rule said, that would be more cost-effective, too.
“They are trying to impose a requirement not consistent with the statute, and I find that inappropriate,” Rule said.