Letters To The Editor
Public Hearing Announced
June 05th 2014 by Dee Loflin
Submitted Article to
news@showmetimes.com
news@showmetimes.com
Public Hearing Announced in Caruthersville
on Overearnings Complaint Against Ameren
Consumers filed the complaint after public documents released by the PSC showed that over the past two years Ameren has over earned more than $100 million from its customers than the PSC had authorized.
A complaint is Ameren customers’ only opportunity to oppose the monopoly utility’s overearnings and persuade the PSC to order a reduction in their rates. Such overearnings potentially cost Missouri consumers millions of dollars.
Noranda Aluminum, the state’s largest consumer of electricity, filed the overearnings complaint at the urging of both residential and business consumers. The complaint asks the PSC to order Ameren to reduce its rates.
The public hearing will be held June 9, 6:00 p.m. in Caruthersville at the Armory located at 801 West 3rd Street.
This would not be the first time Ameren has earned more than the PSC authorized. A story last March in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch revealed that “the utility’s own financial data show that it earned millions of dollars more than authorized in 2012.”
The story reported that Ameren over earned $80 million. Its 11.66 percent return on equity exceeded the 10.2 percent the PSC had authorized.
Ameren has increased base rates by 43 percent over the past six years.
In addition, since 2009 has charged customers $500 Million in surcharges. Ameren has indicated it will ask the PSC for another base rate increase later this summer.
The Fair Energy Rate Action Fund (FERAF – www.fairenergyrates.com) is a Missouri-based consumer and employer group formed in 2009 with the goal of keeping Missouri’s energy rates fair and affordable. FERAF seeks to accomplish this goal by educating the general public and public policy makers about the impact of utility rates on business and residential consumers.
Last Updated on June 05th 2014 by Dee Loflin
https://showmetimes.com/Blogpost/ur64/Public-Hearing-Announced
