Kehoe proposes utility surcharge changes

Missouri's electric utilities could make repairs and infrastructure improvements more quickly, under a bill introduced last week by state Sen. Mike Kehoe.

"The bill ... is a version of what the House and Senate passed several years ago for water and gas utilities," Kehoe explained. "It would (allow) electric utility providers to work on infrastructure projects, and to repair pieces of their systems - still with accountability from the Public Service Commission."

The bill would allow the electric utilities to add an "infrastructure system replacement surcharge," or ISRS, to customers' bills - without immediate PSC approval - for work done under the terms of the bill.

But the Fair Energy Rate Action Fund, known as FERAF, said last week it opposes Kehoe's proposal. FERAF's analysis of the proposed law claims "if this surcharge had been in place since 2007, it would have cost Ameren Missouri consumers at a minimum an additional $200 million on their electric bills - above and beyond what they already paid."