Utility customers' bill sent to House

For three weeks, Sen. Robin Wright-Jones' one-page utility consumers' bill carried an added weight - after Commerce Committee members determined it could be amended to include the nuclear early site permit legislation.

But that idea was ruled out-of-order Tuesday.

And, on Thursday, the St. Louis Democrat's one-page bill cleared the Senate on a 33-0 vote.

Tuesday afternoon - after the nuclear plant proposal was stripped away from it in a parliamentary point-of-order maneuver, Wright-Jones told colleagues: "Basically, this is the basic utilities bill for existing customers.

"If they owe less than $300 and have been late paying their utility bill - except for telecoms - more than five times in the past 12 months, they will not be charged a security deposit."