This week, Governor Kehoe signed SB 4, an omnibus utility bill that changes financing for utility companies. The bill adds more ways for utility companies to shift costs to consumers and increase utility bills. Empower Missouri denounces this change for these reasons:
- Consumers Council of Missouri estimates that SB 4 will raise utility bills by $1,115 per year for each Missouri household.
- The U.S. Energy Information Agency found that nearly 1 in 3 households with children and 1 in 5 senior households experience energy insecurity. Twenty-nine percent of households with children report that they had to reduce or forgo food or medicine to pay energy costs. The increased costs in Senate Bill 4 will exacerbate this phenomenon, referred to as “heat or eat”, which forces low-income families to choose between a utility disconnect and skipping a meal. Increased utility costs also contribute to homelessness as households struggle to keep up with the growing cost of staying in their home.
- Increased utility costs on Missouri families will have negative downstream effects on the economy and costs to taxpayers. Numerous studies have linked energy insecurity from high energy bills to negative health outcomes such as respiratory illness, anxiety, and depression. Poor health outcomes lead to decreased employment and increased health costs.
- One of the bill’s main provisions allows utilities to increase consumers’ bills to pay for new power plants before the plants are operational. This shifts the risk of new construction onto consumers and increases utility companies’ profits by mandating cheap financing paid for by consumers.
Empower Missouri, community partners, and advocates will be tracking implementation of SB 4 and the resulting increase in utility bills. We encourage the Public Service Commission, the state regulator of utilities, to work with utilities to maximize consumer assistance programs and help low-income families in Missouri afford these increased costs.
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