Speak Out: Ameren rate increase request

Posted by swampeastmissouri on Sun, Feb 5, 2012, at 11:17 AM:

This past week Ameren UE once again shows up at the front steps of the Public Service Commission asking for another rate increase of 14.5% to be imposed on the consumer. This is Ameren's fifth out of six rate increases they have ask for in the past six years. Most of the time the PSC awards them their request. Enough is enough Ameren needs to look at ways to control cost within there corporation such as high labor cost being just one factor. The people cannot afford year after year increases from this company. What Ameren needs is for another provider to compete against them that can offer lower rates and still offer good services to the consumers.

Replies (4)

  • Union Electric changed drasticly when Ameren came into being and it became first in the name. I have owned just a few shares of Union Electic Stock for about 40 years. First came the proposal to grant the Execs bonuses based on stock prices, then came the cut back in maintenance to show more profit and higher stock prices, followed by more outages during storms. They came to be like a host of other large corporations, greed from the top.

    -- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Sun, Feb 5, 2012, at 12:05 PM
  • Wheels they are very top heavy mainly from the labor cost from top to bottom.

    -- Posted by swampeastmissouri on Sun, Feb 5, 2012, at 12:53 PM
  • As Nil led into - deregulation and competition sound great, it's the details that cobble it up into a big mess.

    While one may have a choice on who to buy power from, it's generally the same people as always servicing the local lines - much like with Southwestern Bell and the telephone deregulation.

    Integrated utilities have generally split up into two or three separate and operationally-independent companies with little to no loyalties or obligations to the other(s) - either generation and transmission/distribution, or generation, transmission (the higher voltages, say above 34.5 kilovolt up to 500KV), and distribution (the lower voltages, say 34.5 kilovolt or less).

    All well and good, but once the ties are cut, it's difficult to unbreak the glass if/when things don't work out - as Illinois has found out.

    Suggest to be doggone sure one understands the relative lay of the land before jumping in. IIRC, the Missouri legislature looked at deregulation when it was all the rage a few years back, and decided it was a no-go for Show-Me.

    -- Posted by fxpwt on Sun, Feb 5, 2012, at 6:17 PM
  • I have only one gas line and one electric line available so the only competition, I suspect, would boil down to who brokered the utility.

    -- Posted by Old John on Mon, Feb 6, 2012, at 8:14 AM

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