Missouri utility regulators trim back proposed tree-trimming rule

~The Missouri Public Service Commission is expected to approve a new tree-trimming rule next week.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State utility regulators are trimming back a plan to mandate more extensive tree trimming by Missouri's public utilities, fearing consumers could have been hit with a costly rate increase.

On July 17, St. Louis-based Ameren Corp., the state's largest electricity provider, announced a three-year, $1 billion program to improved service, calling the program "Project Power On." Projects would include a $135-million tree-trimming schedule, increased equipment inspections and a $300-million effort to put more electric service underground, according to Ameren spokesman Mike Cleary.

He could not identify tree-trimming dates for the Cape Gir­ardeau-Jackson area.

He e-mailed a customer question-and-answer sheet created by Ameren indicating Power On will be initially funded with loans.

While no rate increase request is before the state commission, "future rates should appropriately reflect the cost of our infrastructure improvements, as well as our operating costs," the statement said.

The Missouri Public Service Commission is expected to approve the new tree-trimming rule next week. While still imposing the first industrywide requirements for tree pruning, the rule still would allow trees to grow closer to power lines than regulators had initially proposed.

Utility regulators are considering tree-trimming regulations after summer storms with high winds and winter storms with heavy ice downed thousands of tree limbs on power lines around Missouri in 2006 and early 2007.

The state's four investor-owned utilities estimated that a proposed vegetation management rule published this July could have cost up to $364 million to comply with in the first year and an additional $288 million annually thereafter.

Mixed reaction

Utilities could have sought to pass on those costs to consumers the next time they asked the PSC for a rate increase.

Consequently, utility regulators are revising their proposal with the aim of making it less stringent and thus less costly. A draft of the revised rule, provided Tuesday to The Associated Press, drew a mixed reaction from commissioners.

Among other things, it would strip a section that would have prohibited trees taller than 15 feet within the right of way of the largest transmission lines, instead letting utilities continue to abide by whatever guidelines the federal government sets.

As originally proposed, the PSC also would have required vegetation to be periodically trimmed within 25 feet of power lines with more than 50,000 volts and within 10 feet of power lines with between 600 volts and 50,000 volts, creating the possibility that utilities would have been required to cut trees behind their legal rights of way.

As revised, the proposed rule would lower the clearance for those larger power lines to 15 feet and leave the smaller lines' clearance at 10 feet -- with the caveat in both cases that utilities would not have to trim beyond the right of way, even if that is a smaller distance than the new requirements.

The revised rule also would delete a proposed requirement that new tree growth or small branches be trimmed, in between regularly scheduled prunings, any time they are within 6 inches of the power lines.

The revised proposal also would be phased in over four years instead of three.

Southeast Missourian reporter Peg McNichol contributed to this story.

Public Counsel Lewis Mills, who represents consumer interests before the PSC, said the revisions were preferable to the original plan. But he complained that utility regulators have not done a cost-benefit analysis to determine if customers would gain economically from the new requirements.

Public Service Commissioner Connie Murray, who had objected to the original proposal as "totally unworkable," said the revised rule could "create some additional reliability that will benefit customers" without creating extraordinary costs.

But Commissioner Robert Clayton, a drafter of the initially more stringent rule, questioned whether the revised proposal would accomplish much.

"I want to make sure that if we are going to do something, it is more than just public relations, and it will have an impact on reliability" of electric service, Clayton said. "I'm not sure this version will do that."

Commission Chairman Jeff Davis, who played a key role in the revisions, estimated the new tree-trimming proposal could cost utilities between $45 million and $60 million.

Davis pointed to a private analysis performed for The Empire District Electric Co. that claimed many of the requirements as initially presented would have been nearly impossible to implement.

Joplin-based Empire claimed it would have cost $45 million annually for it to comply with the initial proposal -- an amount greater than the company's $41 million in net income during the past state fiscal year.

St. Louis-based Ameren Corp., the state's largest electricity provider, said a strict 10-foot clearance rule for vegetation would more than double what typically is done for power lines in urban neighborhoods.

"Is it necessary to maintain that distance in all circumstances? We don't think so," said Cleary. "It's too prescriptive; it's too rigid."

Ameren, which was hard hit by storms and extended power outages, already may have a more extensive tree-trimming program than some other utilities. Ameren is spending $45 million annually on tree trimming, about double what it was spending in 2003, Cleary said.