Ozark Border members told electric rates could rise 50 percent

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- With looming emissions standards proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the outlook is discouraging for Missouri's electric cooperative customers, said David Klindt, vice president of the Association of Missouri Rural Electric Cooperatives, during an Ozark Border annual meeting last week.

Two EPA rules could have a significant effect on electric customers, Klindt said.

The first rule, already published, essentially bans any new coal-fired electricity plants.

The other rule, he said, is supposed to cut carbon emissions from current plants, and that's where potential problems lie for co-op customers.

Those coal plants provide about 80 percent of the electricity for Missouri's co-op customers.

"They want our coal plants to be more efficient," Klindt said, "but we've already done that in Missouri."

Missouri's co-ops, Klindt said, have "spent almost a billion and a half dollars in the last couple of decades" to cut emissions and make plants more efficient.

"We work hard to make our coal plants very efficient," he said. "We've already reached over 90-something percent of taking out the particulate matter [from the emissions]."

The new EPA rule, Klindt explained, is saying "you need to make coal plants 6 percent more efficient.

"Maybe somebody who hasn't kept their plants up could make it to 6 percent, but I'm not sure we can get another 1 percent because we keep our stuff up."

If the proposed rule is finalized, as it's currently written, next July, Klindt said, the "only way it will be achievable is by cutting almost all coal power."

Electric cooperatives would then have to rely on natural gas plants to produce more of their electricity, at a much higher cost.

"We're going to have to use more expensive power in our mix," Klindt said, "and if we have to run our gas plants more to meet this carbon rule, it's going to raise the price of electricity.

"We're not sure of an actual cost, but some estimates say wholesale electricity costs could increase by 50 percent."

Currently, Missouri has the seventh-lowest electric rates in the country, Klindt said.

"The vast majority of co-op customers are on fixed incomes," he said. "A lot of people could absorb a cost increase, but there's a lot that can't. There are a lot of people now that struggle to pay their bill."

Cost isn't the only concern from the EPA rule. Klindt also is concerned about electric reliability under the rule, citing last winter's polar vortex, which brought bitter cold temperatures and the need for more power to much of the Midwest, as an example.

"In times of high usage," he said, "the new rule doesn't allow for exceptions to allow for coal use to produce more power" when it's needed most.

Doing so, he said, would result in large fines against electricity producers from the EPA.

The only way to stop the EPA's rules is by voicing opposition during the public-comment period, which ends in mid-October.