Public hearing on Ameren gas rate increase draws no one from public

The company placed notices in every bill, but not one of Ameren's 16,000 local natural gas customers turned out Monday night to lodge a complaint about a proposed price increase that would raise gas bills by an average of $87 a year if it's approved next year.

But an empty room can be just as telling to the Missouri Public Service Commission as a crowd of protesters, said commissioner Jeff Davis of Jefferson City, Mo. The commission hosted the public hearing at Dempster Hall and will rule in May whether to approve the increases, Davis said.

"Obviously, when a lot of people show up, it's a sign of a real problem," said Davis, a 2004 Southeast Missouri State University graduate and a six-year member of the commission. "Gas rates are at near historic lows, so I think it's a case of out of sight, out of mind."

In June, Ameren Missouri filed a natural gas rate case with Missouri regulators, seeking to increase annual natural gas operating revenue by about $12 million. Ameren Missouri serves about 127,000 natural gas customers in the state, said Jean Mason, manager of Ameren's Southeast Missouri division.

The Southeast Missouri division has 24,000 natural gas customers in the areas around Cape Girardeau, Scott City, Marble Hill, Jackson, Dexter and Bloomfield.

The monthly rate increase for customers will average out to about $7.25 a month, Mason said. Ameren is the nation's largest investor-owned electric or gas utility with about $24 billion in assets.

Ameren last asked for a natural gas rate increase three years ago, said company spokesman Tim Fox. Ameren is seeking to recover $54 million that it invested systemwide for, among other things, 120,000 feet of newly installed and replaced gas lines. About $7.7 million of that was spent in the Southeast Missouri division.

"Rate increases pay for improvements that have already been made," Fox said. "Because we're regulated, we have to spend the money first and then seek to recoup that investment. It's not like at Starbucks, where you can raise your prices a nickel and not tell" customers.

It takes 18 to 24 months from the time Ameren borrows the money until it recovers its investment, Fox said.

Upcoming public hearings on the natural gas increases are scheduled for today in Wentzville and later in Columbia and Jefferson City.

Ameren's next local public hearing may draw more interest: The company filed a rate case to increase electricity rates by $263 million a year, which the commission is expected to rule on in August. Fox said a local public hearing will be held in Cape Girardeau sometime after the first of the year.

"I'd be surprised if no one showed up to that one," he said.

smoyers@semissourian.com

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800 N. Henderson Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO