LETTERS: CAUTION ON UTILITY DEREGULATION PLAN

To the editor:

A report released by the Consumer Research Foundation Oct. 1 says "while large corporate consumers of electricity may save big bucks, residential consumers could be left out in the cold by attempts to restructure one of the nation's most critical utility industries." Led by states where the costs are higher than Missouri's, such as California where legislation has already been passed to restructure electric utilities effected Jan. 1, the pressure by Wall Street brokers and corporate users to restructure is being felt in Missouri.

The Missouri Public Service Commission has appointed a working task force on electric restructuring. And the Joint Interim Committee on Telecommunications and Energy, co-chaired by state Sen. Wayne Goode and state Rep. Carole Jean Mays, is holding hearings concerning this issue. There are three main components to providing electric service: transmission over wires, distribution to the point of service and generation of energy. Transmission and distribution would presumably remain regulated, but generation would not. There will be an attempt to sell you this change under the mantle of consumer choice. You get to choose your energy suppliers. However, buying energy in a competitive market is like buying health insurance. If you bargain for service representing a lot of people, you get lower rates. If you shop by yourself, you pay much higher rates.

Furthermore, if generators of energy in Missouri are allowed to market to high-cost states, won't our rates go up? What happens to the consumer protections we now have to protect people such as the cold-weather rule? To be without electric service in the winter can the life threatening. We are not talking about shopping for apples or oranges at the store of your choice.

To make matters worse for residential customers, some utility companies have decided their nuclear plants won't be cost effective or competitive in the new market, and they want the citizens of Missouri to pay off their bad investment decisions before the competitive market is created. They call this scheme "stranded costs." As Ryan Kind, an economist with the Missouri Office of Public Counsel, stated, "It's difficult to see how consumers could save much if they need to pay for both the cost of generation from a new supplier as well as the stranded costs of the former provider's generation."

On Dec. 2-3, the Missouri Association for Community Action and the Committee to Keep Missourians Warm will hold a state conference, the Missouri Utilities Restructuring Forum, at the Capital Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City to educate the public about this issue. For information call 573-634-2969.

IVAN LEE EAMES, Special Projects Coordinator

Central Missouri Counties Human Development Corp.

Jefferson City