League of Women Voters of St Louis Information Service
	State of Missouri November 4, 2008 Election
	Proposition C Initiative Petition State of Missouri Simple Majority Required Pass: 1,777,500 / 66.0% Yes votes ...... 914,332 / 34.0% No votes See Also: Index of all Measures

Full Text of Proposition C

Be it enacted by the people of the state of Missouri: Chapter 393, RSMo, is amended by repealing sections 393.1020, 393.1025, 393.1030, and 393.1035, and substituting therefor three new sections to be known as sections 393.1020, 393.1025, and 393.1030, to read as follows: 393.1020. Sections 393.1020 to 393.1030 shall be known as the Renewable Energy Standard. 393.1025. As used in sections 393.1020 to 393.1030, the following terms mean: 1. "Commission", the public service commission; 2. "Department", the department of natural resources; 3. "Electric utility", any electrical corporation as defined by section 386.020, any electric distribution cooperative, and any municipal utility that serves more than 25,000 customers; 4. "Renewable energy resources", electric energy produced from wind, solar thermal sources, photovoltaic cells and panels, dedicated crops grown for energy production, cellulosic agricultural residues, plant residues, methane from landfills or from wastewater treatment, clean and untreated wood such as pallets, hydropower (not including pumped storage) that does not require a new diversion or impoundment of water and that if it becomes operational after 2008 has a nameplate rating of 10 megawatts or less, fuel cells using hydrogen produced by one of the above-named renewable energy sources, and other sources of energy not including nuclear that become available after the effective date of this section and are certified as renewable by rule by the department; and 5. "Renewable energy credit" or "REC", a tradable certificate of proof that one megawatt-hour of electricity has been generated from renewable energy sources. 393.1030.1. The commission shall, in consultation with the department, prescribe by rule a portfolio requirement for all electric utilities to generate or purchase electricity generated from renewable energy resources. Such portfolio requirement shall provide that electricity from renewable energy resources shall constitute the following portions of each electric utility's sales: (a) No less than two percent for calendar years 2011 through 2013; (b) No less than five percent for calendar years 2014 through 2017; (c) No less than ten percent for calendar years 2018 through 2020; and (d) No less than fifteen percent in each calendar year beginning in 2021. At least two percent of each portfolio requirement shall be derived from solar energy. The portfolio requirements shall apply to all power sold to Missouri consumers whether such power is self-generated or purchased from another source in or outside of this state. A utility may comply with the standard in whole or in part by purchasing RECs. Each kilowatt-hour of eligible energy generated in Missouri shall count as 1.25 kilowatt-hours for purposes of compliance. 2. The commission, in consultation with the department and within one year of the effective date of sections 393.1020 to 393.1030, shall select a program for tracking and verifying the trading of renewable energy credits. An unused credit may exist for up to three years from the date of its creation. A credit may be used only once to comply with this act and may not also be used to satisfy any similar non-federal requirement. An electric utility may not use a credit derived from a green pricing program. Certificates from net-metered sources shall initially be owned by the customer-generator. The commission, except where the department is specified, shall make whatever rules are necessary to enforce the Renewable Energy Standard. Such rules shall include: (a) A maximum average retail rate increase of one percent determined by estimating and comparing the electric utility's cost of compliance with least-cost renewable generation and the cost of continuing to generate or purchase electricity from entirely non-renewable sources, taking into proper account future environmental regulatory risk including the risk of greenhouse gas regulation; (b) Penalties of at least twice the average market value of renewable energy credits for the compliance period for failure to meet the targets of subsection 1. An electric utility will be excused if it proves to the commission that failure was due to events beyond its reasonable control that could not have been reasonably mitigated, or that the maximum average retail rate increase has been reached. Penalties shall not be recovered from customers. Amounts forfeited under this section shall be remitted to the department to purchase renewable energy credits needed for compliance. Any excess forfeited revenues shall be used by the department's energy center solely for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects; (c) Provisions for an annual report to be filed by each electric utility in a format sufficient to document its progress in meeting the targets. (d) Provision for recovery outside the context of a regular rate case of prudently incurred costs and the pass-through of benefits to customers of any savings achieved by an electrical corporation in meeting the requirements of this section. 3. Each electric utility shall make available to its retail customers a standard rebate offer of at least $2.00 per installed watt for new and expanded solar electric systems sited on customers' premises, up to a maximum of 25 kilowatts per system, that become operational after 2009. 4. The department shall, in consultation with the commission, establish by rule a certification process for electricity generated from renewable resources and used to fulfill the requirements of subsection 1 of this section. Certification criteria for renewable energy generation shall be determined by factors that include fuel type, technology, and the environmental impacts of the generating facility. Renewable energy facilities shall not cause undue adverse air, water, or land use impacts, including impacts associated with the gathering of generation feedstocks. If any amount of fossil fuel is used with renewable energy resources, only the portion of electrical output attributable to renewable energy resources shall be used to fulfill the portfolio requirements. The following sections shall be repealed: [393.1020. 1. It is the general assembly's intent to encourage the development and utilization of technically feasible and economical renewable technologies, creating cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy for the residents of the state. It is for this reason that sections 393.1020 to 393.1040 shall be known as the "Green Power Initiative". 2. The definitions provided in section 386.020, RSMo, shall apply to sections 393.1020 to 393.1040. As used in sections 393.1020 to 393.1040, the following terms mean: (1) "Department", the department of natural resources; (2) "Eligible renewable energy technology", sources of energy that shall be considered renewable for purposes of this section shall include but not be limited to the following: (a) Solar, including photovoltaic cells, concentrating solar power technologies, and low temperature solar collectors; (b) Wind; (c) Hydroelectric, not including pump storage; (d) Hydrogen from renewable sources; (e) Biomass, any organic matter available on a renewable basis, including dedicated energy crops and trees, agricultural food and feed crops, agricultural crop wastes and residues, wood wastes and residues, animal waste, aquatic plants, biogas from landfills or wastewater treatment plants; and (f) Other renewable energy sources defined by rule by the commission after consultation with the department; (3) "Energy efficiency", verifiable reductions in energy consumption, or verifiable reductions in the rate of energy consumption growth, as defined by rule by the commission after consultation with the department, as a result of measures implemented by electrical corporations and electricity consumers which may include, but not be limited to, pricing signals, electronic controls, education, information, infrastructure improvements, and the use of high efficiency equipment and lighting; (4) "Total retail electric sales", the kilowatt-hours of electricity delivered in a year by an electrical corporation to its Missouri retail customers. 393.1025. 1. Each electrical corporation shall make a good faith effort to generate or procure sufficient electricity generated by an eligible renewable energy technology, and support energy efficiency measures, so that by 2012, four percent of total retail electric sales in the aggregate by electrical corporations is generated by eligible renewable energy technologies, increasing to eight percent by 2015, and eleven percent generated by eligible renewable energy technologies by 2020. Generation provided by any existing eligible renewable energy technology, owned, controlled, or purchased by electrical corporations, that are operational prior to August 28, 2007, shall be applied towards meeting the objective so long as it continues to generate electricity. Credit towards the objective also may be achieved through energy efficiency that includes electrical corporation and consumer efforts to reduce the consumption of electric energy. After consulting with the department, the commission may establish intermediate goals for the use of renewable energy technologies as part of its rulemaking process. 2. By July 1, 2008, the commission shall, after consultation with the department, adopt rules that integrate into its resource planning rules the renewable energy objective of subsection 1 of this section and the criteria and standards by which it will measure an electrical corporation's efforts to meet that objective to determine whether it is making the required good faith effort. In this rulemaking, the commission shall include criteria and standards that, at a minimum, shall: (1) Protect against adverse economic impacts, including the costs of any transmission investments necessary to access eligible renewable energy technologies, on the ratepayers and shareholders; (2) Protect against undesirable impacts on the reliability of each electrical corporation's system; (3) Consider environmental compliance costs, present and future, of each source being evaluated; and (4) Consider technical feasibility, providing for flexibility in meeting the objective in the event electrical corporations are, for good cause shown, unable to meet in aggregate the objective of this section. 3. In its rulemaking under this section, the commission shall provide for a weighted scale of how energy produced by various eligible renewable energy technologies shall count toward an electrical corporation's objective. In establishing this scale, the commission shall consider the attributes of various technologies and fuels and shall establish a system that grants multiple credits toward the objective for those technologies and fuels the commission determines are in the public interest to encourage. The commission may also grant multiple credits toward the objective for generation in the state or procurement of electricity generated in the state that uses an eligible renewable energy technology. 4. The commission shall develop rules as provided in this section in consultation with the department as necessary to implement the requirements of this section. Any rule or portion of a rule, as that term is defined in section 536.010, RSMo, that is created under the authority delegated in this section and section 393.1020 shall become effective only if it complies with and is subject to all of the provisions of chapter 536, RSMo, and, if applicable, section 536.028, RSMo. This section and chapter 536, RSMo, are nonseverable and if any of the powers vested with the general assembly pursuant to chapter 536, RSMo, to review, to delay the effective date, or to disapprove and annul a rule are subsequently held unconstitutional, then the grant of rulemaking authority and any rule proposed or adopted after August 28, 2007, shall be invalid and void. 393.1030. 1. Each electric corporation shall submit to the commission a biennial report by December thirty-first, beginning in 2009, on its plans, activities, and progress with regard to the objective of section 393.1025, demonstrating to the commission that it is making the required good faith effort. The report must be submitted in a format prescribed by the commission, not to exceed fifty pages, and it shall include the following: (1) Sufficient data to specify and verify the status of its renewable energy mix relative to the good faith objective; (2) Sufficient data to specify and verify the status of the electric corporation's and its customers' energy efficiency efforts relative to the good faith objective; (3) Efforts taken to meet the objective; (4) Any obstacles encountered or anticipated in meeting the objective; and (5) Potential solutions to the obstacles. 2. The commission shall compile the information provided under subsection 1 of this section and biennially report by July first, beginning in 2010, to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, the president pro tempore of the senate, the chairs of the committees in the house of representatives and senate with jurisdiction over energy and environment policy issues, and the department as to the progress of electrical corporations in the state in increasing the amount of renewable energy provided to retail customers and increasing energy efficiency, with any recommendations for regulatory or legislative action. In addition, the Missouri director of the department of economic development shall issue a biennial report by July first, beginning in 2010, on the impact of the renewable portfolio standard on the Missouri economy and the director of the department of natural resources shall issue a biennial report by July first, beginning in 2010, on the environmental impact of sections 393.1020 to 393.1040. The biennial reporting requirements under this subsection shall end after July 1, 2022. 393.1035. 1. Electricity produced by fuel combustion may only count toward an electrical corporation's objectives if the generation facility complies with all federal and state statutes and rules. 2. An electrical corporation may blend or co-fire a fuel listed in subsection 2 of section 393.1020, with other fuels in the generation facility, but only the percentage of electricity that is attributable to a fuel listed in that section can be counted toward an electric corporation's renewable energy objectives.] Yes No