The Missouri House worked quickly this week to let the Public Service Commission (PSC) clear the way for some 500 or more jobs in Southeast Missouri.

The House has passed to the Senate a bill that would let the PSC consider lower utility rates for two companies – one that says it will reopen the Noranda aluminum smelter near Marston; the other saying it will to build a new steel mill at New Madrid, both in Southeast Missouri.
Both companies want lower utility rates that would allow those facilities to be profitable. House Bill 1’s main provision would allow the PSC to consider whether to grant those rates.
Its sponsor, Representative Don Rone (R-Portageville), spoke passionately numerous times to his colleagues about the need for jobs in his region and the need for this legislation.
House Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) said it is poetic that one of the facilities will be in an industrial park that bears the name St. Jude.
Similar language passed out of the House during the regular session 148-2, but did not pass out of the Senate. Governor Eric Greitens (R) called legislators back to Jefferson City to reconsider the issue, and it was met with less support.
Some Democrats, including Fred Wessels (D-St. Louis), said granting lower utility rates doesn’t make sense when the state has other incentives to help lure businesses to Missouri.
“This is a nutty way to do business when you have alternative sources,” said Wessels.
Representatives Judy Morgan (D-Kansas City) and Sarah Unsicker (D-St. Louis) were among Democrats who didn’t feel comfortable with the fact that the name of the company proposing the steel mill hasn’t been shared publicly.

Some Democrats also contend that if the PSC grants a lower utility rate for those two companies other Ameren customers will have to pay more to make up the difference.
“My constituents, our constituents, don’t really care whether they’re writing a check to the IRS or the Missouri Department of Revenue or to Ameren, I mean it’s still money,” said Representative Tracy McCreery (D-St. Louis). “Should we be doing economic development on the backs of people who pay their electric bills, and is that the right way to make policy for this state?”
Rone said there’s no way to know for sure whether Ameren customers’ rates will increase.
The special session was called by Greitens one week after Rone called attention to the issue in a passionate floor speech, in which he called several senators “heartless,” and “selfish,” for rejecting his proposal.
Rone’s bill goes to the Senate on the strength of a bipartisan 120-17 vote. It includes a clause that would make it effective immediately upon being signed by the governor.