Press Release: AARP taking steps to protect consumers in Ameren over-earnings case

St. Louis – As part of its utility consumer protection efforts, AARP intervened in a case before the Missouri Public Service Commission (MoPSC) and successfully advocated for the declassification of a report that reveals Ameren Missouri over-earned more than $67 million between October 2012 and September 2013. Ameren’s earning reports, usually kept secret when filed at the MoPSC, were declassified for purposes of a rate reduction complaint case that has been initiated against them.

Craig Eichelman, State Director for AARP in Missouri, said that Ameren has raised rates 43% over the past six years when the company said it was not earning enough. Now that declassified reports show the utility has been over-earning through the current rates charged to its electric customers, AARP is fighting to correct this problem, by advocating for a reduction in those electric rates.

Ameren Missouri is currently allowed to earn 9.8% return on equity (ROE). The declassified report shows that for the twelve months ending September 2013, it earned $ 44.6 million more than the level of ROE previously authorized by the MoPSC, or $ 67 million too much based on a more appropriate ROE level.

The MoPSC also said that they are continuing to allow electric utilities to file their earnings reports with them on a confidential basis. That’s why AARP helped draft the Utility Transparency and Fairness Act, SB 944 currently pending in the state legislature. This legislation would change the MoPSC Rule so that the earnings of all public utilities are made public on an ongoing

basis. Several senators and representatives have co-sponsored or endorsed SB 944. AARP and other consumer groups are encouraging Sen. Brad Lager, chair of the Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment Committee, to give the bill a hearing.

“We are supporting the Utility Transparency and Fairness Act so that the public can have always

have access to important information about how much regulated utilities are earning,” said Eichelman. “It will also see to it that regulators give greater consideration to the interests of ratepayers when determining a utility company’s earnings during a rate case.”