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Press release: Rep. Montecillo asks Noranda to drop rate decrease request

 

Rep. Montecillo asks Noranda to drop rate decrease request

Lower rates  for one company would cause much higher rates for everyone else

 

Jefferson City, MO – Rep. Genise Montecillo today called on Noranda Aluminum to withdraw its PSC claims and not waste additional taxpayer funds in light of mounting pressure from the Public Service Commission (PSC) and Office of Public Council’s (OPC) staff recommending to the PSC that Noranda’s claims be denied.

 

“I continue to hear from many of my constituents opposing Noranda’s claims.  I share their concern that they and small businesses will bear the brunt of costs being shifted to them.  My constituents and small businesses can ill-afford this bailout. At this point, Noranda has already cost the taxpayers in the work that’s gone into investigating their PSC claims and holding public hearings. Now that both the PSC and OPC staffs are staunchly opposed to Noranda’s request, they should withdraw their claims and save the taxpayers critical funds that are about to be wasted on a futile effort,” said Rep. Montecillo.

 

Untold amounts of tax dollars are spent reviewing requests before the PSC to investigate the actual claim, review materials formally submitted in opposition and support for the claim, to hear from the public, conduct formal hearings, review additional materials, and finally meet to determine a conclusion.

 

Noranda submitted a request with the PSC on Feb. 12th for a 25 percent reduction in their electric rate on top of their already low rate that is 60 percent lower than any other Ameren Missouri customer. A reduction in Noranda’s electric rate could pass on as much as a billion dollars in increases to other Ameren Missouri customers over the next decade. Both PSC and OPC (Missouri’s consumer watchdog agency) staffs wrote in their testimonies that ratepayers should not be responsible for a reduction in Noranda’s rate.

 

“It’s appalling that a company controlled by a billion dollar Wall Street hedge-fund whose CEO earned over $500 million last years moving him up on Forbes’ billionaires list, would seek even more Missouri taxpayer subsidized funding for their operation.  Noranda representatives at the PSC hearing last week were unable to answer my question- how much profit is enough for them” stated Rep. Montecillo.

 

Rep. Montecillo said, “Noranda has simply gotten too greedy. They want what amounts to nearly free electricity on the backs of my constituents and other consumers and they don’t care how much it costs the state in the meantime. The idea that so many consumers, businesses, municipalities, public officials, engineers, economists, newspapers, etc are opposed to this rate shift should tell them something, but they just don’t see the writing on the wall.”

 

“This case amounts to a corporate bailout more appropriately debated before the General Assembly.”

 

The Jefferson City News Tribune also editorialized that the Noranda rate shift did not pass the fairness test.

 

The Missouri Public Service Commission formal proceedings on this matter begin this week.