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Several months ago I detailed the issues that our local electric utility, Ameren, was having with keeping the lights on. In the article, I stated that the Missouri Public Services Commission was looking at a rate increase that Ameren was proposing in the neighborhood of $360 million. In it, I detailed how the PSC has traditionally let the companies they regulate run roughshod over them because the companies are free with the political donations and the PSC Governors are appointed by the Governor.

I was shocked when the PSC staff (the non-appointees) actually said that Ameren should have its rates cut because they were overcharging customers on the Missouri side of the river. While it’s nothing like how our Illinois friends are getting gouged by Ameren, the PSC felt that rates were too high and that Ameren should lower its rates. At the time, I said “[i]t will be interesting to see if the PSC makes a big public display and then quietly approves the rate increases”. Well, guess what?

Well, you probably don’t need to guess. While the PSC staffers pointedly criticized Ameren for three major power outages and a hilltop reservoir that came crashing down on an unsuspecting state park, they approved a rate increase for Ameren. It wasn’t what Ameren was wanting, but it was still an increase. Missouri’s crusading Attorney General (who announced he was running for Governor in 2008 in 2005) has demanded that the PSC follow the recommendation of the non-political staff. Even the Governor (who is also running for Governor if he isn’t taken by Mitt Romney) has blasted the decision telling the PSC not to raise rates until Ameren can keep the lights on.

While I think that the Governor’s objections are more political pandering than anything else, I won’t expect the rate increase to be reversed anytime soon. A 3% increase isn’t the end of the world when the rates have been steady for 20 years, but it’s the principle of the matter. An electric company that can’t keep the lights shouldn’t get rewarded.