
ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Ameren has another request, before the Missouri Public Service Commission, to raise electric bills for residential customers by about 15 percent.
June 1st, Ameren increased electric rates by about 12-percent. Residential customers saw their bills more than double in many cases. K-M-O-X reported that on August 5th Ameren started disconnections, even for people in the tornado zone.
Now, Senator Josh Hawley has stepped in with a letter to Ameren's CEO Martin Lyons demanding to know, how Ameren evaluated disconnecting tens of thousands of vulnerable customers. Also he wants to know what steps were take to prevent disconnections in extreme weather conditions.
The Senator is also questioning about recent agreements to provide hundreds of megawatts of power to new data centers raise serious concerns about cross-subsidization.
And Hawley wants to know if Ameren considered prioritizing rate stability for households before approving discounted contracts for data-center clients?
The following is the letter Senator Hawley sent to Ameren CEO Martin Lyons.
