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KIRKSVILLE, MO. -- The Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) held a public hearing in Kirksville Thursday night regarding the electric rate increase requested by Ameren Missouri.

Members of the community were able to hear why Ameren believes it needs an additional $375.6 million, about a 14 percent increase for all customers.

James Harmon, a member of the Sierra Club, said unless the money is going to clean energy, it’s a waste of money.

“We encourage Ameren to radically reduce it’s reliance on coal and shift to clean energy,” Harmon said.

 We spoke with Ameren’s Vice President of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs, Warren Wood, and he said Ameren needs the additional revenue because customers have made it clear that they want to see continuous improvements in reliability and they want cleaner energy. He also said because of aging infrastructure they need to make investments to maintain and replace infrastructure.

We asked him when the last time Ameren had an increase, and he said last year.   

“In total we have several rate increases from 2007 to 2011 and that total increase is a little over 36 percent, but we had a number of rate reductions before that,” said Wood. “If you actually look at our rate increase over the last 20 years, they've gone up about 12 percent.”  

One member of the public got up and said this meeting was a waste of time and that Ameren and the Missouri Public Service Commission already know what they want to do.

But, Public Information Administrator for the Missouri Public Service Commission, Kevin Kelly, said they will take into consideration what residents have to say.

“In a local public hearing we have a court reporter that takes down all the information when we get to the part of the local public hearing and the taking of sworn testimony,” said Kelly. “And, that all becomes a part of the official record that the commission looks at in making its decision in the rate case.”

If approved, the average Ameren residential electric bill would increase by about $14 a month. Changes wouldn’t go into effect until early next year.

The PSC is expected to make its decision later this year.

You can see the full interview with Warren Wood here.