It might be wise to ask Springfield voters whether they're willing to support an aggressive energy conservation program that could increase their electric rates.
At least that's the view from Geoff Butler, chairman of the Springfield City Utilities board of directors.
1"Is the community willing to pay, in the way of rate increases, for that energy conservation concern?" Butler asked. "I personally would feel better if the community said, 'Yes, we want that.'"Butler said he is looking forward to today's final Power Supply Community Task Force meeting.
The 17-member panel is expected to announce its recommendations for meeting the area's growing demand for electricity.
In a preliminary report last week, the task force gave its strongest support to building a new coal-fired power plant.
Starting an energy conservation program drew the second-highest level of support.
"Once we get their report we'll talk about it at the board retreat August 12," Butler said. "The whole afternoon has been set aside for that."
Butler said that if the task force recommends establishing a conservation program — and the CU board decides it has merit — he'd like to see a referendum to gauge the community's level of support.
Should the voters reject such a recommendation, that wouldn't be the end of conservation.
"If it's no, we'd go back to the passive energy-conservation programs CU already offers," Butler said.
He emphasized it would be up to the full CU board to decide whether to pursue an energy-conservation referendum.
Jack Stack, co-chair of the power supply task force, said the final report will include summaries from each task force member explaining their views about the power supply issues.
The CU board asked the task force to provide both a primary recommendation and a secondary option.
Stack said that if a new coal-fired power plant goes before voters and they vote it down, as they did last August, the task force would recommend buying power from elsewhere.
"You move away from controlling your destiny by doing that," Stack said. "That would put us in a position like Rolla. Rolla buys all its power. They're not self-sufficient."
According to City Utilities, building a new 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant could cost from $607 million to $642 million.
It would require an electric rate increase of 18 to 20 percent over four years.
It's not clear how much rates would need to increase to pay for an energy-conservation program.
The CU board likely will discuss at its Aug. 12 retreat how such a program might be put together and how much it could cost.