The ruling blocks an electric utility from wiggling out of providing rebates to customers who install solar photo-voltaic (PV) panels on their homes, as required by a 2008 state-wide Missouri voter referendum on minimum renewable portfolio standards. The utility, Empire District Electric Co., lobbied for and won the exemption from the State of Missouri legislature. But the State Supreme Court ruled the exemption was an illegal end run around the popular will of "Show Me State" voters, who passed the initiative by a 2 to 1 margin.
As the article reports:
'..."This ruling legally clarifies that as of today (Tuesday), more than six years after a majority of Empire's own customers voted to require them to do so, Empire must offer solar rebates," [P.J. Wilson, director of Renew Missouri,] said.
The plaintiffs were represented by Henry Robertson, an attorney with the nonprofit Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, based in St. Louis. "This is a validation of the initiative petition process and clarifies that the Legislature can't subvert the will of the people before they even get a chance to vote on an issue," he said.
Heather Navarro, director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, said, "Today is a win for Missouri voters and clean energy jobs, especially in Southwest Missouri. Empire customers will now enjoy the same economic benefits of solar energy as seen elsewhere in Missouri."...'
The "St. Louis Post-Dispatch", the "Associated Press", St. Louis Public Radio, and many other media outlets have reported on this story.
The good news means that solar PV panel installers will now waste no time in setting up shop in southwestern Missouri, creating a significant number of new, skilled, well paid renewable energy jobs (see photo, above left)!
Beyond Nuclear works in coalition with the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, and Missouri Coalition for the Environment, as on "Nuclear Waste Confidence"-related contentions and legal actions opposing atomic reactor licensing.
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