Lobbyist turns back on foes of new plant
Groups trying to pave the way for a second AmerenUE nuclear plant in Missouri have a new weapon in Jefferson City — a top lobbyist for environmentalists.
Irl L. Scissors, who previously represented a leading Missouri environmental and conservation alliance, last week announced in an e-mail to leaders of that group he was going to work to help undo the law that prohibits utilities from charging customers for power plants under construction.
Scissors, 38, is a one-time policy adviser to former Missouri Democratic Gov. Bob Holden. Today, he heads his own firm, ILS Consulting LLC. As a lobbyist, he has represented environmental and conservation groups for more than three years, and has helped advance legislation encouraging greater use of renewable energy and tighter regulations of factory farms.
He declined to comment on his decision to help facilitate another nuclear plant in central Missouri.
AmerenUE filed an application last year with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a second reactor next to its Callaway plant outside Fulton, Mo. The St. Louis-based company said it won’t make a decision whether to build the plant until 2011 but submitted the paperwork to the NRC to be eligible for federal loan guarantees.
The utility also has been working for months to undo a ban on so-called Construction Work in Progress charges, saying it cannot build another nuclear plant unless it is allowed to charge customers during the five-year construction period.
Thursday, Sens. Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City, and Frank Barnitz, D-Lake Spring, filed legislation that would repeal the CWIP ban.
Consumer groups argue that repealing the law isn’t necessary and have urged regulators to initiate meetings to discuss how the project — if it goes forward — would be financed.
In Scissors’ Jan. 14 e-mail, obtained by the Post-Dispatch, he said he decided to help repeal the CWIP law after hearing from legislators that there would be little opposition over environmental concerns.
"Knowing the economic and political climate of the country and Missouri, I do not feel the effort to stop CWIP is viable and I am not comfortable leading this effort in Jefferson City," he wrote. Scissors and Missouri Votes Conservation lobbyist Kyna Iman have "never run into a buzz saw like this," he said.
Bill for nuclear plant in Missouri worries consumer groups Get more business news, blogs and opinionWhile it’s not unusual for lobbyists to leave one client for another, Scissors’ sudden defection after the legislative session has begun caught environmental leaders off-guard same day payday loans.
It’s a "huge, unfortunate surprise," said Kathleen Logan Smith, executive director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. She declined to comment further.
Mark Haim, co-founder of Missourians for Safe Energy, a Columbia-based group opposed to nuclear power, said he didn’t know Scissors well enough to comment on his move.
"I do know that taking us down the path of nuclear power would be a profound mistake for Missouri," he said.
Scissors, in the e-mail, argued that his new position will give him a voice on the issue in Jefferson City, and that greater reliance on nuclear power along with renewable energy can help displace older coal-fired power plants.
Missouri’s CWIP law has been in place since voters approved it by a 2-1 ratio in 1976. These days, environmentalists and anti-nuclear groups have set as a key legislative priority to protect the law from being undone. They have established Missourians for Fair Electric Rates and established a separate website, NoCWIP.org.
Scissors is the only lobbyist registered to represent Missouri Conservation and Environment Alliance, according to the state Ethics Commission. The alliance was created in 2007 to establish a bigger presence in Jefferson City. Members include Audubon Missouri, the Conservation Federation of Missouri, Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Missouri Parks Association, Missouri Sierra Club and Missouri Votes Conservation.
House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, has indicated that repealing the CWIP ban is part of his job-generation agenda, even though Ameren is still two years from making a firm decision and construction work probably wouldn’t begin until a year or two after that.
Richard, however, bristled at the thought that Ameren was using its financial might to get its way. The company’s political action committee and various executives contributed more than $300,000 to Missouri lawmakers in the most recent election cycle after a couple of years of very little political giving.
"I don’t care if they give me a dollar or a million dollars," Richard said. "If you can’t take their money and eat their chicken and say no, you’ve got no business being around here."
AmerenUE declined to respond when asked whether the company was helping organize the coalition to repeal the CWIP law, even though the utility would be the biggest benefactor. According to Scissors’ e-mail, the group includes utilities and other businesses, organized labor and "faith-based groups."
The utility also has not provided a detailed cost projection, but it has estimated that it would generate 2,500 temporary construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs.
Tony Messenger of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
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