The Race is On

An article in the Reynolds County Courier details a meeting on Nov. 28 at the courthouse with two members of Jay Nixon's staff. The article states, "Noting the urgency of the time requirements, they asked all interested persons and groups to get their "want lists" in to the attorney general's office by December 11 so office personnel could then consolidate all requests and submit them to FERC in coordinaton with Ameren by Dec. 29 of this year. I don't care if all the requests add up to $10 or $15 million, one of the AG's staff said. We are not interested in determining who gets what, we just want to get all the requests in on time and let FERC decide how the money is handed out. Let's get everything on the table and let them make the final decisions."

The interesting thing is there is nothing in the "Agreement" that states if Ameren is going to prioritize the requests or if FERC is actually going to be the big final arbitrator in these matters. It only states that FERC must make a quick decision on the proposals. Still up in the air is how the three areas of the "projects enhancements" are going to be defined. One final thing, everyone keeps talking about $5 million, when in fact there is only $4 million plus interest. The FERC agreement requires $1 million be spent on a Emergency Management Plan, so the sheriff and fire department will spend the first million.

Stay tuned, lots of people are putting together their Santa list.