Missouri Senate advances utilities package after heated debate over construction-work-in-progress provision

The Missouri Senate advanced Senate Bill 4, a comprehensive utilities package designed to speed energy infrastructure projects, after a floor debate that centered on a construction-work-in-progress provision commonly called QIP (construction work in progress).

Supporters said the bill, which the Senate perfected and ordered printed, is meant to encourage new generation capacity and prevent reliability problems as the region’s demand for power grows. Opponents, including senators who proposed an amendment to strip QIP from the measure, said the provision risks raising household bills and asked that utilities use other resources before shifting costs to ratepayers.

Senator from the Eighth, sponsor of the bill, told colleagues the measure “allows them to collect those finance charges during construction, which lowers the price going forward over the 40 year depreciation,” and that QIP would help utilities recover financing costs sooner so they can reinvest in additional plants. He repeated an example used on the floor: on a hypothetical $1 billion plant borrowed at 5 percent, the annual interest on the borrowing would be about $50,000,000 and allowing recovery during construction smooths…