The Ameren Corp., whose subsidiary Ameren Missouri provides electricity to the St. Louis metropolitan region, has announced plans to close its Rush Island power plant south of Festus.
The plant, which employs about 150 people, is expected to close by 2024.
County officials said property taxes and other taxes paid by Ameren for the plant are “substantial,” although the possible effects of the closure haven’t yet been calculated. The Jefferson R-7 School District, where the plant is located, receives a lion’s share of the property taxes paid.
The announcement about the plant closure came in a Dec. 14 court motion to modify a ruling from U.S. Eastern District Judge Rodney Sippel who ordered the utility company to install controls to reduce the pollution generated by the plant after he found it in violation of the federal Clean Air Act.
A precise date for the closure wasn’t included in the motion, but the company said an analysis of how to retire the plant should be complete in January.
Sippel must approve the company’s motion and the closure date of the plant.
The Rush Island Energy Center, 100 Big Hollow Road, is a large coal-fired power plant that began operating in 1976. Ameren Missouri also owns three adjacent vacant lots.
Previously, company officials said that installing the controls, called “scrubbers,” to clean emissions would allow the plant to operate into 2039.
In the Dec. 14 motion, though, the company said that taking Rush Island
offline earlier than planned would be more beneficial to the environment than installing the scrubbers, which were estimated to cost up to $1 billion.
Ameren officials declined an interview with the Leader and issued a statement from Marty Lyons, the chairman and president of Ameren Missouri.
“The decision to accelerate the retirement of the Rush Island Energy Center comes after carefully considering our legal, operational, and regulatory alternatives, as well as the impact on customer costs and system reliability,” he said. “We remain committed to reliable and affordable electric service for the benefit of our customers and communities, while reducing emissions and building on our longstanding commitment to environmental stewardship.”
In the motion to modify the ruling Sippel issued in 2019, which was later upheld in federal appeals court, Ameren said it would close Rush Island early because of “changed circumstances” over the last two years, including “the likelihood of future regulation of carbon emissions through a carbon ‘price’” along with “an increased emphasis on environmental, social, and governance considerations by a wide range of stakeholders,” the document said.
The filing indicated that the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the regional power grid Ameren belongs to, is evaluating the effects that closing Rush Island could have on the reliability of the grid and on providing electricity to its customers.
That nonprofit, MISO, oversees the power grid in 15 states and in Canada. The filing notes that the MISO could find that Rush Island could be taken offline earlier than 2024.
Local effects
Jefferson County Executive Dennis Gannon said he and other county officials are analyzing what effects the plant closure would have on the local economy.
“It will be a big hit when it happens,” he said. “We’re just beginning to figure out what the net loss will be. Hopefully, they’ll try to keep it open as long as possible.”
According to information supplied by the County Clerk’s Office, Ameren paid about $2.3 million in 2021 in real estate and personal property taxes on the Rush Island property, about $1.6 million of which went to the Jefferson R-7 School District.
Ameren also pays taxes to the state.
Not all those tax payments will be eliminated once the plant goes offline, county officials say, but it’s unknown how much they might be reduced.
Jefferson R-7 Superintendent Clint Johnston said he and other district administrators also are trying to calculate what financial hit the closure of the plant will bring.
“At this time, the district is trying to get a handle on the impact,” he said. “Until we get more information, we’re in a holding pattern. But I can tell you that the effect will be drastic. But at this point, it’s not clear how much in real estate property taxes they’ll continue to pay (with an idle plant). I don’t want to get into speculation at this point.”