The state of Missouri is poised to lose economic opportunities if lawmakers do not get with the renewable energy program that is sweeping the nation, according to an environmental expert.
“I can talk about the urgency of climate change and what's going on with our planet but literally no one in Missouri politics really seems to care about that,” said James Owen, an attorney and executive director of Renew Missouri, a renewable energy advocacy group. “What they should worry about is businesses relocating to those states that have access to renewable power.”
Last month, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, announced that it was investing $800 million to build a 1 million-square-foot Meta facility in Kansas City, according to media reports.
“One of the reasons they're doing that is because they were able to get a deal approved where all of the power they are going to use for that data center is coming from wind,” Owen said.
To catch up with Kansas City, St. Louis would need to improve in the area of coordination between the city and the county, according to Owen.
"There is a lot of dysfunction between the city and county government and that's not a big secret," he said. "Are they working together for the benefit of the workforce and the whole metropolitan area to bring those opportunities there? Are they jointly working with the largest utility in the state, which is based in St. Louis, to make sure those opportunities are there? It might be that they are doing it but you don't see that actually manifesting into something like you see in Kansas City. It requires coordination."
Owen was among the featured speakers at an energy policy conference last week hosted by the Missouri Energy Initiative.
“Right now, Missouri law severely limits what individual businesses and customers are able to do about producing their own power and until we fix that problem, we will not see a lot of large-scale deployment with business,” Owen told the St. Louis Record. “If a county wanted to operate entirely on renewable energy, you'll have significant challenges to that and those laws probably need to be fixed.”
For example, commissioners of Boone County approved an ordinance last year that bans wind farms county-wide.
“I was there at the conference to talk specifically about local and county ordinances trying to prevent wind from being built in counties like Boone County, which is often largely regarded as a very liberal place but their ordinance ensures that no wind is built in the rural parts of this county,” Owen said.
As previously reported in the Missouri Times, the Boone County ban requires that wind turbines are constructed 1,750 feet away from residential property lines and the height of turbines is restricted to 263 feet.
"Renew Missouri has worked very hard with the majorities in the Senate and the House to work with Republicans and I think there are a lot of pro-solar energy Republicans there," Owen added. "We have seen success working with them. There are numerous efforts to bring renewables to the St. Louis area. Our group is working with businesses and nonprofits to help them take advantage of solar."