Missouri is not California, and its utility customers deserve choice | Opinion

Missouri is at an inflection point. Utility rates have climbed 61% since 2008 — the fifth most among all states — because of rising spending on poles and wires. The power generation fleet remains largely unchanged with a significant portion set to retire within a decade, and no new dispatchable generation has been built since the early 2000s.

In short: Costs are rising, supply is tightening, and the system is not keeping pace. Many states faced a similar position in the late 1990s and early 2000s before restructuring their electricity markets to break up utility monopolies and allow competition. Missouri has two paths forward: business as usual or reform.

As a vertically integrated monopoly utility state, Missouri relies on integrated resource plans to ensure adequate power supply. Yet the state already imports much more electricity than it produces, even before anticipated retirements. The failure to properly plan and execute a responsible integrated resource plan that ensured captive customers could be protected from price volatility gives Missouri limited choices to address this rapidly approaching issue under current law.

Lawmakers and their constituents will soon confront a difficult challenge: the cost of the new resources that will be needed and how quickly they can be added to the system. New resources are significantly more expensive today than they were even a few years ago. Without action, Missourians will see even more mandatory charges added to their monthly bill to pay the utility to meet their minimum obligations for service.

But there is an alternative path. Competition allows independent generators to develop new resources without shifting risk onto ratepayers — more developers, faster timelines and better outcomes. Legislation being considered right now in the Missouri Senate and House could make this a reality.

Critics say competitive suppliers can’t move quickly enough. But the incumbent utilities pushing this claim had decades to plan and add capacity — and they have failed to deliver. Injecting competition would expand options and help address shortfalls the monopolies did not.

Incumbent utilities also deploy alarmist doomsday scenarios — often invoking the California energy crisis — to argue that restructuring is dangerous. That comparison ignores 25 years of market reform and stronger safeguards. The firm at the center of California’s crisis no longer exists, and its failures have not been repeated.

Additionally, comparisons between Missouri and restructured states tend to focus on just one or two examples that are fundamentally different. For instance, incumbent utilities point to a single restructured state with higher rates and suggest the same outcome would occur in Missouri if this bill passes. But any meaningful comparison between states needs to start at a common baseline. If two states being compared have dramatic differences in the starting rates for service, the more accurate measure is how rates have grown over time — not the absolute price. Ignoring that context leaves out key drivers such as state policy decisions, development costs, fuel mix and other factors that significantly influence electricity prices.

In reality, there are clear success stories. Ohio’s recent reforms, enacted in May 2025, strengthened competitive market solutions, increased transparency and protections, and shifted financial risk away from consumers. Those reforms have attracted nearly 1.9 gigawatts of new capacity, with projects moving from approval to operation in about 18 months — compared with seven-plus years under traditional processes. Removing barriers and enabling competition is clearly accelerating investment.

Rhetoric against restructuring is predictable and often effective if left unchallenged. But lawmakers in Jefferson City should look past the noise and focus on facts. Legislation under consideration offers a viable path to protect customers, attract investment and speed the deployment of generation the state needs. Missouri can’t afford to wait.

Todd Snitchler is president and CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association, a 501(c)(6) business league that represents competitive power generators, and a former chairman of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission.