It’s Worse Than You Thought—Missouri Utility Bills Arriving

I don't like whiners and I try not to be one. "Try" is the key word in this instance as I just received my utility bill for July and it's absolutely outrageous. Be warned that yours might be also.

I used to be one of these "summer is way better than winter" people. No more. As a resident in Missouri, I just went to my mailbox yesterday and opened this shocking bill.

For reference, my home is a modest one that's barely over 1,500 square feet and it's a single floor house. We run our air conditioning at 72 during the daytime and not that much cooler overnight plus we rely on ceiling fans whenever we can. I can't say this was a complete surprise as I warned a couple weeks ago that Missouri utility bills were forecast to be sky high, but this is ridiculous.

I remember seeing an article a couple of months ago by the Missouri Independent that Ameren in Missouri had come to a settlement with regulators over a raise in rates. They said at the time this was because improvements and reliability upgrades they had made to their system. Here are the most recent earnings report I can find from Ameren:

"Ameren Missouri 2024 GAAP and adjusted earnings were $559 million and $604 million, respectively, compared to 2023 GAAP and adjusted earnings of $545 million...The year-over-year adjusted earnings increase reflected earnings on increased infrastructure investments, new electric service rates effective July 9, 2023, higher electric retail sales across all customer classes and lower operations and maintenance expenses."

I am not an anti-utility company person. I know that companies have to turn a profit and I also get that the costs for those utility companies are rising. However, this kind of a jump is beyond outrageous and is especially hard to stomach during challenging economic times for families. I'll be curious what the reaction and realities of other Missouri families happens to be as these bills start to land in mailboxes.