The proposal to have power company consumers help pay for the search for the site of a new nuclear plant has been killed in the senate. The plant locating bill faced a limited future anyway, not reaching the senate floor until late in the session and facing determined opponents who could have tried to talk it to death anyway. Senate leader Rob Mayer says he already knew the bill as it reached the floor was out of order and waited until more than an hour of debate had been held before agreeing with a point of order, .ending debate on the bill probably for the session. Sponsor Robin Wright-Jones of St. Louis says the bill could not overcome differences of opinion about energy policy and consumer protection. .
Wright-Jones thinks Ameren will have to build an additional power plant soon—but it might not be nuclear if some problems are not resolved before the next legislative session.
The sponsor of another nuclear bill says the death of this bill still does not answer the question of what the state is going to do for energy in fifteen years.