SPRINGFIELD -- Local utility companies worry climate and energy legislation now heading to the U.S. Senate would force them to raise customer rates dramatically.  

The proposal is commonly referred to as cap and trade. The key component caps the amount of carbon emitted into the air but let companies exceed the cap by paying penalties. Electric cooperatives in the Ozarks argue the legislation would immediately tack on about $20 to energy bills.  Supporters argue the long-term savings environmentally and financially would be much greater.

Duane Highley of Associated Electric Cooperative, which produces power for the rural electric coops in the state, said the current bill would hit Missouri particularly hard because Midwestern states are more dependent on coal, the primary producer of carbon.

"California currently gets five percent of their energy from coal. Missouri gets 85 percent of its energy from coal. So the tax is going to hit Missouri a lot harder than California," said Highley.

Because utilities would have to pay more to emit carbon when they exceed the government's set cap, the cost would be passed on to customers.

"The monthly increase on the average residential customers bill would be $20 per month, almost immediate in 2012," Highley estimates.

Jonathan Conrad of Springfield's MoveOn.org chapter doesn't believe $15 or $20 a month is a lot to ask to cut emissions and tackle the problem of global warming.  Conrad doesn't dispute an initial cost but believes hiking the price on pollution is the only way to force companies towards renewable sources, which will turn out cheaper in the long run.

"It's going to be an incremental $15, and then we should be ramping back down," Conrad said.

The specific costs are widely disputed, depending on the interest, political party and study.

Supporters argue that new technology like carbon sequestration -- the process that attempts to trap emissions underground -- will help lower the burden on coal companies. That process is actually being studied in Springfield but, as Webster Electric's Tom Houston notes, it hasn't yet been proven to work.

"It's kind of like asking you to buy a car that's powered by water, even though it's not available," Houston said.

Responded Conrad,  "Well, it will work. They can say they haven't tried it before. That's because they haven't been forced to spend the money."

For more on the cap and trade debate, including comments from Sen. Kit Bond, head to the KY3 Political Notebook.

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