Climate Matters: Columbia nears renewable energy goal, but hurdles remain

It's been over twenty years since Columbia residents approved an ordinance requiring their utility providers to source more energy from renewables.

Now, decades later, more than a fifth of the city's energy comes from renewables, but future progress faces increasing challenges both locally and nationally.

According to Columbia Utilities' 2026 Renewable Energy Plan, the city purchased or generated 22.57% of its energy from renewable sources, slightly below the 25% target.

Public Information Specialist for Columbia Utilities, Matt Nestor, states that although Columbia is just short of its goals, renewable energy use continues to grow.

"Even though we fell short of our goal, we increased the amount of renewables that came into the city." Matt says, "So we are increasing, even though the percentages don't quite show it."

Columbia's renewable energy target will rise to 30% in 2029 under an updated ordinance from 2014. The city has a plan to reach that goal, but the cross-country project at the core of that plan faces significant litigation and delays.

Grain Belt Express is a proposed, partly constructed transmission line meant to carry wind power from central Kansas through Missouri and Illinois to the Indiana border.

Columbia signed a contract with Iron Star Wind to connect the city to this transmission line once it's completed, which will supply nearly 10% of Columbia's renewable energy in the 2030s.

"Right now, they're looking at the possibility of coming online by 2029. That's going to be a huge jump for us—122,000 megawatt hours coming into our grid. That would be about 10% of what we expect for 2029." Matt says.

But just last year, former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey launched an investigation into Grain Belt Express, accusing the project of overstating its benefits to local communities.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley also successfully pushed for the cancellation of billions of dollars in federal loans for the project, citing concerns over eminent domain acquisitions from local farmers.

Columbia has several options if Grain Belt Express falls through.

"We do have some proposals for power purchase agreements from solar fields. We're analyzing those now, seeing what the cost to the utility is, what the cost to the consumer would be, and trying to see if any of those fit within our plan." Matt states.

Ultimately, much of Columbia's renewable energy future depends on factors beyond local utility control. "There's a lot up in the air that we don't have control of," Matt says. "That's going to determine what we can do."