Ameren rates could be going down for MO customers

A spokesman for Ameren said the company filed for a lower natural gas rate Thursday morning.

Michael Holman with Ameren said it’s an 18% decrease, which would end up saving Ameren customers about $75 a year.

A few reasons behind the potential rate drop is the lowering of national gas prices, which is due to the new shale production.

Also, Ameren’s cost of transportation and gas storage has lowered.

One of the reasons behind national gas prices lowering is new discoveries like fracking in the Northeastern states.

This makes for a higher supply than demand and there is a lot of demand right now.

“We hope our prices stay this low. Our forecast right now is to the foreseeable future, which we would basically call a two, two and a half year time frame we don’t see anything driving a significant increase in natural gas,” said Holman.

Before the drop in rates goes into effect, the Public Service Commission would have to approve it. A spokesman for the PSC said the staff is reviewing it today and will give the commission the recommendation to the commission on April 29th.