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The House approved the massive package Thursday on a 96-44 vote, with both Democratic and Republican support.

While the measure struggled through contentious hearings and hours of floor debate from a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate, it faced less resistance in the House. Members spent nearly two hours debating the legislation Thursday after an easygoing House hearing Monday.

The proposal sets out to give the Public Service Commission control over new ways utility companies can ramp up generation as the state faces upcoming energy shortfalls.

But, according to a Consumers Council of Missouri report, Missourians with Ameren electric, Spire gas, and Missouri American Water service potentially face an increase of at least $1,100 annually to their utility bills if Kehoe signs the bill.

“I can’t, in good conscience, go back to my district and say I contributed to raising their utility bills,” Rep. Ray Reed, D-Brentwood, said.

“They (utility companies) wouldn’t have a squadron full of folks up here trying to convince us to vote for this if there wasn’t a profit motive,” Rep. Don Mayhew, R-Crocker, added, arguing there wasn’t enough oversight in the legislation.

While energy load and demand have remained flat for the last decade, it’s projected to ramp up with an influx of advanced manufacturing and data centers hitting the grid. The electric grid operators covering Missouri forecast load growth of about 45% over the next 20 years.

Rep. Josh Hurlbert, R-Smithville, the House sponsor, said the legislation wouldn’t have been needed five years ago amidst stagnation in energy consumption but is now necessary for Missouri to compete economically.

“It’s time for us to modernize our utility policies to build more generation if Missouri is going to be competitive in landing (high energy) projects,” Hurlbert said.

“When we try to recruit people to come to the Kansas City region to open any type of business that uses a lot of electricity, it’s �Can you guarantee us the kilowatt hours?’ And unfortunately, we cannot,” said Shannon Cooper of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce during an earlier hearing on the bill.

The major component of the legislation is construction work in progress (CWIP), which allows utility companies to charge ratepayers while a plant is being built instead of once it’s completed, which is the current practice. This will allow utility companies to “have more tools” to meet rising energy demands and potentially save ratepayers’ money, Hurlbert said. Detractors, including consumer groups, assert CWIP will raise rates and line the pockets of monopoly utilities. CWIP has been outlawed in Missouri since 1976, when voters overwhelmingly banned it from use.

Rep. Bob Bromley, R-Carl Junction, the chair of the House Utilities Committee, said CWIP was “questionable” in his mind, but the measure won his support because of added consumer protections and commission oversight.

In earlier versions of the legislation, the commission had no say whether CWIP could be used on gas generation, now they have to approve it for a utility to use it. Consumers can also get their money back if there are cost overruns on a construction project if regulators find a utility company spent “imprudently".

“Shifting the risk of power plant construction from monopoly utility shareholders to captive customers in order to pay for power plants that will mostly serve data centers is not clever economic development, it’s corporate welfare on the backs of hard-working Missourians and it’s wrong,” said Jenn DeRose, a senior field organizer in Missouri for the Sierra Club.

The Missouri Office of Public Counsel, which defends ratepayers, also will receive a funding bump under the proposal.

Currently, when utility companies ask for rate increases, companies base the request on what they spent in prior years. The legislation will allow gas, water, and sewer utilities to base their rate requests on projected expenses instead of historical costs.

Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit, said future test year would create a more robust process before utility companies undergo construction instead of litigating the justification of costs after the fact.

“If someone tells you that future test year is going to lower rates they are gaslighting you,” said John Coffman, the Consumer Council’s utility consumer counsel.

Future test year ties into a larger thread of the legislation empowering regulators and Office of Public Counsel to meet Missouri’s power needs while constructively working with utility companies.

Under the policy, regulators would approve future plans for utility companies.

Several consumer-focused additions were included in the package including a pathway to help low-income households pay for utilities.

Republicans were pleased with a provision allowing customers to opt out of having a smart meter.