A Missouri bill to temporarily block commercial solar development got a boost this week when Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe voiced his support during his state of the state speech.
Kehoe, who’s beginning his second year in office, said the bill from the state Senate’s top leader would put “basic guardrails around industrial solar developments that are dividing our rural communities.” S.B. 849 would block commercial solar development through at least the end of 2027 while a state agency develops rules for how projects are built and operated.
A statewide ban on new solar would be unprecedented, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). The Missouri proposal comes at a time when utility executives, grid managers and policymakers are urging development of new sources of electric generation to meet an anticipated surge in demand tied to data center development.
Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin, the senate’s president pro tem and bill’s author, said she has long viewed solar power as an uneconomic and ineffective solution to the state’s energy needs and one that uses too much prime farmland.
