So let me get this straight. In Illinois, Ameren is telling 800,000 families they need to fork over another $129 million—their fourth rate hike since 2018—just to keep the gas flowing safely. Meanwhile, next door in Missouri, the same company is practically drooling over a "robust data center pipeline" that demands more electricity than their biggest coal plant can even produce.
They’re crying poverty to grandma in Peoria while rolling out the red carpet for Big Tech in St. Louis.
This is a tale of two Amerens. Or, more accurately, it’s one Ameren with two faces, playing a shell game where the only person who loses is you.
The Squeeze Play in Illinois
Down in Central and Southern Illinois, the story is grimly familiar. Ameren wants more of your money. A lot more. They’re framing this latest $129 million cash grab as a necessity for "safety, integrity, and reliability." It’s the same tired line they trot out every time they want to pad their bottom line.
Let's "translate" the corporate-speak from their Sr. Director, Brad Kleoppel. He says they "evaluate all available methods to maintain compliance at the lowest possible cost." Translation: "We're doing the bare minimum the Feds require, and we're sending you the entire bill, plus a hefty service charge for our trouble." He also brags about buying gas in the summer when it’s cheap. Great. Isn't that just... doing your job? Should we give them a medal for not buying high and selling low?
Consumer advocates at the Citizens Utility Board are calling it what it is: "profiteering." They, along with state judges, are pushing back, with some success: Illinois judges slash Ameren rate hike by $44 million. But even that feels like haggling with a hostage-taker. Why are we even in this position to begin with? How did a public utility become so disconnected from the public that people are literally choosing between heating their homes and eating, while executives are drafting press releases about "affordability"?
This isn't about safety. No, 'safety' doesn't cover it—this is a shakedown. It's the fee you pay for the privilege of not freezing to death, and it goes up whenever their shareholders get antsy. And honestly, I'm just so tired of it. It's like my cable bill, which has a dozen garbage fees tacked on that nobody can explain. It's death by a thousand cuts, and they're counting on you being too busy or too exhausted to fight back.
Missouri's Data Center Gold Rush
Now, pivot to Missouri, where Ameren is singing a completely different tune. Here, they’re not the humble public servants trying to keep the pipes from rusting. They're visionaries! Empire builders! They’re courting data centers so massive one of them needs 2,000 MW of power. For context, their largest current industrial customer uses 32 MW.
This is where the real scam lies. As Ari Peskoe from Harvard Law points out, utilities have a bizarre business model: they make more money the more stuff they build. Power plants, transmission lines—it's all capital expenditure they get to charge you for, with a guaranteed rate of return. A single data center is the ultimate excuse to go on a multi-billion-dollar construction bender.
It's like a contractor who convinces you that your perfectly fine house needs a new foundation, an extra wing, and a gold-plated roof, all because a rich guy might want to rent your guest room for a few years. Offcourse, you're on the hook for all of it.
Ameren has already pocketed $28 million in "nonrefundable payments" from these data center developers. It’s a down payment on a future where everyone else's bills go up to subsidize Big Tech's energy appetite. And what happens if this is all a bubble, as Missouri’s own economic development director admits it could be? What if these data centers never show up, or they find a cheaper deal in another state? Who pays for the half-built power plants and the miles of useless high-voltage lines then? It ain't gonna be Ameren's CEO, I can tell you that.
Even Senator Josh Hawley smells a rat, which is why Hawley Sends Letter to Ameren Demanding Answers on Utility Bill Increases, Data Center Deals, and Power Shut-offs. It’s a valid question. Are regular families just the seed money for Ameren's much more exciting and profitable venture capital projects?
Am I being too cynical here? Maybe these data centers will bring jobs and tax revenue. Then again, when was the last time a regular person saw any real benefit from a corporation getting a sweetheart deal? They're playing both sides of the field, squeezing families in one state while chasing corporate giants in another, and we're just supposed to sit here and take it...
You're Getting Played
Let's be real. Ameren isn't a "public utility" anymore. It's a for-profit corporation with a state-sanctioned monopoly, and it's using that power to extract wealth from every possible angle. In Illinois, they squeeze pennies from the vulnerable. In Missouri, they're preparing to build a private power grid for tech behemoths on the public's dime. It’s a brilliant, predatory business model. The only question left is whether the regulators in either state will have the spine to stop it. I wouldn't hold my breath.
