State task force tackles energy efficiency

Gov. Matt Blunt signed an executive order that creates the Missouri Energy Task Force, to be chaired by Public Service Commission Chairman Jeff Davis.

Other members will be Missouri’s lieutenant governor, the public counsel, the speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives, the Senate president pro tem, the director of the Department of Agriculture or his designee and the director of the Department of Natural Resources or his designee.

The House speaker will be responsible for designating a member of the House’s Utilities Committee to the task force, and the Senate president pro tem will designate a member of the Senate’s Commerce and Environment Committee.

The task force is responsible for providing Blunt with a report by Aug. 31 that recommends methods for lessening Missouri’s depending on fossil fuels and provides utility assistance for the state’s low-income households. Blunt also has asked that the report promote new opportunities for the use of renewable fuels and encourage the state’s utilities to develop electric power generation resources that would result in low-cost electricity.