For the past 18 months, Great Rivers’ Climate and Energy Director Henry Robertson has served as legal representative of both the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club before Missouri’s Public Service Commission in support of Ameren Missouri’s electric vehicle (EV) program.

The PSC’s decision, announced last week, will allow Ameren to invest approximately six million dollars in their “Charge Ahead” program, providing incentives to build EV charging infrastructure at workplaces, multi-family dwellings and at public places like businesses for “around town” charging.

The move is intended to encourage the installation of electric vehicle charging stations in targeted locations where infrastructure is necessary to support customer purchase of cleaner, more efficient electric vehicles. The first charging stations are planned to be installed by the end of this year, with all stations to be installed by the end of 2020.

It is a strange but welcome change to find ourselves advocating on behalf of Ameren Missouri, to bring reduced emissions and cleaner air to Missouri’s citizens.

The transportation sector generates the largest share of all national greenhouse gas emissions (approximately 28.9 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2017). While we still have a long way to go in making sure that the sector uses electricity generated by renewable sources, this week’s victory advances that goal. It is a positive step toward much-needed improvement of air quality in the region and reducing our production of climate-change causing emissions.