A state appeals court has upheld regulations implementing Missouri's renewable energy standard.
Kevin Gunn chairs the Missouri Public Service Commission, the state regulatory agency that developed the regulations.
Gunn says the standard approved by voters in 2008 was intended to increase Missouri's reliance on renewable energy, while at the same time limiting rate-increases to electricity consumers.
"And in trying to balance those two, without a lot of direction from the legislature, or without a lot of direction from the statute, we kind of had to come up with this calculation that we thought complied with both the letter and the spirit of the law,” Gunn said.
Gunn calls the renewable energy regulations "extremely complicated”. He says even though the regulations have survived their latest legal challenge, he expects it won't be the last.
"I suspect that the groups that lost today will ask for transfer to the Missouri Supreme Court, and ultimately that's where I think it's going to end up."
A spokesperson for one of the legal challengers, the utility company Ameren, declined to comment, saying the company had not yet had time to review the court's decision.