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Thanks so much for joining us for Last Call.

The topics we didn't get to in the first segment of the program.

Alvin, I want to talk to you about Ameren, which is planning a huge natural gas plant in West Alton.

And it's going to try something that we haven't seen before.

It's called Construction Work in Progress.

Instead of building it and then billing the customers who benefit from it at the time, they're going to ask the regulators in Missouri if they can bill the customers while they're building it.

Some of those customers may never benefit from it because they might die or move or whatever.

But the plan called Construction Work in Progress is designed to lower the borrowing costs of the utility.

The customers will have to pay more earlier.

What do you think?

Well, coming from a municipality that just found out that they'd be paying a lot more for their electricity due to unforeseen circumstances, I say no to that.

No, there's no way that I should be paying for something that you're building which will increase your capacity to make money.

Just build it yourself.

Make your money.

When was the last time a rate increase was stopped, even in Illinois?

I mean, where they are a little bit more protective of this kind of thing than Missouri is.

But yet they still get rate increases all the time.

So, no, I'm steadfastly against it.

Let me speak up for my friends at Alvin.

You know, I had not given this issue any thought at all until this time.

And now I think, you know, I think the regulators should be regulating them closer so that they don't have millions or billions of dollars that they can build a new plant.

So when they want to build a new plant, it makes sense to say, okay, we're going to build the customers while you build it, rather than let you just run wild and have hundreds of millions of dollars in excess in your account so that you can build these things yourself.

So I think that Ameren should be allowed to build it.

I'm going to join Alvin on this one here.

You mean I had Ameren for myself?

No, but that was a good job.

You got Ameren.

Karen Foss couldn't have done it better.

But it is a service that Ameren gives us.

So once I start taking your product, I'll start paying you.

You know, if I buy your electricity, I get it.

I owe you a certain amount of money.

And I appreciate the heck out of that electricity coming to my house.

But that's like a store saying, this is going to be a really nice restaurant, but we're going to start charging you now before we actually start giving you food because we'd like to build our restaurant.

It just doesn't seem to be fair.

And I'm not saying I agree with Bill or Ameren, but what they're saying is the cost will be lower because the borrowing cost will be reduced.

They'll borrow less money, and in the long run, the consumers will pay lower utility bills.

So they're doing this for the consumers.

That's what they're saying.

Now you get it.

Now you get it.

This argument is like, oh, your grandchildren will surely benefit from this.

We're going to soak you now.

It seems like terrible timing, like electricity rates keep going up and up and up.

And we've got a couple big hikes, I think, just in the last couple of years.

You've got to give us more now?

Can't we save some to soak future generations?

Well, do you want the regulators to say, Amarin, we want you to just keep charging these people, overcharging them so that you can have this huge account and build a new plant?

But this is like going back to our original argument.

You trust a utility to do the right thing as far as the money is concerned.

And I just have trouble with that.

I'm not calling out Ameren.

Utilities are there to increase stock.

I mean, a lot of us in portfolios have utility stock just for this reason.

They're like, hey, look, they're always going to be going up as much as I don't like them.

It's a good and wise investment.

People love electricity.

No, on the front end, I can't see it.

I just can't see that.

Hey, Sarah, what about the St.

Louis Board of Adjustment, which this week did give unanimously approval to a data center in Midtown.

I think it's in the old Goodwill building, right?

Yeah, the warehouse.

Yeah, right.

Next to the armory.

Next to the armory.

You can see it when you're driving down 6440.

The city leaders there on that Board of Adjustment say, hey, it's a good deal.

They've compromised on some of the environmental restrictions, and we want to go for it.

What do you think?

Yeah, so when you say city leaders, these are just like 11 average Joes.

They're not elected.

They're appointed, and they're meant to, like, be everyday citizens.

And so kind of fascinating that they found everyday citizens in the city of St.

Louis who are pro data center.

You don't meet that many of those.

I think what I found fascinating is this meeting went on for 11 hours.

Like, I tuned in at various points.

God bless the reporters who sat through the whole thing.

Like, there were some paper-of-record post -dispatch types who did that.

And I'm like, there but for the grace of God.

Some of these questions, some of this discussion, this was just direct democracy in action, and I guess no matter who's voting, whether it's politicians who have to raise money for their next campaign or just average citizens, data centers always win, even in the city of St.

Louis.

Yeah, you know, money talks, and I think it's also the amount of money.

It's a lot.

That talks.

But I still think that, for lack of a better term, you could kind of extort from these individual companies or those backing them in that you just have to, instead of paying Ameren up front, make these folks pay up front.

And the city is doing that.

I mean, they drove a hard bargain here.

But does it involve a check?

It involves a check.

All right.

It involves a check for millions of dollars.

When it clears, call.

Well, what I'm interested in is they do not have a tenant who has signed a lease for this data center.

Is there a data center that is willing to pay through the nose for the privilege of being in beautiful Midtown St.

Louis?

If so, there's a lot of city officials who are going to be happy.

What interested me is that they promised the developer not to run the diesel generators on days when the pollution index exceeds 50.

Now, I'm a little surprised that in this day and age we're still using diesel generators.

And if you're a neighbor, you know, those fumes are going to go somewhere.

That's not going to be pleasant.

And they have to test these diesel generators.

So they can't test them on certain days.

But I guess they can use them on other days, right?

Yeah, and this has been the thing that's made the Memphis one so bad for the neighbors.

Like there are some examples where we should not have any diesel generators.

Now, doesn't Steve Smith have all sorts of development around there?

I mean, how are his customers going to enjoy that?

There's like these, you know, thousands of apartments that are thousands of dollars a month.

Like, you know, cool young people walking to the foundry.

This is all happening kind of next door to that.

On the other hand, it already has a very industrial vibe there.

It's kind of the heart of the city.

The highway is just rushing past you.

There's train lines right there.

That's why they want to be there is that's where the electric lines are like, you know, the biggest.

All right.

As soon as the diesel fume wafts over to the St.

Louis Zoo, it's going to be over.

Which is why the opposition to data centers comes from the people who live nearby where they want to build the data.

Because I like to say, never mind the people.

As soon as something, one of our, you know, iconic sites gets a little whiff of diesel fuel, it'll be too late.

And it should be one of our iconic places.

Because you live near it, right?

Yes, but I like the zoo.

No, I agree.

So I'm kind of kidding, but I'm serious.

Never mind right there by Highway 6440.

It's going to waft someplace and somebody's going to walk out of their house and say, like, it smells like diesel fuel.

And all of a sudden, they'll then join this argument like, why did we ever allow this?

Oh, I'm upset.

Well, do any of the members of the Board of Adjustment live near it?

Do we know?

I don't know the answer to that.

Hey, Alvin, I want to call you to task.

When I brought up the story about two months ago where the hotel owners in Kansas City said they weren't getting the reservations they thought they would get for the World Cup, you said, relax, Charlie, it's going to be outstanding.

Now a report comes out this week from the Missouri Restaurant Association.

They interviewed 39 restaurant owners representing 140 or so restaurants.

Only 10% saw increased traffic or revenue during the World Cup in Kansas City.

51% said their business actually went down.

Okay.

First of all, there was a big, gigantic festival, you know, all around downtown.

So that was where the majority of people were.

This survey was also like if the World Cup had been here, they were surveying restaurants like Belleville and Kirkwood and Chesterfield.

They wouldn't get a bump necessarily from the World Cup.

The ones that were close to it said they did make a profit.

The barbecue places just did fantastic business.

It was an international scene.

And I just think that to poo-poo on the whole thing just because some restaurant 25 miles away didn't make a million dollars, that's being short-sighted.

The restaurateurs in Kansas City are saying, I wish people had leveled with us.

Well, no.

I wish we knew that we didn't have to buy all this food and hire all these people.

But that's like when the Pope came and we thought there were going to be 750 ,000 people down there.

Oh, I remember that.

Trifon at the grill went out and just bought huge amounts of food, and then nobody showed up.

Right.

I mean, so, I mean, that's even worse.

They just didn't really matriculate.

It's always that way with sports.

You know, we thought the Rams would be great for downtown.

They were.

No, downtown St.

Louis went down, down, down as long as the Rams were here.

I think the thing I'm most disturbed about is World Cup's been over for a couple weeks, and we're still talking about soccer.

And, you know, when World Cup ends, can't we just quit pretending that we care that much about soccer as a nation?

I'm saying that sports don't have the financial impact that the cheerleaders say that it does.

Fall behind football, baseball, basketball, and hockey.

Yeah, you're right, Charlie.

And besides, it's more about a feeling that the citizens have about their community.

Really?

You and Ben Hockman just love that.

A football team, a hockey team.

You feel like you're a big league city.

Can I write that down?

There's a quotient to what Bill is saying that does exist, and to put a monetary value on it is difficult.

But there is something to it.

And Travis married, what's her name?

Taylor.

That was so sweet.

Well, they got married in New York.

Excuse me.

I have to call an end to this program because I have to find an air sickness bag.

Real quick.

This area in Kansas City, Kansas, where the stadium is going to be built, the new Chiefs Stadium, they are knocking each other over trying to get property around it.

Olathe, where the headquarters is.

They are cheering this move.

They are all in it.

The pride in eastern Kansas is just through the roof.

Okay, to be continued.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you, Sarah, for sitting in for Wendy, who will be back next week.

And we hope you will, too.

Thanks.