Missouri's energy consumption

Summary: Missouri has a legacy of fossil fuel reliance and emissions, relying heavily on coal in particular. Though the state has made minimal investment in sustainable energy production, the field is growing.

Prior to the founding of Missouri as a US state, the Louisiana Territory was recognized as a large swath of land extending from the modern state of Louisiana to North America’s west coast. As a geographic entity, the Louisiana Territory had been inhabited by indigenous peoples, many living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle by the time of European contact, though previously the complex, urban Mississippian culture had flourished.

For several centuries, populations in the upper Louisiana Territory, now known as Missouri, were not dense and relied on widely available wood fuel energy for heating cabins and farmhouses as well as native tent structures. By the early 19th century, however, Missouri’s population had surged, driving up demand for heating fuel. Local commerce and an explosion in the fur trade increased paddle-ship traffic on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, increasing the need for coal and wood production to fuel the boats’ steam systems. Regional townships grew in population and traffic as a result of the transportation innovations that boat and train systems provided.

Growth and the Use of Coal

The growth of the burgeoning twenty-fourth state induced an appetite for more coal. By the late 1880s, Missouri’s Bureau of Labor reported that more than 50 coal mines were operating or preparing to operate in the state. Expansion led the state to modernize energy resource production, driving Missouri to become the first state west of the Mississippi River to produce commercial coal from local mines.

Coal-fired power plants continue to retain their prominence in twenty-first century Missouri energy delivery, although production of coal in the state declined to a minimal level. In 2022, about two-thirds of Missouri’s electricity was generated from coal fuel, with more than 547 trillion British thermal units (Btu) in coal consumed. It was among the states consuming the most coal for electricity generation, after only Texas, Illinois, and Indiana. The long-term impacts of coal usage are still being studied; coal development demands an understanding of fly-ash storage, carbon sequestration technologies, and point-of-origin impacts. The majority of coal used in Missourian facilities originates from Wyoming mines.

Although the state’s coal trend extends from its earliest days, alternative energy production technologies have been added to Missouri’s research and development agenda, and some of this technology has even been deployed. Missouri’s nuclear legacy, for instance, comprises both energy production and military readiness. In terms of electricity production, the state’s singular Callaway Nuclear Generating Station, located near Fulton, northeast of Missouri’s capital, Jefferson City, provides about an eighth of the state’s consumed energy. Further nuclear development is limited by the seismic potential in much of the state. In the 2010s and 2020s, natural gas power plants increased their contribution to Missouri's electricity generation, accounting for about 5 percent by 2017 and rising to 9 percent in 2022. Renewable energy resources have also been developed, including hydropower, wind power, and solar power.

Renewable Energy

Given the lack of natural energy reserves in the state and a production scale around merely 0.2 percent of total US fuel output, Missouri has made some moves toward sustainable measures to supply its growing need for additional energy. In 2008, Missouri tasked investor-owned utility companies with increasing the use of renewable energy. This new energy portfolio standard pushed for increasing reliance on sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal power from a 2 percent increase in 2011 to a 15 percent increase by 2021. By 2022, renewable sources accounted for 12 percent of the state's elecricity-generating total.

A leading area of renewable resource development in Missouri is ethanol and biodiesel as liquid fuels. The state produces a significant percentage of all US ethanol, ranking thirteenth in the nation in total production capacity in 2021. Missouri was also third in capacity for biodiesel production, a field that continued to grow. The state is also known to have major potential for biomass energy production due to its large agricultural sector, but that field has seen only limited development. Similarly, solar power remains underdeveloped, though growing. Wind power has seen bigger gains, with 2,100 megawatts of wind power generating capacity in 2023, ranking eighteenth in the nation.

Need for Electricity

Electricity is the end goal of most of Missouri’s modern energy output, and is the primary heating source for a third of homes in the state. Virtually all the state's electricity comes from electric utilities, with most of the population served by investor-owned utilities. Cooperatives and municipal utilities serve a large geographic portion of the state, but typically more rural, less populated areas. As of 2020s, the US Energy Information Administration reported that Missourians paid considerably under the national average for retail electricity in all use sectors.

Compared to the rest of the United States, Missouri ranks worse than many states in terms of several emissions and energy-intensity scales. According to 2021 estimates, Missouri ranked twelfth in terms of carbon dioxide emissions with 117 million metric tons emitted. While this was down from 2008 when the state was thirty-sixth with 140 million metric tons, it was a 7 percent increase from 2019.

Bibliography

Chalmers, Hannah, Mathieu Lucquiaud, Jon Gibbins, and Matt Leach. "Flexible Operation of Coal Fired Power Plants With Postcombustion Capture of Carbon Dioxide." Journal of Environmental Engineering 135, no. 6 (2009).

"Missouri." US Energy Information Administration, 20 July 2023, www.eia.gov/state/?sid=MO. Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.

"Energy." Missouri Department of Natural Resources, 2024, dnr.mo.gov/energy. Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.

Snead, Mark C., and Amy A. Jones. "Are U.S. States Equally Prepared for a Carbon-Constrained World?" Economic Review 95, no. 4 (2010).