Feed the grid in Missouri? Not today

In 2007, a law was signed enabling Missourians who generate electricity at home to sell the excess back into the electrical grid, a practice known as net metering.

Now, those who have made the investment to do this are saying, "Show me."

As The Kansas City Star reports, "Two problems have popped up with a new Missouri law that was supposed to make it easy for homeowners to put in their own wind turbines or solar panels and send any excess power back to utilities:

•The Missouri Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities, is requiring homeowners to buy insurance before they can begin feeding electricity to the grid.

•It appears no insurance companies in Missouri sell that insurance."

Some leaving comments on the article believe the Missouri Public Service Commission added the insurance provision at the behest of utilities.

In the article, the commission's chairman offers this excuse for requiring insurance for net metering, which he said, “poses a physical threat to those linemen who are out there working on it ... It poses a physical threat to your neighbors’ property, who are also connected to you on those same power lines, where the power could back up onto you and your neighbors’ house and destroy property.”

Indiana is the only other state to require liability insurance for net metering. A number of cities do this. Most states don't even consider the need for the insurance.

The Missouri situation is an unfortunate Catch-22. If the state insists on requiring the insurance, it should work with insurance providers to see that this is offered.