Missouri is the geographic center of the U.S. -- and Missourians like to think of theirs as the "bellwether state," having voted for the winning presidential candidate (with one exception) in every election since 1904. So the significance of Prop C (the initiative being voted on next week that would require utility companies to gradually increase their usage of renewable energy until they reach a goal of 15 percent) isn't that Missouri would be the first state to guarantee a market for green power. In fact, half of the states have already adopted such rules. Nor is Missouri's a particularly ambitious standard -- some others are at 25 percent.
The significance is in what's not happening. If Prop C passes (and polling shows that about three-quarters of the voters here favor it) this will have been the least-controversial such measure ever adopted. The state's largest public utility, Kansas City Power and Light, is actively supporting it. So is organized labor -- and the remaining utilities are neutral. Indeed, thus far, only 11 days out, no major opposition has emerged to the initiative.
That's a sign that renewable energy is no longer alternative energy -- it's the future. And even skeptical Missourians are ready to embrace it.
