Both Sides Agree Cap & Trade Would Raise Ozark Utility Bills

Local utility companies worry climate and energy legislation now heading to the U.S. Senate would force them to raise customer rates dramatically. But supporters argue the long-term savings environmentally and financially would be much greater.

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COSTS WILL GO UP -- BUT HOW SOON WILL THEY COME BACK DOWN?

"The monthly increase on the average residential customers bill would be $20 per month, almost immediate in 2012," Duane Highley of Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. estimates.

"It's going to be an incremental $15 dollars, and then we should be ramping back down," said Jonathan Conrad of Springfield's MoveOn.org chapter.

ALSO: Sierra Club Reaction

"I am no fan of the watered down version of Waxman-Markey, and quite frankly, I suspect that its impact both financially and environmentally will be nominal at best for at least 10 years," said Brian Hamburg.

*CLARIFICATION: Hamburg e-mailed The Notebook Friday to say his comments are his personal views and do not necessarily represent the views of the Sierra Club