Edward Smith, edward.smith@sierraclub.org
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The People’s Joy Parade will lead a family-friendly group adorned in endangered species and other critter costumes to Ameren Missouri’s headquarters this Saturday. The parade and gathering at Ameren will challenge the monopoly utility to address its impact on our changing climate with the urgency it deserves and enable struggling families to live with dignity.
Who: The People’s Joy Parade and Sierra Club are leading the event. Speakers outside of Ameren include Jenn Derose and Mahala Pittman (Sierra Club), Sarah Watkins (Tenants Transforming), Patricia Schuba (Labadie Environmental Organization), and Elyse Schaeffer (Missouri Coalition for the Environment).
What: A joy-filled parade with costumes celebrating a renewable energy future, biodiversity, and the need for Ameren Missouri to protect our community from the worst impacts of our changing climate. Once at Ameren, we’ll host a People’s Hearing, where participants can raise their voices to demand that Ameren retire its expensive, polluting coal plants and invest in affordable, clean energy.
Where: The group will meet in Lafayette Park and march (parade map below) to Ameren Missouri’s headquarters at 1901 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, MO 63103.
When: Saturday, October 10, 2026. 11:00 a.m. gathering in Lafayette Park. 11:45 a.m. parade to Ameren Missouri. 12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m. People’s Hearing with speakers.
Why: Ameren recently proposed a long-range energy plan that includes delaying two coal unit retirements at its Labadie power plant, the deadliest in the country, by six years. Ameren also proposes to invest its customers’ money in new gas-burning power plants to serve data centers. In August, the utility disconnected 12,449 residential customers for non-payment, just as families with children were preparing to return to school and months after Ameren CEO Marty Lyons received a $14 million raise.
Recent environmental and public health safeguards that have been, or are pending, repeals or rollbacks:
- EPA’s Endangerment Finding, which is the foundation for regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
- EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan, Regional Haze, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, Effluent Limitation Guidelines, and Greenhouse Gas Standards (111d).
- All rules would have applied to Ameren’s Labadie coal plant, one of only three examples throughout the country.
- EPA’s repeal of public hearings for minor source permits, designed as a loophole for air pollution from diesel generators at data centers.
- DNR is poised to use legal loopholes to evade new pollution controls on major polluting sources, like Ameren’s Labadie coal plant. Despite years of terrible orange and red air quality days, DNR will ask the EPA to move St. Louis into “attainment” from the region’s existing “serious ozone nonattainment area.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.