Editor’s note: The following, written by Bryce Gray of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was first published Feb. 27, 2018. Gray is that newspaper’s reporter covering energy and the environment. The proposed energy transmission lines would bisect southern Caldwell County while crossing North Missouri.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Find out how to advertise here - Email us! [email protected]
There is opposition to the Grain Belt Express project. Opponents say the project would constitute one of the largest condemnations of private land in Missouri history. According to information posted on www.AgainstGBEMo.com more than 600 landowners in its 220-mile path along Missouri alone would be impacted. This would involve approximately 5,000 acres for easements. The Missouri Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities and transmission line operators, denied application for the Grain Belt Express in July, 2015. The commission stated that the company did not demonstrate that the line would improve the grid, would not benefit ratepayers and, therefore, does not justify the burden placed on the landowners.
With the proposed multi-state wind energy transmission line, Grain Belt Express, held up over controversial interpretations of Missouri law, prospective developers of the project have pushed for the case to go before the Supreme Court.
That wish has now been granted after an opinion filed Feb. 27 in the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals ordered that the matter be transferred to the Missouri Supreme Court.
Judge Lisa Page concluded that the Public Service Commission “erred” in its finding that it could not lawfully authorize the project.
Citing a controversial court ruling, the PSC ruled last year that assent from individual counties along the line’s path were required before state approval — a condition that commissioners, themselves, said would have dire consequences for the development of future infrastructure in Missouri.
The 780-mile transmission line would enable the distribution of wind energy from Kansas to Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, before feeding into the grid at large.
Though they did not grant approval to the project, members of the Missouri PSC acknowledged that the project was firmly in the public interest and would save millions of dollars for its electric customers in the state.
“Today’s ruling is a significant victory for the Missouri economy and for dozens of Missouri cities that could save more than $10 million annually from the delivery of low-cost clean energy by the Grain Belt Express Clean Line,” said Michael Skelly, president of Clean Line Energy, the company behind the project, in a statement.
“Every day that these benefits are delayed sets Missouri back as it strives to compete in this global economy. It is our hope that the Missouri Supreme Court will hear this critical case in an expedited manner.”
