Multistate wind-power line project green-lit by Missouri regulators

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KY3) - A major, multi-state energy project received approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission Thursday, advancing a years-long effort to construct a wind energy line across the Midwest.

The Grain Belt Express, which is being developed by Invenergy Transmission, would stretch nearly 800 miles across Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois, and cost more than $7 billion.

Primary carrying wind-produced energy, the project represents a continuation of America’s changing energy priorities.

“There can be no debate that our energy future will require more diversity in energy resources, particularly renewable resources,” the commission wrote in its order. “We are witnessing a worldwide, long-term, and comprehensive movement toward renewable energy.”

According to the company, the line is expected to increase the state’s energy capacity by up to 2,500 megawatts, enough to power approximately 150,000 homes at once.

The company also said the line will produce more than $11 billion in cost savings over the first 15 years, but it’s unclear how much of those estimated savings will trickle down to customers.

Industry experts say this new powerline will be better able to send energy to where it’s needed most.

“The exciting part about this line is it’s a DC line, which allows power to move both directions,” Ray McCarty, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri. “So, aside from being able to serve additional customers in the state of Missouri, this is also going to provide a way for us to get power from one place to another if we need it in an emergency situation, which is very attractive to our Missouri businesses.”

Push-back against the project has come from landowners and farmers over health concerns, environmental impacts, farming impacts, and property values.

“When you pay for a farm, and then you apply all the fertilizers, do all the conservation practices to make this farm produce for you, and that’s what you’re dependent on, then this just throws everything out the window,” said Marilyn O’Bannon, Monroe County commissioner and a Missouri livestock and crop farmer. “It’s going to change our economy, and it’s only going to cost the consumer more when it costs the farmer more to produce. It’s going to cause all those prices to fall down on the consumer.”

Because the powerline is part of a public utility, the government can transfer the private land to public use land, as long as the owners are compensated.

Based on the commission’s order, landowners will have two options to receive compensation. The first option is through an easement payment, where GBE will pay landowners by the acre at a rate of 150% of the estimated value of the land in use. It works out to roughly $2,000 per parcel of land.

The second option is through agricultural impact payments, where the company will pay the landowner based on how much revenue the landowner is forfeiting in order to accommodate the power line.

O’Bannon said the compensation does little to address the impact on farmers from the construction and maintenance of the structures.

“There’s nothing that the farmer is getting out of this at all,” O’Bannon said. “How do you even figure compensation for land that’s taken completely out of use?”

39 communities in Missouri are already contracted to have power delivered by the line.

If federal permits are secured, construction could begin as early as 2025.

To learn more about the Grain Belt Express transmission line, CLICK HERE.

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