Oh, BOOMITY
Lemme tell you yet again how much I LURVES the cut of the Trump cabinet jibs.
These secretaries are fierce, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright is no slouch among them.
This morning, he hopefully drove a stake through the heart of yet another one of the Biden administration’s last-minute multi-billion-dollar Green grifting handouts. He canceled the $4.9B federal loan guarantee for something called the Grain Belt Express.
The Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the Loan Programs Office (LPO) has terminated its conditional commitment for the Grain Belt Express Phase 1 project, a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line intended to connect wind and solar capacity across Kansas and Missouri. The conditional commitment, which would have provided a taxpayer-funded loan guarantee of up to $4.9 billion dollars, was issued by the Biden administration in November 2024 – one of many conditional commitments that were rushed out the door in the final days of the Biden administration.
After a thorough review of the project’s financials, DOE found that the conditions necessary to issue the guarantee are unlikely to be met and it is not critical for the federal government to have a role in supporting this project. To ensure more responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources, DOE has terminated its conditional commitment.
Kind of a nebulous but cuddly sort of name, right? I mean, who could tell vurt da furk it even was – plane, train, or automobile – with that moniker?
Actually, the project was none of the above.
In the works for fifteen years, it was a proposed high-power transmission line that would run through four states, bringing electricity generated by wind turbines in Kansas to lucky consumers in *checks notes* Indiana.
This would be the living, breathing embodiment of renewable energy come to life, right?
An 804-mile-long transmission line in the Midwest appeared to be finally ready for construction after more than a decade of delays.
Known as Grain Belt Express, the $11 billion line would carry electricity produced by wind farms in Kansas across Missouri and Illinois all the way to Indiana, making it the very sort of infrastructure that experts say is needed to modernize America’s aging electrical grid.
That’s how it was being sold, only to the farmers in Missouri through whose land the transmission towers and structure required would pass, there seemed to be several serious problems with the plan.
The first point was that not a kilowatt of the electricity was being diverted for use in their state, yet their property would be subject to eminent domain claims if they didn’t give it up voluntarily for this supposedly fabulous project. Another point was that this was a private company’s project, not a state or federal electricity effort. So, where was the ‘common benefit’ rationale for taking Missouri farmland when only a private Chicago, Illinois company was benefiting by selling cheap Kansas wind power at big markups to Hoosiers?
Besides, there is the little matter of the wind turbines to which these lines would connect and for which they’re already condemning and buying property in Missouri.
They haven’t even been built yet.
…Grain Belt Express has received approvals from all four states that it traverses. But some individual landowners are still fighting.
One of them is Kevin Reed, who farms 200-acres of corn and soybeans in Missouri. The land has been in his family for years, and Mr. Reed says he doesn’t want transmission lines crossing his crops when he sees no benefit to his family or his neighbors.
In 2023 Grain Belt Express sued to force Mr. Reed’s family to allow the project to build on his farm. But unlike other landowners, Mr. Reed is one of several holdouts who continues to fight the project. In June, he filed a motion to dismiss the Grain Belt Express suit in circuit court in Caldwell County, Mo.
“This thing didn’t smell right from the get-go,” he said. “There is no one in my county that’s going to receive a drip of this electricity.”
Mr. Reed said he has a number of concerns about the project. For one, he said, the wind turbines that are supposed to provide the electricity for the line have not been built.
SAY WHUT
…Mr. Reed said he understood that eminent domain was sometimes necessary, and said he has allowed local governments to widen roads and install water lines on his property in the past.
But in this case, he said, it appeared that Invenergy was simply running a transmission line across his property so it could turn a profit.
It does seem kind of fishy. And tres un-American.
Which is what Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey thought, too, and why he decided, even with the project having had bipartisan support in the beginning, that perhaps all the cards hadn’t been on the table from the beginning. Bailey is convinced there has been significant over-promising in terms of project benefits, and he certainly has a long list of recent failed renewable snafus he can point to, justifying his skepticism.
In March, Bailey flagged the DOGE team with his concerns over the looming boondoggle, using pretty aggressive language.
@ElonMusk I am here to report $5 BILLION in wasted taxpayer dollars allocated to fund a green energy scam and massive land grab from Missouri farmers and landowners.
I’m urging DOGE to immediately identify and cancel any DOE loan guarantees for the Grain Belt Express project. pic.twitter.com/eRBoP6wvH4
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) March 6, 2025
And then the MO AG ordered an investigation at the beginning of this month and has urged the Missouri Public Service Commission to take another look at its approval for the private project.
…But on Tuesday, the Missouri attorney general, Andrew Bailey, a Republican, opened an investigation into Grain Belt Express and requested that the state’s Public Service Commission reconsider its approval.
The development could be a major setback for Invenergy, the energy company that is behind the project, and its founder Michael Polsky, a billionaire immigrant who has been working to sell the public on Grain Belt Express. The company calls it the largest privately funded transmission line in the country’s history.
Mr. Bailey claims that developers of the transmission line, which could carry enough energy to power more than 3 million homes, fraudulently inflated the number of jobs it would create, overstated cost savings to consumers, and misled landowners. He said his intention was “ultimately killing this project.”
Mr. Bailey’s investigation will be welcome news to other opponents of the project, which include Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, some trade groups and landowners who don’t want high voltage power lines to run through their property. Last week Senator Hawley urged the Energy Department to cancel a conditional loan guarantee it has offered Grain Belt Express.
… Mr. Bailey said he hopes to block the Grain Belt Express from ever getting built. In addition to the investigation, he has asked Missouri’s public service commission to reconsider its approval for the project, a potentially devastating blow.
I mean, Baily takes the Invenergy corporation apart here.
The Grain Belt Express is a rip-off for all Missourians. pic.twitter.com/0YANROUIi4
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) May 29, 2025
‘…They don’t have the electrons to push through the power lines…Why aren’t they being built over existing footprints rather than harming Missouri agriculture…’
Yesterday, the ‘potentially devastating blow’ came not from the public service commission, but from the federal government, as they did the math and listened to the heartfelt entreaties of citizens.
NO MONEY FOR YOU
The Energy Department on Wednesday said it had terminated a commitment to provide a $4.9 billion loan guarantee to a company building a contentious transmission line across the Midwest.
The cancellation may imperil the $11 billion project, known as Grain Belt Express, which would cross 800 miles of farmland and is designed to carry electricity generated by wind farms in Kansas to population centers in Illinois and Indiana.
…Last year, during the final months of the Biden administration, the Energy Department offered the $4.9 billion loan commitment, a crucial piece of financing that made the long-awaited project appear primed to begin construction.
…Garrett Hawkins, president of Missouri Farm Bureau, a group that had opposed the project, applauded the Energy Department’s decision.
“This move demonstrates a long-overdue recognition of the voices of rural communities who have consistently and clearly expressed their deep concerns about the project’s impact on their land, livelihoods and private property rights,” he said.
Much like many of the wind developers with their post-defeat bluster, Invenergy vows to fight on, but they’re going to have a helluva time taking Missouri farmland now.
…Mr. Bailey also applauded the news.
“If Invenergy wants to continue to pursue this project,” he said, “we’ll be there every step of the way to defend Missouri landowners and taxpayers from corporate abuse.”
Score this round for the little guys.
Every single day, here at HotAir, Ed, David, John, and I work hard to bring you the best in conservative reporting. We dig deep to expose the radical left, the Green grift, and progressive plans, while delivering news and views you won’t find anywhere else.
And we’re pretty darn proud of that. But we can’t keep up the FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT without your support.
Help us continue to tell the truth about the Trump administration – its successes and its foes. We’d love to invite you to join HotAir’s VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
We can’t thank you enough for choosing to be here at HotAir with us!
