By Don Corrigan
Kirkwood Electric Director Mark Petty has long been a supporter of the green energy that could be supplied by the Grain Belt Express transmission line proposed to come through Missouri.
In 2022, Petty optimistically predicted that cheaper, green energy would be in Kirkwood’s future once the utility line delivering Kansas wind turbine energy got past some political and landowner objections.
Those obstacles continue. Now Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has thrown up additional roadblocks with his accusations that the Grain Belt line developer through the state may be supplying fraudulent energy information. Bailey wants an investigation.
A Grain Belt Express spokesperson for the Invenergy Company has responded to Bailey’s charges with obvious indignation.
“We should be building energy infrastructure in America, but the Missouri Attorney General is instead playing politics with U.S. power,” said Martin Grego, a project spokesperson.
“Electricity demand is rising across the country, and we urgently need transmission infrastructure to deliver power,” added Grego. “Projects like Grain Belt Express are the answer to providing all forms of affordable and reliable electricity to U.S. consumers.”
In a memorandum to the Missouri Public Service Commission, Bailey accused Grain Belt of supplying “at best speculative and faulty, or at worst intentionally fraudulent information in their application (for the project), including in their impact analysis.”
Bailey questions Grain Belt’s estimations of cost savings and economic benefits accruing from the multi-state power line. Such questions have been answered to the satisfaction of many state municipal utilities seeking choices for energy suppliers for their cities.
Invenergy has said its energy delivery, via Missouri electric towers, will increase five-fold from 500 to 2,500 megawatts. The plan also adds an extra 40-mile line, to be called the “Tiger Connector,” to enter the electrical grid tying in at Callaway County.
Kirkwood’s Petty told the Times that “the electrical grid is a complicated network with multiple paths for energy to flow. Our area has been in need of transmission upgrades for some time. The Tiger Connector plan is good for everyone in our area.”
Bailey’s actions against the green energy delivery system are just the latest in years of attempts to throw a wrench in the clean energy delivery project – actions by lawmakers, fossil fuel industry lobbyists and others.
Solar, wind and other renewable energy sources are displacing coal as the preferred source of electricity, as is reflected in the phaseout of coal plants in the St. Louis region, according to John Hickey, a member of the Webster Groves Sustainability Commission and past state Sierra Club director.
“Coal cannot compete on price with clean energy and look at Missouri as an example,” said Hickey. “The Meramec Coal Plant in St. Louis County closed in 2022. The Rush Island Coal Plant in Jefferson County closed in 2024.
Hickey said state and national opponents of renewables may be able to slow down clean energy investment, but he said the economic and environmental advantages of clean energy will continue to drive the transition away from “dirty” energy.
“Consider that 40 cities across Missouri are choosing to contract with the Grain Belt Express for wind energy,” said Hickey. “Those cities include Kirkwood, Rolla, Springfield, Farmington and more. Municipalities across rural Missouri are signing up to switch from dirty coal to wind energy.”
Environmental Echo 