By Don Corrigan
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and Attorney General Andrew Bailey took victory laps last week when the Department of Energy defunded a long-awaited Grain Belt Express electric transmission line through the state.
The $4.9 billion loan guarantee given to the developers of the Grain Belt Express has been canceled, but cities such as Kirkwood, Farmington, Hannibal and Rolla continue to look forward to receiving the line‘s cleaner energy at some point in the future.
Kirkwood Electric Director Mark Petty has long 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. That future may now be delayed.
Both Hawley and Bailey claimed they were major players in tripping up the future of the transmission line. Hawley has referred to the Grain Belt Express project as a “green scam,” a “boondoggle loan,” and as an “elitist land grab.”
Bailey said the project was sold to the people of Missouri as some kind of “Green New Deal,” but that he had forced “a positive first step” in ending the project altogether. He blasted eminent domain use in securing farm property for transmission lines.
Environmental Echo 