Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has launched an investigation into the Grain Belt Express power line project, citing concerns over what he says are misleading claims and potential fraud.
Bailey, a Republican, issued a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) compelling GBE to provide documents related to job creation promises, marketing, and landowner outreach. Bailey is also asking the Missouri Public Service Commission to reevaluate the massive project’s prior approval, alleging it was based on speculative and possibly fraudulent assumptions.
“Grain Belt Express has repeatedly lied to Missourians about the jobs it would create, the benefits it would deliver, and the land it seeks to take,” Bailey said in a news release. “We will not allow a private corporation to trample property rights and mislead regulators for a bait and switch that serves out-of-state interests instead of Missourians.”
The Grain Belt Express is a proposed powerline that would funnel electricity from wind turbines in Kansas, across northern Missouri and Illinois to Indiana. The project is valued at roughly $11 billion.
Bailey also criticized GBE for filing nearly 50 eminent domain lawsuits against Missouri landowners while benefiting from a $4.9 billion federal loan guarantee issued by the Biden Administration shortly after Donald Trump was re-elected president. In an earlier interview with Missourinet, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called the Grain Belt Express “a Green New Deal boondoggle.”
Hawley called on the Trump Administration to cancel the loan guarantee, but the U.S. Department of Energy chose instead to move forward with drafting an Environmental Impact Statement – which is required before the loan can be finalized.
Martin Grego, a spokesperson for Grain Belt Express, sent Missourinet the following statement:
“We should be building energy infrastructure in America, but the Missouri Attorney General is instead playing politics with U.S. power. His last-ditch and obviously politically-driven attempt to delay construction of a critical American power project comes at a time when our country is facing a national energy emergency — declared by the Administration. Electricity demand is rising across the country, and we urgently need transmission infrastructure to deliver power. Projects like Grain Belt Express are the answer to providing all forms of affordable and reliable electricity to U.S. consumers.”
The project’s parent company, Invenergy, also said in an earlier interview that the state approved the project, finding that it could save Missouri energy consumers as much as $18 billion — including contractual energy-cost savings for 39 municipal utilities. Invenergy’s website also states that the Grain Belt Express would generate $1.3 billion in economic activity in Missouri alone and would create 1,500 jobs during construction.
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