One alternative is to build/bury the transmission lines along the right of way of public highways. Route 36 which crosses Illinois from east to west is one such possibility. The State would then receive any payments that the company intended to pay related to this project which would help reduce the State’s outstanding debt.

Another alternative is to bury the transmission lines along the proposed routes. In fact, Invenergy the ultimate parent of Grain Belt is already engaged in such a project in the State of New York – Clean Path NY.

There is another proposed HVDC project in Northern Illinois, Soo Green RR, which outlines their plans to bury their transmission lines next to railroad lines. You may view the four minute video at https://www.soogreenrr.com/project-overview/

The Missouri Sierra Club opposes HB 1876. House Bill 1876 is designed to stop the Grain Belt Express transmission line which would bring clean, inexpensive wind energy from southwest Kansas to Missouri. This bill would prevent the use of eminent domain for this particular project, while still allowing eminent domain for most transmission lines for utilities like Ameren, Evergy and Empire.

More legal barriers for wind energy transmission give an unfair advantage to the highly polluting fossil fuel industry.  Electricity from the Grain Belt Express will be substantially cheaper than electricity generated by burning coal. That is why cities across Missouri have signed agreements and passed resolutions to purchase wind power from this line. Cheaper electricity means more money in consumers’ pockets!

Grain Belt Express will deliver at least 500 megawatts (MW) of low-cost, clean energy to
Missouri. The power delivered along this line is expected to save dozens of rural Missouri communities more than $12 million annually.

Grain Belt is exploring and will be seeking additional regulatory approvals as necessary to provide up to 2,500 megawatts of the project’s 4,000-megawatt capacity to the Missouri converter station.

Wind energy creates more local jobs than coal energy.

100% of the coal burned in Missouri for electricity generation is mined out of state. The Grain Belt Express will create jobs here, including: Kansas City - Construction jobs at PAR Electrical Contractors Centralia – Manufacturing jobs at Hubbell.

Not only would many small towns across our state benefit from lower electricity costs, rural communities would receive about $7.2 million annually in property taxes to supporting schools and police, in addition to payments to landowners. The project would expand broadband service to over 1 million rural Missourians, including 250,000 within 50 miles of the transmission line.

recalcitrant |rəˈkalsətrənt|
adjective
having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline: a class of recalcitrant fifteen-year-olds.
noun
a person with an obstinately uncooperative attitude.

ruthless |ˈro͞oTHləs|
adjective
having or showing no pity or compassion for others: a ruthless manipulator.

bureaucratic |ˌbyo͝orəˈkradik|
adjective
relating to the business of running an organization, or government: well-established bureaucratic procedures.
• overly concerned with procedure at the expense of efficiency or common sense: the plan is overly bureaucratic and complex.

How a little ruthlessness in the bureaucratic interest could advance electric corridors in the national interest....

Are we not doing an adequate job of incorporating the input of all stakeholders or resolving major conflict during the development stage? If parties remain opposed to a project after a final decision is made, have we reached a time in our society that the risk of proceeding with a project may be too great even if an approval has been granted? In the project sited above (NECEC), the primary benefits appear to accrue to one state and most opposition as well as the agency suspending construction are from another. In fact, the issue on the ballot in the opposing state, which could permanently enjoin the project under construction, supports local transmission while increasing the difficulty of gaining approval for EHV and DC transmission that does not directly benefit the local communities it impacts.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (the Act) passed in November 2021 grants FERC broader transmission siting authority within national interest transmission corridors and allows the DOE to become an anchor tenant for new transmission projects.

Frankly, we do not know if the Act will help get new transmission built. Unquestionably, it has never been more difficult to obtain consensus regarding major new long distance, interstate, and international transmission projects. Such projects should be designed to deliver demonstrable benefits outweighing the impacts for all affected parties.

Transmission developers may need to borrow from other energy business segments to provide compelling economic strategies for landowners, host communities and other stakeholders to support new projects. The outright purchase of the required land for a project as opposed to a one-time purchase of a ROW is one example utilities have employed. Offering a production-based payment to landowners and providing a community stipend or other benefits has proven successful in the gas exploration and wind industries. Applying these methods to transmission projects would ensure those living with the project will receive continuing tangible benefits.

The power industry is operating in a new era of public activism complicated by policy driven as opposed to strictly need based infrastructure development goals. Successful future projects will require in depth collaboration to get all stakeholders on board and rowing in the same direction.

Judge William Conley’s ruling throws the fate of the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line into question just months after utilities began construction on the $492 million project.

Given these facts, plaintiffs contend, and the court finds credible, that the Utilities are pushing forward with construction on either side of the Refuge, even without an approved path through the Refuge, in order to make any subsequent challenge to a Refuge crossing extremely prejudicial to their sunk investment, which will fall on their ratepayers regardless of completion of the CHC project, along with a guaranteed return on the Utilities’ investment in the project. Thus, if the court does not treat consideration of the essentially inevitable re-proposal for a Refuge crossing as ripe for consideration now, the Utilities will have built up to either side of the Refuge, making entry of a permanent injunction later all the more costly, not just to the Utilities and their ratepayers, but to the environment they are altering on an ongoing basis.

Certainly, although a refuge manager has some deference in deciding which uses are compatible, the court is not compelled to take the agency’s final word when all factual findings weigh against it. In this way, “deference” does not become the unlimited, get-out-of-jail-free card that the Utilities seem to suggest...

Before granting a right of way through the Refuge, Fish and Wildlife must confirm that the proposed project comports with the purposes of the Refuge under 16 U.S.C.A. § 668dd. Fish and Wildlife originally finalized its “Compatibility Determination for the Case ... on December 20, 2019. Because the Utilities already had a prior right of way through the Refuge, where a 161 and 69kv transmission line had been previously installed and the Utilities had agreed to transfer back that right of way, Fish and Wildlife found the proposed CHC line was compatible with the purposes of the Refuge as “a minor realignment of an existing right-of-way” and granted a permit to the Utilities.
On March 1, 2021, however, the Utilities contacted Fish and Wildlife and asked for a slightly amended right of way through the Refuge, ostensibly to avoid Ho-Chunk burial grounds. Then, before Fish and Wildlife could issue a decision on the proposed amendment, the Utilities again contacted Fish and Wildlife on July 29, 2021, this time asking for an expedited land exchange instead of an amended right of way, ostensibly because approval for a new right of way would take too long. Specifically, in exchange for a land exchange in the Refuge, the Utilities were now proposing to transfer a 30-acre parcel to Fish and Wildlife.  On August 3, 2021, Fish and Wildlife confirmed receipt of the Utilities’ latest proposal, indicating that its response to such a land exchange “may” be “favorable.”
Then, on August 27, 2021, less than a month after Fish and Wildlife responded favorably to a proposed land transfer, and less than a week before summary judgment motions were due in this case, Fish and Wildlife “withdrew” its entire original Compatibility Determination, stating it “learned that an error had previously been made regarding the 2019 Compatibility Determination when identifying the existing rights-of-way proposed for re-alignment.” 
As a result, any approved right of way through the Refuge was rescinded, along with the compatibility determination. However, in its letter of withdrawal to the Utilities, Fish and Wildlife did note that the agency “is committed to working with you toward timely review of the land exchange you have proposed in lieu of your March 2021 application for an amended right-of-way permit . . . [and] concurs that a land exchange is a potentially favorable alternative to a right-of-way permit.”

In accordance with 2020 ILCS5/8-406, Invenergy Transmission LLC, an affiliate of Invenergy LLC, hereby provides notice to the Shelby County Clerk of the first of three phases (“Phase 1”) of public meetings for the Grain Belt Express project.

...a new 175-mile, underground transmission line, will enable the delivery of more than 7.5 million megawatt-hours of emissions-free energy into New York City every year.

DOE is authorized to serve as an anchor customer on new and upgraded transmission lines in order to facilitate the private financing and construction of the line. Under this authority, DOE would buy up to 50 percent of planned capacity from the developer for a term of up to 40 years. A purchase of capacity will not be considered a “major federal action” that would trigger environmental review pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). DOE will then market the capacity it has purchased to recover the costs it has incurred once the project’s long-term financial viability is secured.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today launched the “Building a Better Grid” Initiative to catalyze the nationwide development of new and upgraded high-capacity electric transmission lines, as enabled by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Building a Better Grid will work with community and industry stakeholders to identify national transmission needs and support the buildout of long-distance, high voltage transmission facilities that are critical to reaching President Biden’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a zero emissions economy by 2050. This program will make the U.S. power grid more resilient to the impacts of climate change, increase access to affordable and reliable clean energy, and create good-paying American jobs across industry sectors – boosting transmission jobs which employs over one million workers across the country.