Well, hey, hey, hey, aren't we Johnny on the Spot with our Wind Catcher Energy Connection project website, AEP!  But there seems to be some sort of discrepancy.  AEP has not provided the same information to the public on its website for the Independence Energy Connection, even though that project is several months down the road into route selection.  Independence Energy Connection's website provided very little information up until quite recently, and what's there now is so facile that it insults the intelligence of the public.

For example, this explanation of "congestion."

Right... because transmission lines are just like highways and if all the electrons can't squeeze through electric prices will go up?  You forgot to mention that the "cheaper" electricity that can't squeeze through is only "cheaper" because it can't get through.  Once your 4-lane highway is in place, all the "cheaper" energy will motor through to consumers in other places.

And Independence Energy Connection seems to be missing this collection of cheesy videos that you've provided for "property owners" on your Wind Catcher Energy Connection website.  I'm sure they apply to both projects.

After watching a few of these videos I can only conclude that AEP has absolutely NO self-awareness.  Does AEP really think these videos will appeal to and reassure landowners that everything is going to be hunky dory?  The technique of using multiple actors to recite talking points and finish each other's sentences is annoying.  I'm not sure what presenting your information in that format was supposed to accomplish.  Are the public supposed to find someone they identify with in the video and listen to their 10 words of information and reject the rest recited by the other people they don't like the looks of?  Honestly, some of these guys look like deer in the headlights.  If they're not comfortable presenting information, then the viewer is not comfortable receiving it.  Or is the viewer supposed to feel like they're outnumbered and the only one going against the program?  Whatever technique you were going for, I don't think it works.

And that's because of the actual information recited. 

Such as this one, where AEP says they control what you can do on your land and you'll need AEP's permission to use it.

Or this one, where AEP lists all the things you might want to do with your land that they consider "encroachments."  AEP will monitor what you do and may "insist" that "encroachments" be removed.

This one may be most shocking... because AEP calmly tells you how you may be shocked while around or under their high-voltage transmission lines.  But it's not a risk to you.  It just might be a bit uncomfortable.  Forever.  It's all perfectly safe.

So, let's see here... AEP has just told property owners being asked to host new transmission lines that AEP will become Big Brother to monitor what goes on on their properties forevermore, insist that they remove anything AEP doesn't like, and that they're probably going to be "nuisance" shocked constantly.   Well, gosh, AEP, sign me up!!!

And AEP wonders why property owners oppose their projects?

One last thing, AEP.  I sort of hate to play the race card and all, but why are all the people in your videos white, except for that lone token black guy?  That's not what a cross-section of America looks like, in case that's what you were attempting.

AEP just keeps kicking itself in the butt.  Nice going, knuckleheads!

Have you often wondered why Clean Line Energy Partners doesn't have any customers for its transmission projects?

Clean Line proposes to build a transmission line and sell capacity on the line to load serving entities who want to buy power from future wind facilities and ship it east to serve their retail customers.

But what if that load serving entity already owned a bunch of its own generation and transmission assets... would buying one more generator and building one more transmission line be no big deal?

Utilities make money by owning physical assets like transmission lines and regulated generators that allow them to shift the costs and risks to captive customers and earn a guaranteed return (or profit) on their ownership.

Clean Line wanted to make money just like any utility by owning a profitable asset.  Except other utilities would much rather own the transmission (and generation) asset themselves and collect a return.  It's sort of like the difference between paying rent and ownership, and ownership comes with a guaranteed return on your investment.  What's not to like for big utilities who want to purchase generators and transmission lines to serve their geographically distant customers?

This article explains how utilities are cutting out the middleman wind farm and transmission line owner in favor of scoring the biggest profit.

Yup, AEP has announced that it wants to buy the country's largest wind farm currently under construction and build a transmission line from the wind farm to its customers.  I'm guessing AEP doesn't want to buy transmission capacity from Clean Line and then hope generation springs up at its terminus.  The risks of that are that Clean Line will never actually be permitted and financed to build any transmission, or that the wind farms won't be built, or that prices will be much higher than expected if they actually do.  Utilities hate risk.

But AEP is no hero and its $4.5B plan has an uphill regulatory battle as it seeks to stick customers with the risks of its renewable energy plays.  AEP figures its plan will save customers in four states $7 billion, most through use of federal production tax credits for wind.  Ahhhh... AEP.... did you stop to apply any simple logic to that idea?  Where do you think federal production tax credits come from?  They come from taxpayers.  They're not cash that just falls out of the sky when a wind turbine spins.  So, those customers who receive $7B in savings are also paying into a tax system that creates the savings.  How much do customers actually save when the tax burden of creating the credits gets added into the equation?  How many other taxpayers around the country that don't receive any of AEP's $7B savings are going to be subsidizing this artificial savings house of cards?  And what happens to a wind farm with a 25-year lifespan when a 10-year tax subsidy expires?  What are the savings then?  This plan may never come to fruition.

But it stands a much better chance than Clean Line's plan.  It's interesting that AEP's ginormous wind farm is located in exactly the spot Clean Line claimed independently owned wind farms to support its Plains & Eastern Clean Line would spring up. 

I'm thinking this announcement pretty much makes what Clean Line is peddling even less appealing.  Did AEP ask Clean Line to build a converter station near Tulsa to deliver power from a wind farm in the panhandle?  Of course not!  If AEP builds its own transmission line, it can earn anywhere between 9-12% annual return on its investment, plus have all its operating costs fully covered by ratepayers.

This is why you failed, Clean Line.  Why buy the milk when you can own the cow?

We're going to start here.  Play this song and turn up the volume.

Karma gave me a giggle last week when I read a story about the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line proposed for Wisconsin and Iowa.  The project, one of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator's (MISO) multi-value projects designed to increase the distribution of wind power across the region, is being panned by Howard Learner of the Environmental Law and Policy Center.

Oh, Learner has a home near Spring Green, you say?  Gosh, that's dangerously close to Cardinal-Hickory Creek's proposed route, isn't it?

So, now, after years of supporting other big transmission projects "for wind" across other states (see list of "supporters" at bottom of page), Learner has finally seen the light.  Can we get a Hallelujah, brothers and sisters?

"It's not the right place..." if it's near Howard's little slice of paradise.  But it is the right place if it's near someone else's.  Got it.

I think Howard might be a hypocrite.

Here's wishing a transmission line "for wind" in every environmentalist's backyard!  Perhaps then we can get on with real progress, like distributed generation and upgrading local power lines to distribute locally generated renewables.  That might REALLY change the world!

There is no miracle that can save Grain Belt Express.  Legally, it has no leg to stand on.  No matter how many Letters to the Editor that fail to recognize the legal straightjacket GBE finds itself in, and no matter how many Editorials crafted by bombastic opinion, and no matter how many legal briefs that attempt to slice and dice legal precedent to allow PSC approval of GBE, the fact remains that Grain Belt Express cannot be approved without the assent of Missouri County Commissions it proposes to cross.

It's Missouri law, and the court has spoken.

The arguments of Grain Belt and its supporters are simply rehashed crap that didn't work at the Court of Appeals nor at the Missouri Supreme Court.  From that one can surmise that if the same issue is presented to the court again in the form of a "conditional" permit issued for GBE, that the Courts will issue an identical opinion.  GBE's attempts to distinguish itself from Ameren are  desperate and deeply flawed.

Is that all you got, Clean Line?

The threats to take a denial through state and federal court are empty, right?  I mean, where are you going to get the money to pursue a hopeless state court case, not to mention a very expensive federal court case?

Clean Line no longer has a "team."  Now it only has "leaders."  After years of presenting a pictorial parade of every Clean Line employee, right down to the administrative staff who will never deal with the public, did it just become too embarrassing to have the public watching the ever-shrinking "team" at Clean Line?  Did the big lay-off happen the day "our team" disappeared?  If I call Houston, will one of the "leaders" answer the phone, if they're not busy making coffee or taking out the trash?  I hope Jayshree isn't stuck with phone and coffee duty, just because she's the only woman left on the "team."  That wouldn't be quite fair.

Clean Line's lack of any forward momentum on any of its projects makes me believe that the piggy bank is darn near empty.

If the MO PSC denies or dismisses GBE's application, I think that's all she wrote.

And will the history books reflect the demise of Clean Line accurately?  The only thing that ever stood between Clean Line and success was its careless disregard for landowners and local governments.  Perhaps it was simple greed that prevented Clean Line from allowing participating landowners a piece of the pie commensurate with their sacrifice.  And perhaps it was sheer arrogance that caused Clean Line to think that it could buy enough political influence to run over Mayberrian officials.  Whatever the cause, the effect will be fatal.

"Clean" lines were not well planned, and instead of applying the Golden Rule that any outsider can easily see permeates Mayberrian society and adjusting their plan to produce a successful outcome for everyone, I guess Clean Line's greed and arrogance got the better of them.

It's time for this circus tent to come down.

The Staff of the Missouri Public Service Commission didn't waste any time filing their brief on whether or not Grain Belt Express needs county assent before the Commission could issue a permit.  Although not due until July 18, per Commission Order, the Staff emphatically stated that the Grain Belt Express application must be dismissed.

Why wait when the issue is so clear?

Or maybe they just got tired of reading Mark Lawlor's incorrect legal analysis in the media?

I think the only one confused here is Mark.  He's been marinating in his own misinformation just a smidge too long.

Mark Twain never sought to "provide service on a retail basis."  That's pure invention on the part of Mark.  The PSC Staff says:

Grain Belt Express and Mark Twain both applied for a "line" certificate, no matter what Mark thinks.  So if the Western District Appeals Court's order vacated Mark Twain's permit because it was granted before county assent was obtained, then Grain Belt Express also cannot be granted a permit before obtaining county assent.  No way.  No how.  To do so would be a direct defiance of the courts.  Now why would the PSC want to do that?

You should read the Staff's brief.  It's only 3 pages.  They didn't need much space to explain the law.

It's when a party needs page after page after page of the most ridiculous, intricate, and circular legal arguments to prop up their desired outcome that you know they're wrong.

The truth is simple.  So is doing what's right.

So said the Motion to Dismiss filed by the Missouri Landowners Alliance on July 4, 2017.

After years of battling the Grain Belt Express transmission project proposed to cross the northern half of the state, Missouri law has been made clear by the courts.

A company may not construct an electric transmission line without the permission and approval of the Public Service Commission.  An application to the PSC for an electric transmission line must include:

And Missouri law requires:

This couldn't be clearer!  Grain Belt Express must submit the assents of the County Commissions to the PSC BEFORE the PSC issues approval.  The Western District Court of Appeals confirmed the law, and the Missouri Supreme Court decided not to review that opinion.  Therefore, the law and its interpretation is settled.

But yet Grain Belt Express is so desperate that it has been pretending in the media, and in a Motion for Waiver or Variance of Filing Requirements at the PSC, that there is still some question about the law and its interpretation.  Clean Line is asking the PSC to ignore the law and the courts, and create some new interpretation of the statutes that attempts to circumvent the court's opinion.  Clean Line wants the MO PSC to gladly step in front of a speeding bus in order to save Grain Belt Express to fight another day.

Why would the PSC step up to defy the court and waste its resources when Clean Line refuses to help itself?  Ameren, the company proposing a transmission line that was the subject of the relevant court case, chose to fall on its sword, instead of pushing the PSC to take the heat.  Ameren rerouted its transmission line along existing rights of way with the hope of finally receiving county assent for its project.  Grain Belt Express refuses to abide by the interpretation of Missouri law by the courts, and refuses to secure county assents.  Clean Line believes it does not need no stinkin' county assents and it threatens to litigate any PSC decision that requires it.

Well, good luck there, Clean Line.  Your bravado is laughable.  That's big talk for a company who may not have the financial resources to continue this battle.  Just last month, Clean Line claimed that a prolonged delay in approval by the PSC would serve as a "defacto denial" of its project.

Nevertheless, the PSC issued an Order this morning setting a briefing schedule on this issue, along with oral arguments for those submitting briefs.  The Commission will entertain briefs until July 18, and hear arguments on July 25 at 10:00 am.

Be there or be square!