Everyone's a bit excited over the video that's currently circulating that shows Missouri Senator Josh Hawley grilling Invenergy representative Kelly Speakes-Backman. No information is provided about where or when this exchange took place. It looks like Congress, but what was the topic?
First of all, who is Kelly Speakes-Backman? You've probably never heard of her, but I have. She used to work for the U.S. Department of Energy in the renewable energy department. But she was hired away from there in December 2022 to work as Invenergy's Executive Vice President of Public Affairs. Check out her linked in profile to see her rise to chief government schmoozer for a governmental office she once worked for. Nice connections, Kelly, such as the Director of Loans Program Office at the DOE. This just so happens to be the same office where GBE applied for a guaranteed, taxpayer funded loan to construct its project in December of last year. Coincidence? What is that smell? I think it might be the stink of regulatory capture. Government employees are highly prized in the private sector so that they may leverage their recent relationships with former co-workers in the government to get favorable treatment for their new, private-sector employers.
First, Kelly tries to pretend that Grain Belt Express will be bringing energy to all the communities through which it passes and "keep the lights on."
WRONG! GBE is a high voltage direct current line that needs a very expensive DC/AC converter station to connect to our AC grid. Only three of these will exist... one in Kansas to convert AC to DC and load it on the line, one in Missouri to convert DC to AC to serve to customers in Missouri, and one in eastern Illinois to convert DC to AC and load it onto lines headed for the east coast. Currently, there is only one customer for less than 5% of the line's capacity and that customer is paying less than it costs GBE to provide the service. Because Grain Belt Express is a MERCHANT transmission project, it can only sell its transmission service to voluntary customers at market based rates. Nobody in Missouri will be getting electricity from GBE unless they sign a contract with GBE to buy transmission, along with a separate contract with a generator in Kansas to supply the energy that would be transmitted on the line.
Kelly also tries to blather on about how Invenergy is all about "community engagement" and forming relationships with the landowners it crosses. Senator Hawley isn't buying that for one second... he knows GBE is legally condemning the land it needs for its project.
Kelly doesn't seem to really know much at all about Grain Belt Express, except she tries to blow a lot of smoke around the room pretending she does.
Of course, Hawley doesn't seem to know much about GBE either, so the discussion kind of reminded me of Dumb and Dumber.
First, Kelly tries to pretend that Grain Belt Express will be bringing energy to all the communities through which it passes and "keep the lights on."
WRONG! GBE is a high voltage direct current line that needs a very expensive DC/AC converter station to connect to our AC grid. Only three of these will exist... one in Kansas to convert AC to DC and load it on the line, one in Missouri to convert DC to AC to serve to customers in Missouri, and one in eastern Illinois to convert DC to AC and load it onto lines headed for the east coast. Currently, there is only one customer for less than 5% of the line's capacity and that customer is paying less than it costs GBE to provide the service. Because Grain Belt Express is a MERCHANT transmission project, it can only sell its transmission service to voluntary customers at market based rates. Nobody in Missouri will be getting electricity from GBE unless they sign a contract with GBE to buy transmission, along with a separate contract with a generator in Kansas to supply the energy that would be transmitted on the line.
Kelly also tries to blather on about how Invenergy is all about "community engagement" and forming relationships with the landowners it crosses. Senator Hawley isn't buying that for one second... he knows GBE is legally condemning the land it needs for its project.
Kelly doesn't seem to really know much at all about Grain Belt Express, except she tries to blow a lot of smoke around the room pretending she does.
Of course, Hawley doesn't seem to know much about GBE either, so the discussion kind of reminded me of Dumb and Dumber.
If he did, he'd be asking Kelly about GBE's application to her former co-workers at DOE for a guaranteed loan for up to 80% of GBE's $5 BILLION dollar cost. That's a taxpayer guaranteed $4B loan to build a project that doesn't have enough customers to make revenue to repay the loan.
That's exactly what happened with Solyndra, when DOE loaned the company $500M to build a solar factory based on bogus contracts. DOE employees said they were under enormous political pressure to approve the loan and not look too closely at Solyndra's contracts with fictional customers. There never were any customers for Solyndra, and the company went bankrupt after spending all that taxpayer money building a factory that never produced anything.
The parallels between GBE and Solyndra are stunning. GBE is in line to become Solyndra 2.0, only this time taxpayers stand to lose $4 BILLION, not just $500 Million. That's 8 times the loss!
Maybe Senator Hawley should open an investigation into what's going on between Invenergy and the DOE regarding a $4B loan guaranteed by taxpayers so he could prevent the next Solyndra.
Publicly arguing with Kelly makes great theater, but ultimately it doesn't solve anything. I'm sure we'd all love it more if Senator Hawley stepped up to take action on the Grain Belt Express issue.
That's exactly what happened with Solyndra, when DOE loaned the company $500M to build a solar factory based on bogus contracts. DOE employees said they were under enormous political pressure to approve the loan and not look too closely at Solyndra's contracts with fictional customers. There never were any customers for Solyndra, and the company went bankrupt after spending all that taxpayer money building a factory that never produced anything.
The parallels between GBE and Solyndra are stunning. GBE is in line to become Solyndra 2.0, only this time taxpayers stand to lose $4 BILLION, not just $500 Million. That's 8 times the loss!
Maybe Senator Hawley should open an investigation into what's going on between Invenergy and the DOE regarding a $4B loan guaranteed by taxpayers so he could prevent the next Solyndra.
Publicly arguing with Kelly makes great theater, but ultimately it doesn't solve anything. I'm sure we'd all love it more if Senator Hawley stepped up to take action on the Grain Belt Express issue.
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