Building Community Trust

That's an important part of any infrastructure project, and Invenergy has completely failed at the task.

Behold!  An Invenergy/GBE door hanger left on a landowner's door.  Know where it ended up?  The trash can.  It had to be separated from the household refuse in order to sit for its recent photo session.  I'm going to guess that's a giant grease stain at the top, and not a weird, gray cloud.

And how does Invenergy attempt to build community trust with this door hanger?  

NOW UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP!

Obviously, Invenergy understands that nobody trusted the prior owner of the project, Clean Line Energy Partners.  But simply stating there's a new owner doesn't get the job done.

Clean Line spent years holding community meetings and events with pulled pork sandwiches, bouncy houses, and other "fun" attractants for local residents to come and develop a cordial relationship with the company based on trust.  There was even a ham dinner, where one lucky landowner filled up his own sack with a pile of ham slices.  That event was so successful, it transformed an ordinary house cat into the amazing Miss Kitty Hamm, who is able to communicate through the internet for brief periods of time.

Unfortunately, like all cats, Miss Kitty Hamm has developed a little bit of an attitude.  She recently penned a note asking for more Grain Belt Express ham, but Invenergy is a cheap date.  It prefers to do ABSOLUTELY nothing to foster trust in the local community.  I tried to explain that there's little a company can do during these trying times.  There's a pandemic raging and person-to-person contact and sharing of food isn't a good idea.  But Miss Kitty Hamm can be incredibly stubborn...

Food is the key to a kitty's heart, however, the humans at Invenergy have underestimated the intellectual abilities of the average feline and the people who serve the cat kingdom.  We can read!  Where's the news stories?  Where's the colorful community advertising?  Where's the outdoor music festival where kitties and humans can cavort at a distance while enjoying music and speeches?  Where's the donations to food banks?  Where's the new parks being built for the communities?  Where's the cash donations to help the local schools with the added expense of distance learning?   Where's the catnip mice for the local animal shelter? There's plenty a "new owner" can do to win the hearts and minds of your average kitty.  Invenergy is failing to do anything to build trust with the communities in Missouri!  Without a pile of free ham, I simply cannot trust these people!
P.S.  That's not a grease stain.  My litter box needed changing.

The community's mistrust of Invenergy is raging.  First thing they did was eliminate Clean Line's proposed monopoles and replace them with cheaper and more invasive lattice structures.  Invenergy has not bothered contacting local county commissions to seek assent for its project.  Without assent, this project is not fully permitted.  And speaking of permits, Invenergy STILL has not bothered to submit an application for a permit in Illinois.  There's no end point for this project.  Where's the end point?  Well, Invenergy isn't saying.

Western Kansas and the surrounding area to customers in Missouri and other states in the region.

Well, that's sort of like dialing your binoculars out of focus, isn't it, Invenergy?  Clean Line's project used to go from Western Kansas to a substation in Indiana for delivery to eastern states.  But now Invenergy's project begins in "the surrounding area" of Western Kansas.  What "surrounds" Western Kansas?  Other states, like Oklahoma, where Invenergy owns the unfinished States Edge Wind Farm.  Other states like Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and even Texas.  How many potential wind farms does Invenergy own in those states?  On the eastern end, what other states are in the same "region" as Missouri?  Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas?  Where are the customers in those states?  How big is a state "region"?  Invenergy could be planning to build a transmission line through Missouri that begins and ends anywhere... or nowhere at all.  And since Invenergy is just so vague these days, should we ask ourselves who does that?  Who builds the middle of a highway to nowhere that doesn't connect with any known roads on either end?  You can bet that Invenergy has a plan... it's just not one it wants you to know about right now.  In fact, it appears that they don't want anyone to know about their actual plan right now, including regional transmission organizations, other utilities, and especially state regulators.  Not exactly a way to win your trust, is it, Kitty?

Meow!  Err... no.  I trust Invenergy about as much as I trust that smiling sadist at the veterinary clinic with the syrupy voice and greased fanny pole behind her back.

Trust in Grain Belt Express is at an all time low in Missouri. 

UPDATE:  Ya know how Facebook spies on you and attempts to show you things you may like?  Miss Kitty Hamm hopes this means that Invenergy is planning another community ham dinner!  And sometimes the jokes just write themselves...