"What Rock Island is asking the Commission to do is grant it a CPCN so it looks like a 'public utility' for purposes of condemning private property to build its line, while at the same time it plans to offer only a token percentage of that line's capacity for 'public use'. The transmission service that Rock Island plans to provide on its transmission line does not meet the public use standard under Section 3-105 of the PUA." (R.V27, C6629).
These are the words of the ICC Staff at the close of a five day evidentiary hearing at the
Commission on Rock Island's Verified Petition. Rock Island is not a public utility, and it does not commit to serve the public. Despite the express language of the PUA, Rock Island, as a non-utility startup company, sought a CPCN from the Commission for which it is not statutorily eligible. Rock Island's public policy arguments regarding an apparent desire for an expansion to the statutory definition of''public utility" should have been, and still can be, made to the legislature.

Grain Belt Express is a merchant transmission company. It is proposing to build a participant funded transmission line. As such, neither the applicant nor the proposed project embody the business characteristics the Legislature authorized this Commission to regulate.

The Court recognized that when a private business enters into special contracts upon its own terms and not at a regular rate, there is not only no need for the Commission to regulate, to do so would be a violation of the constitution. The purpose of regulation is to bring the power of government to bear on a common carrier service. Private initiatives not devoted to the public use of all do not justify the comprehensive regulations dictated by the Public Service Commission Law. Stated another way, when facilities are not devoted to a public use, there is no need for the Commission. That is the situation before the Commission in this Grain Belt Express case.

The issues presented by this case are twofold: (1) whether Clean Line fits the statutory definition of an Arkansas “public utility” and is entitled to a CCN to provide public utility service in the state; and (2) if so, whether Clean Line is entitled to exemption from certain public utility statutes. For the reasons stated more fully below, the Commission finds that Clean Line does not meet the statutory definition of a public utility at this time.  The Commission’s ruling on the first issue moots the necessityof ruling on the second.
The Commission is a creature of the General Assembly, and it performs a legislative function in regulating all public utilities. Bryant u, Arkansas Pub. Sew. Comm‘n, 46 Ark. App. 88,877 S.W.2d 594 (1994); Sw. Bell Tel. Co. v. Ark. Pub. Serv. Comm’n, 267 Ark. 550, 593 S.W.2d 434 (1980).  The Commission’s statutory mandate extends to and includes “all matters pertaining to the regulation and operation of all ... electric lighting companies and other companies furnishing gas or electricity for light, heat, or power purposes.” Ark. Code Ann. 23-2-302.

The Commission’s decision in this case turns on the statutory definition of a “public utility” found in Ark. Code Ann,  23-1-101(9)(a) cited above. Although Clean Line’s presentation of its case was strong on policy considerations and certainly Clean Line worked hard to analogize its case to that of the SPP RTO, the Commission’s authority cannot exceed that which is delegated to it by the Arkansas General Assembly. The “public utility” definition requires “owning or operating in this state equipment or facilities for...transmitting...power to or for the public for compensation.” Ark. Code Ann. 23-1-101(9)(A).

The Parties’ legal filings and opening arguments at the December 7 hearing discussed to varying degrees what each of these key phrases means, but the Commission is not convinced the totality of the evidence satisfies this statutory threshold. Recognizing, as Clean Line pointed out, there is some circularity involved in the fact that Clean Line cannot own or operate regulated major utility facilities pursuant to Arkansas law in this state without first being declared a public utiliity, in isolation, this portion of the statute is not determinative of Clean Line’s utility status. However, read in tandem with the facts that the transmission of the power must also be “to or for the public for compensation’’ when Clean Line, to date, has no contracts for public utility service with any utility, including Arkansas utilities, and there also can be no transmission of power at this time, the Commission is not prepared to approve Clean Line’s CCN Application.

Rock Island’s plan offers the public the nondiscriminatory right to bid for transmission capacity. But it does not offer the public the nondiscriminatory right to use transmission capacity. Under well-settled authority dating back a century, Rock Island’s plan does not meet the “public use” requirement.

As a threshold matter, it is important to clarify what this means. As Rock Island’s witness makes clear in his testimony, the open season auction will be open to the public on non-discriminatory terms. In other words, any member of the public can bid. But there is a difference between being able to bid for a service through an auction and being able to actually use a service at a tariffed price. When Christie’s auctions a painting, any member of the public can bid on non-discriminatory terms; but only the winner takes the painting home.

The ICC points out that the open season will be “fair, transparent and non-discriminatory.” ICC Br. 25-26. ComEd agrees. But this simply means that the auction process will be fair, and that all bidders would have the same opportunity to bid. It does not mean that all members of the public can use the service on equal terms. Those who cannot pay the auction price are left with only the chance of receiving non-firm service and are expressly subordinated to anchor tenants and auction winners. Non-auction winners who do not, or who cannot use non-firm service, are left completely empty- handed.

Grain Belt Express is proposing a duplicate service to the existing, well-established transmission grid. It is seeking to provide discriminatory service to one particular customer to obtain this Commission’s approval. It is proposing as a merchant a service that is participant-funded. It wants to maintain that merchant status, free from the obligations imposed on an “electrical corporation” by the Missouri Public Service Commission Law. This unregulated utility will create many problems that the Missouri Public Service Commission Law was designed to thwart, such as destructive competition, damage to property from duplicative facilities, and the exercise of market power in a traditional monopoly service. Grain Belt is seeking the power of the state of Missouri granted by this CCN without any of the obligations imposed by the law. Show Me is concerned with one enterprise whose property is not devoted to the public service using the land (I think he meant to say "laws") of the state, particularly the eminent domain power of the state, for their own business interests. It is not just and it is not in the public interest of the state of Missouri.

The UD and Princeton team showed conservatively that, with some upgrades to transmission lines but without any need for added storage, the PJM grid can handle over 35 gigawatts of offshore wind—that’s 35 billion watts—enough to power an estimated 10 million homes. They also found that the PJM grid could in the future handle twice that amount, up to 70 gigawatts, as wind forecasting improves, allowing the power operator to better predict and harness more wind.

Perhaps the new mantra is “we’re going to make transmission great again,” Skelly said.

The organization, an initiative of the Energy Future Coalition, has held regional transmission conferences, but this was its first national event.

The coalition was formed in 2002 by former Sen. Tim Wirth, a Colorado Democrat; Republican C. Boyden Gray, who served as White House counsel to President George H.W. Bush; and Democrat John Podesta, a former aide to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who chaired Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

“I’d love to have more load growth. It ain’t going to happen,” Craig Glazer, PJM’s vice president for federal government policy, told the gathering.

Weak load growth will make it more complicated to finance upgrades for aging transmission, and the lack of a federal carbon tax or renewable mandate is making it difficult to integrate renewable generation, Glazer said.

Hoecker and Brown discussed FERC’s inability to gain “backstop” siting authority, saying it’s still very difficult to prevent individual states from blocking a project. The Energy Policy Act of 2015 amended the Federal Power Act to give FERC the authority to site electric transmission lines blocked by states, but court rulings have blocked the commission’s attempts to use it, prompting some in Congress to propose additional legislation strengthening FERC’s authority.

Brown said that Order 1000 hasn’t really helped SPP much with large regional projects.

“We need to decide what we want this grid of the future to look like,” Glazer said. For example, should it be a “localized grid” that can harness distributed generation? he asked. “There’s an added complication; it’s not even clear who is in charge,” Glazer said. FERC, state utility commissions and governors all have a say in siting decisions, he said.

If each governor is asked what infrastructure projects they want, the country will end up with a lot of state-based projects, not interstate ones, Clean Line Energy Partners President Mike Skelly said.

Perhaps the new mantra is “we’re going to make transmission great again,” Skelly said. The power to select infrastructure projects should not be taken away from transmission planners and placed in the hands of Congress, he said.

Skelly and others cautioned the Trump administration not to skimp on project reviews or stakeholder input. The key is that all projects must have “timelines” for regulatory approvals to avoid infinite delays, he said.

The executive director of the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Council, Brad Markell, said the labor movement agrees with the need for “hard timelines” to shorten the permit process.

Markell said that labor unions have been in contact with the Trump administration on potential infrastructure efforts.

“From our point of view, more power for the federal government and less power for the states [on electric infrastructure] would be a good thing,” he said.

Others deemed that unlikely. “I think we’re stuck with the system we have,” Glazer said.

Mary Anne Hitt, executive director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, said that — contrary to what conference participants may have heard — her organization doesn’t oppose all power lines, only those that appear aimed to “prop up fossil fuels.”

The environmental group opposed the abandoned “coal by wire” Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) project in PJM. On the other hand, it has backed the Plains and Eastern Clean Line Project, designed to move renewable energy from Oklahoma to Tennessee.

Hitt said she was concerned that President Trump’s nominee for EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, opposed Clean Line in 2015 as Oklahoma attorney general.

Curiously, there are no sessions scheduled there addressing the unsettled question of whether the federal government has any legitimate interest in transmission siting.

The Hannibal Board of Public Works wants to install a wind farm in Hannibal, and on Wednesday it signed a draft contract indicating its support for a future wind farm.

The Missouri Public Service Commission would ultimately grant approval for construction of the wind farm.

After expressing public interest for months in securing low-cost wind energy, the Hannibal Board of Public Works Board took the next step Wednesday by approving a draft power purchase agreement to get wind energy from an an as of yet unapproved transmission line.

"The word tentative is not in the agreement. This is a real commitment to us. That's how we intend to pursue it," he said. "But we all realize that things can happen yet through rulings or studies where we might find a show-stopper type of condition. We reserve the right to go back and re-think (the situation). If nothing changes of any significance they would expect us to sign this deal and live by it."

The HBPW Board was asked to sign the draft agreement as a show of support for both the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission (MJMEUC) and Clean Line Energy as they prepare their testimony to the Missouri Public Service Commission seeking approval to construct the Grain Belt Express transmission line from wind farms in western Kansas, across Missouri, to the Hannibal area.

Among the blanks on the contract is the price Hannibal will be paying for the wind-generated power.

"The initial price for the energy and transmission service is still confidential. Those prices will be revealed to the public during Public Service Commission testimony. We are satisfied they are going to be in the $21 a megawatt (MW) range when they are finally revealed, or less," said Stevenson.

Stevenson did acknowledge there is one "point of risk for the city."

"In the event that the transmission line is completed and the wind generators are for some reason late and can't deliver energy, this contract obliges us to start paying for the transmission service anyway," he said.

Stevenson is not losing sleep over that possibility.

"The odds of the particular generators that would be assigned to us being late are very low," he said.

A liquidated damages clause is written into the contract to pay those transmission charges should the wind generators be late.

In my opinion, this whole project is an attempt by a small group of investors to make a large amount of profit from the wind energy generation from Kansas. They have offered the proverbial 30 pieces of silver to local governments. Some have apparently taken it. I for one will not choose to do so. They promise Ralls County a whole million dollars (they must think this is 1960) to sell out our future. It is asking a lot of us to have our land taken by force to enable a few to get rich. I believe that other elected office holders should think beyond just today.

I think Mr. Tregengo’s assessment of the benefit to school districts and other county taxing jurisdictions is misleading because the facts are materially understated. 

I believe his overall discussion is short sighted because it does not address the tax revenues generated by the Project after it goes into service. Nor does it address the long term net tax benefits or losses. Therefore I regard most of his testimony as having little significance to an overall assessment of the longer term tax benefits to Missourians.

Basically, I believe that he spoke in generalizations which might leave the reader to see a much brighter prospect than actually exists for tax revenue benefits to Randolph and the other seven counties on the line. He omitted a discussion of which taxing jurisdictions receive little or no tax benefit.

Essentially, the value of a property is based on the perception of the buyer. Understanding that perception drives value is the foundation in analyzing the effect that electric transmission lines have on property value.

This perception does not have to be based on a scientific or engineering fact, it is based on what a buyer believes. An example of perception driving value based solely on belief is the haunted house. A home cannot be proven scientifically to be haunted. Yet, there are several homes throughout the nation thought to be “haunted” which stigmatizes the property resulting in a diminished selling price.

Just as in the last case, Grain Belt still has no memorandums of understanding with wind generators, and no firm commitments from any load serving utilities to buy capacity on the proposed transmission line.

Grain Belt fails to mention that MJMEUC may without penalty or cost elect to take no capacity over the new line, and that decision will be made sixty to ninety days before the line is then expected to enter service.

The TSA is nothing more than an option agreement.

In short, there currently is no commitment from MJMEUC to buy any capacity on the proposed transmission line.

The only support provided for the $10 million estimate from the MJMEUC was an eight-row spreadsheet in response to MLA’s Data Request MJM.13.

It is a flawed calculation of the cost of transmitting 100 MW and 200 MW of wind power from SPP to MISO. There is no calculation of, or comparison to, buying wind power over Grain Belt. The spreadsheet also contains an error in calculating the loss component of the costs. The total costs end up including addition of megawatt-hours and dollars which is flawed mathematics.

1. Mr. Lawlor asked how we felt about this move. We told him we would be thrilled not to have the line crossing our property, but that we did not want it moved to our neighbor’s property either. We couldn’t bring ourselves to benefit at the expense of our neighbors.
   
   
2. He said that the proposal to move the line seemed like a viable option, but that they expected something in return from us. My husband asked what he meant. Mr. Lawlor never did tell us exactly what they were expecting in return for moving the line off our property, but said it would be nice to have something from us.
   
3. We eventually told Mr. Lawlor that we could not agree to a move that would be detrimental to our neighbors, and that we would continue to oppose the Grain Belt Project. They thanked us for our time and left. That was the last we heard from Grain Belt about rerouting the line.
   

I will rebut Grain Belt witnesses James Arndt’s and Lanz testimonies regarding how the Grain Belt Express project could impact farming operations as well as discuss other issues regarding the negative impacts to farming and land as a result of large transmission projects like the Grain Belt project. Specifically, I will address the following negative impacts: Compaction of Soil; Erosion; Irrigation Equipment Interference; Difficulty in Aerial Applications to Crops and Pastures; Possible GPS Interference; Problems Maneuvering Large Farm Equipment around Towers; Precision Farming Problems; Concerns about Storm Recovery; and Eminent Domain.

Grain Belt Express Clean Line LLC’s supposed promises to sell power to Missouri municipalities should be recognized for what they are: a political stunt to create pressure for approval of this project by giving small benefits to local governments at the massive expense of landowners’ rights. Those municipalities in support will bear none of the burden from Grain Belt’s proposed project. It is instead Missouri’s rural landowners that will experience significant disruptions in their operations if Grain Belt Express Clean Line LLC is given the power to force land sales through eminent domain takings. This development does not change the underlying nature of the Grain Belt Express proposal. The project remains an attempt to engage in the abuse of eminent domain for private gain.

In summary, based on Staff’s review: 1) Grain Belt does not have the consent of the Caldwell county commission for its proposed transmission line to cross the public roads and highways in that county, the validity of its consent from the Monroe County Commission is being challenged in court, and, presently, the prefiled evidence does not include any such consents by the county commissions of Buchanan, Clinton, Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, Randolph, Monroe and Ralls Counties; 2) There is not a clear need for the Project; 3) Grain Belt is qualified to construct, own, operate, control and manage the Project, but additional expertise will be needed once engineering and safety issues have been resolved; 4) Grain Belt has the financial ability to undertake the Project; 5) It is not clear whether the Project is economically feasible due to the lack of various RTO studies and the uncertainties surrounding the ATXI Mark Twain transmission line and its effects on the Missouri converter station and corresponding congestion; 6) A determination cannot be made at this time as to whether the Project is in the public interest since there is still uncertainty related to the economic feasibility and the safety of the Project.

It is expected that the MoPEP cities will save approximately $10 million annually by utilizing the Grain Belt Express and Infinity wind contract in their power supply after the IPM contact ends in 2021.

Clean Line’s owners are GridAmerica Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of National Grid USA (“National Grid”); Clean Line Investor Corp., a subsidiary of ZAM Ventures, L.P. (“ZAM Ventures”); Michael Zilkha; and Clean Line Investment LLC.

Clean Line Investment LLC is a vehicle for service providers and employees to invest in Clean Line, and is a small, minority shareholder in Clean Line.

Michael Skelly
Michael Zikha
Jayshree Desal    
James Glotfelty    
Mario Hurtado    
David Berry

While all these things seem kind of academic, it's pretty clear from Mario Hurtado's interview with NewsOK that the truthiness of this list isn't going to stop Clean Line from spinning it in a way they can use to preen (beg?) for financing and to pressure landowners.

"When the Trump campaign was looking at infrastructure, we thought it was a good thing to mention. We're just happy to be part of the conversation."

Like, when did you just happen to mention it? Did you run into them in the grocery store? How much did that conversation cost?

... a GOP penchant for infrastructure projects and commerce-building is expected to favor endeavors like the Plains & Eastern Clean Line, a $2 billion plan for transmitting wind power across 12 Arkansas counties from Oklahoma to near Memphis.

Academic voices say the trend toward renewables may be too entrenched to be crippled by Washington. Trump “can eliminate subsidies for solar power as well as electric cars, and he may not be very supportive of renewable energy, but ultimately technology and market forces will be the determining forces,” said Rajesh Sharma, an Arkansas State University assistant professor and expert in renewable energy technology. “Clean technology is advancing every year and costs are going down.”

Skelly sees opposition to the Clean Power Plan as “probably a net negative” to his ambitious project...

Clean Line recently announced an agreement with Southwire, designating Southwire as the preferred supplier of the overhead transmission wire for the Rock Island Clean Line. The agreement anticipates that the wire will be produced in Southwire’s facility in Flora, Illinois, where the company employs approximately 130 people. Clean Line and Southwire announced the agreement on March 6, 2012, at the American Wind Energy Association’s Regional Wind Energy Summit- Midwest.

A leader in technology and innovation, Southwire Company, LLC is one of North America’s largest wire and cable producers. Southwire and its subsidiaries manufacture underground and overhead Utility products, Renewable Energy products, building wire and cable, metal-clad (MC) cable, portable and electronic cord products. Southwire also provides OEM wire products, engineered products, continuous casting technology, and products made by Technology Research, LLC and Watteredge, LLC, both subsidiaries of Southwire Company.

Southwire’s Flora, Illinois plant has more than 40 years of experience in the design and manufacturing of overhead transmission conductor. Today, the plant leverages that expertise to support large-scale transmission projects like Grain Belt Express. The Grain Belt Express project could require as much as $35 million in materials from Southwire, depending on commodity prices and other variables.

SPRINGFIELD (Nov. 12, 2015) – The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) today approved an Order granting Clean Line Energy a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to construct and operate the Illinois portion of the 780-mile direct current Grain Belt Express Clean Line.

The project will bring approximately $700 million of private investment to the state of Illinois, create about 1,500 jobs and support Illinois manufacturing.

Clean Line is also committed to supporting local businesses and has designated Southwire Company a preferred supplier for wire for the transmission line. Southwire will manufacture the wire at its plant in Flora, Illinois.

“The Illinois Chamber of Commerce applauds Clean Line Energy and Southwire Company for coming together to support manufacturing jobs in Illinois,” said Todd Maisch, President and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. “Through this agreement, the Grain Belt Express Clean Line will create vital work orders for a local company. Clean Line’s commitment to hiring locally whenever possible will ensure that the Grain Belt Express will be an economic boon to the state.”