Senator Justin Brown has a great new piece in The Salem News this week regarding the use of eminent domain on Missouri property in order to increase corporate profits.
Private Property Before Profits thoroughly explains what is at risk if the legislature doesn't take action to rein in the use of eminent domain by private corporations.
Private Property Before Profits thoroughly explains what is at risk if the legislature doesn't take action to rein in the use of eminent domain by private corporations.
Whether there are benefits to the project is a moot point to me, considering the freedom my constituents and residents of the entire state would have to give up. I’m concerned about private property rights and protecting Missouri residents from being displaced from their land to line the pockets of a corporation.
If an out-of-state developer can work its way across north Missouri for this project, what’s to stop the next developer from building another line across yours?
Senator Brown's analysis of the project points out the developer's original intent:
For the past six years or so, developers have been trying to build a giant power line across northern Missouri. The proposed Grain Belt Express line would carry 4,000 megawatts of wind-generated DC electricity from southwest Kansas to a converter station near the Illinois-Indiana border. From there, the electricity would be sold to retail customers on the East Coast. The massive power line – the largest ever built in Missouri – would cross eight counties and span the entire width of the state. As originally planned, the 800-mile power line was not actually supposed to provide electricity to a single end-use consumer in Missouri. It was just passing through.
Just passing through... except that didn't work. GBE's original developer modified its plan to create a converter station in Missouri from which it could offload power from the line for sale to Missouri utilities that serve end-use customers. The developer optioned a property in Ralls County on which to build this proposed converter station at a specific point where the regional grid operator said the existing transmission system was strong enough to support the injection of up to 500 MW of electricity.
Except somewhere in between Clean Line Energy Partner's ownership of the project and Invenergy's purchase, the property option in Ralls County was allowed to expire. Invenergy now has no place to connect GBE in Missouri. It's just passing through again.
But wait, Clean Line also signed an agreement with a handful of Missouri municipalities to provide transmission capacity to enable their purchase of wind power from another state. Has that also been lost in the transition? What good is a contract when there is no electrical outlet to plug in the electricity in Missouri? Can Invenergy back out of its contract with the municipalities and leave them high and dry once it's done using them as a "benefits" shield? Better read the fine print!
The project's original developer also planned to continue the project across Illinois in order to tap into the east coast transmission system. However, it was ultimately not successful in gaining a permit from Illinois. GBE currently has no connection point at Missouri's eastern border. It's an extension cord not plugged into anything. It has no end point stations to connect it to the existing transmission system, anywhere.
But, yet, Invenergy claims that it will soon be approaching landowners in Missouri to acquire easements for its project. That's going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. What kind of a company spends hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring a route for a project that has no end point? Not a smart one, that's for sure. So, what does Invenergy have up its sleeve? Obviously it has yet to reveal the truth of its intentions to Missouri.
How can Missouri protect itself from the less than transparent intentions of an out of state corporation?
Except somewhere in between Clean Line Energy Partner's ownership of the project and Invenergy's purchase, the property option in Ralls County was allowed to expire. Invenergy now has no place to connect GBE in Missouri. It's just passing through again.
But wait, Clean Line also signed an agreement with a handful of Missouri municipalities to provide transmission capacity to enable their purchase of wind power from another state. Has that also been lost in the transition? What good is a contract when there is no electrical outlet to plug in the electricity in Missouri? Can Invenergy back out of its contract with the municipalities and leave them high and dry once it's done using them as a "benefits" shield? Better read the fine print!
The project's original developer also planned to continue the project across Illinois in order to tap into the east coast transmission system. However, it was ultimately not successful in gaining a permit from Illinois. GBE currently has no connection point at Missouri's eastern border. It's an extension cord not plugged into anything. It has no end point stations to connect it to the existing transmission system, anywhere.
But, yet, Invenergy claims that it will soon be approaching landowners in Missouri to acquire easements for its project. That's going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. What kind of a company spends hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring a route for a project that has no end point? Not a smart one, that's for sure. So, what does Invenergy have up its sleeve? Obviously it has yet to reveal the truth of its intentions to Missouri.
How can Missouri protect itself from the less than transparent intentions of an out of state corporation?
Senate Bill 597, which I sponsored, will stop the taking of private property for the purpose of private profit. Simply put, this legislation denies the power of eminent domain to utilities that do not serve end-use customers in Missouri. In my opinion, a big corporation wanting to make money by selling Kansas wind power to East Coast consumers should not justify taking private property from Missouri landowners.
This important legislation pauses Invenergy's progress before its intentions are clear, while still allowing Missouri utilities to conduct their business. It's better to be safe than sorry. Smart thinking, Senator Brown!
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