How do you know when Grain Belt Express has jumped the shark? When the arguments for it turn into a politics du jour soup that make absolutely no sense.
Case in point... this op ed in the extremely biased Missouri Times (still operating in a darkened bar?).
The author drones on about energy security, energy independence and energy affordability, but I'm not sure he even understands the terms.
Energy independence means producing your own energy instead of relying on someone else to produce it and import it for your use. Grain Belt Express is not an example of energy independence. It's an effort to make Missouri reliant on imported energy from western Kansas and the Oklahoma panhandle. If Missouri replaces its local energy generators with energy imported from hundreds of miles away that depends on just one overhead transmission line across severe weather prone territory, how is that independent? It is the epitome of dependence on far away generators that cannot produce energy when called that is reliant on exposed and fragile wires.
Energy security? Ditto. The most secure energy system is one where power is produced where it is used. Relying on an 800 mile transmission line is the epitome of insecurity. Energy security also means that power is there when you need it, 24/7, not reliant on the vagaries of weather.
And then there's energy affordability. The Missouri Times uses some really out of date figures to assert that Missouri municipalities will save $12.8M per year if GBE is built. Those figures are more than 5 years out of date and relied on some numbers that no longer exist. GBE would only produce a "savings" if it replaced some existing municipal energy contracts. One of those was the outrageously expensive Prairie State contract that the municipalities signed in haste and repented at leisure until the contract expired last year. Did Prairie State actually get replaced with GBE? Nope... it couldn't. GBE still hasn't been fully permitted or built. Therefore the municipalities had to find another option for replacing that contract. No word about who, where, or how much, but I hope it wasn't as expensive as Prairie State. And, if it was not, then the $12.8M savings number collapses. When is MJMEUC going to do an up-to-date savings calculation using current costs? For all we know, using GBE to import energy from hundreds of miles away may be MORE EXPENSIVE than MJMEUC's current contract. Just the fact that the supposed "savings" have not been updated in more than 5 years tells you all you need to know about how affordable GBE will be. If it's such a great bargain, show me!
Missouri landowners cannot afford to have their productive farmland burdened with new rights of way taken using eminent domain. Missouri landowners cannot afford to have permanent impediments constructed in the middle of their businesses. Missouri landowners cannot afford to make a sacrifice so that an out-of-state energy company can make billions trying to sell power thousands of miles away to distribution utilities who don't want to purchase it.
And why should they when it's now possible to bury high voltage direct current transmission in existing rail and transportation rights of way and not have to cut new rights of way or take property using eminent domain?
There's a better solution on the horizon. It's time to retire the old technology of fly-over electric transmission. And it's high time to update Missouri eminent domain laws so that they are only used for a public use, not private profit.
Case in point... this op ed in the extremely biased Missouri Times (still operating in a darkened bar?).
The author drones on about energy security, energy independence and energy affordability, but I'm not sure he even understands the terms.
Energy independence means producing your own energy instead of relying on someone else to produce it and import it for your use. Grain Belt Express is not an example of energy independence. It's an effort to make Missouri reliant on imported energy from western Kansas and the Oklahoma panhandle. If Missouri replaces its local energy generators with energy imported from hundreds of miles away that depends on just one overhead transmission line across severe weather prone territory, how is that independent? It is the epitome of dependence on far away generators that cannot produce energy when called that is reliant on exposed and fragile wires.
Energy security? Ditto. The most secure energy system is one where power is produced where it is used. Relying on an 800 mile transmission line is the epitome of insecurity. Energy security also means that power is there when you need it, 24/7, not reliant on the vagaries of weather.
And then there's energy affordability. The Missouri Times uses some really out of date figures to assert that Missouri municipalities will save $12.8M per year if GBE is built. Those figures are more than 5 years out of date and relied on some numbers that no longer exist. GBE would only produce a "savings" if it replaced some existing municipal energy contracts. One of those was the outrageously expensive Prairie State contract that the municipalities signed in haste and repented at leisure until the contract expired last year. Did Prairie State actually get replaced with GBE? Nope... it couldn't. GBE still hasn't been fully permitted or built. Therefore the municipalities had to find another option for replacing that contract. No word about who, where, or how much, but I hope it wasn't as expensive as Prairie State. And, if it was not, then the $12.8M savings number collapses. When is MJMEUC going to do an up-to-date savings calculation using current costs? For all we know, using GBE to import energy from hundreds of miles away may be MORE EXPENSIVE than MJMEUC's current contract. Just the fact that the supposed "savings" have not been updated in more than 5 years tells you all you need to know about how affordable GBE will be. If it's such a great bargain, show me!
Missouri landowners cannot afford to have their productive farmland burdened with new rights of way taken using eminent domain. Missouri landowners cannot afford to have permanent impediments constructed in the middle of their businesses. Missouri landowners cannot afford to make a sacrifice so that an out-of-state energy company can make billions trying to sell power thousands of miles away to distribution utilities who don't want to purchase it.
And why should they when it's now possible to bury high voltage direct current transmission in existing rail and transportation rights of way and not have to cut new rights of way or take property using eminent domain?
There's a better solution on the horizon. It's time to retire the old technology of fly-over electric transmission. And it's high time to update Missouri eminent domain laws so that they are only used for a public use, not private profit.
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