As I mentioned in an earlier post, Grain Belt Express has a long way to go to actually make its project a reality. GBE needs approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to negotiate rates with potential customers. Only through this process can GBE sign up customers who will pay the costs of constructing its transmission line. Without customers, GBE is nothing but a PLAN.
Clean Line applied for, and received, Negotiated Rate
Authority from FERC way back in 2014 based on Clean Line's corporate structure, investors, and the project it was planning to build at that time. Once it was approved, Clean Line proceeded with an Open Solicitation. An Open Solicitation is a fair and transparent process by which a merchant transmission line like GBE negotiates with potential customers and awards capacity on its project through the signing of contracts. The company needed to provide wide notice of its project and the capacity it was offering so that interested potential customers could make offers and negotiate to use the project. A company like GBE must offer the opportunity to bid and negotiate to ALL potential customers. Customers responded to GBE's Solicitation and GBE began negotiations with them. Except, no contracts actually resulted from that process. At some point, Clean Line engaged in what some thought was a shady deal with MJMEUC (the 31 cities) to purchase 200 megawatts of GBE's capacity. Was the offering widely noticed? Were negotiations based on fair principles? Nobody knows because Clean Line never submitted the required Compliance Filing to FERC explaining how it conducted the process that resulted in the MJMEUC contract. Clean Line just sort of walked away from the process and never closed its Open Solicitation or made the required filings with FERC. That was in 2016.
Since that time, Invenergy bought the project. It should have made a filing notifying FERC that it did so and find out what it needed to do to transfer GBE's Negotiated Rate Authority to its new project. But it didn't. Invenergy did nothing with its NRA either. It just simply sat there collecting dust.
Finally, just before the MO PSC approved GBE this month, GBE got inspired to file an "amendment" to its Negotiated Rate Authority with FERC. GBE's FERC application was sort of like the one it filed at the MO PSC -- a simple "amendment" that skims over all the changes to the project and asks for approval based on stale information filed by Clean Line. GBE was trying to pull the wool over FERC's eyes by not informing them of all the changes to the project. They might have succeeded, but...
The Missouri Landowners Alliance filed a Protest on GBE's NRA amendment docket at FERC yesterday. MLA's comments blew me away! It seems that perhaps GBE has violated a bunch of FERC's rules with its actions since it bought the project, such as negotiating with potential customers without an Open Solicitation. MLA also contended that the MJMEUC contract should be void because Clean Line never made the required Compliance Filing that required FERC's approval before the contract was valid. GBE said that it was prepared to make the required compliance filing at some time in the future, but the MLA opined that may be difficult since it has been over 7 years since the contract was negotiated and signed by Clean Line. Where are the records necessary to make a detailed compliance filing? Did they go into a dumpster in Houston 5 years ago?
Read a copy of MLA's Protest here.
Clean Line applied for, and received, Negotiated Rate
Authority from FERC way back in 2014 based on Clean Line's corporate structure, investors, and the project it was planning to build at that time. Once it was approved, Clean Line proceeded with an Open Solicitation. An Open Solicitation is a fair and transparent process by which a merchant transmission line like GBE negotiates with potential customers and awards capacity on its project through the signing of contracts. The company needed to provide wide notice of its project and the capacity it was offering so that interested potential customers could make offers and negotiate to use the project. A company like GBE must offer the opportunity to bid and negotiate to ALL potential customers. Customers responded to GBE's Solicitation and GBE began negotiations with them. Except, no contracts actually resulted from that process. At some point, Clean Line engaged in what some thought was a shady deal with MJMEUC (the 31 cities) to purchase 200 megawatts of GBE's capacity. Was the offering widely noticed? Were negotiations based on fair principles? Nobody knows because Clean Line never submitted the required Compliance Filing to FERC explaining how it conducted the process that resulted in the MJMEUC contract. Clean Line just sort of walked away from the process and never closed its Open Solicitation or made the required filings with FERC. That was in 2016.
Since that time, Invenergy bought the project. It should have made a filing notifying FERC that it did so and find out what it needed to do to transfer GBE's Negotiated Rate Authority to its new project. But it didn't. Invenergy did nothing with its NRA either. It just simply sat there collecting dust.
Finally, just before the MO PSC approved GBE this month, GBE got inspired to file an "amendment" to its Negotiated Rate Authority with FERC. GBE's FERC application was sort of like the one it filed at the MO PSC -- a simple "amendment" that skims over all the changes to the project and asks for approval based on stale information filed by Clean Line. GBE was trying to pull the wool over FERC's eyes by not informing them of all the changes to the project. They might have succeeded, but...
The Missouri Landowners Alliance filed a Protest on GBE's NRA amendment docket at FERC yesterday. MLA's comments blew me away! It seems that perhaps GBE has violated a bunch of FERC's rules with its actions since it bought the project, such as negotiating with potential customers without an Open Solicitation. MLA also contended that the MJMEUC contract should be void because Clean Line never made the required Compliance Filing that required FERC's approval before the contract was valid. GBE said that it was prepared to make the required compliance filing at some time in the future, but the MLA opined that may be difficult since it has been over 7 years since the contract was negotiated and signed by Clean Line. Where are the records necessary to make a detailed compliance filing? Did they go into a dumpster in Houston 5 years ago?
Read a copy of MLA's Protest here.
| 20231020-5079_mla_protest_er24-59_final.pdf |
Thanks to MLA's comments, FERC now knows that there are problems with GBE's "amendment" that are going to require a little more work and contemplation by the FERC Commissioners. It's no longer a matter of a quick and simple rubber stamp.
Keep your eyes on this one! GBE's ability to negotiate with customers is riding on it! And, remember, no customers, no GBE!
Keep your eyes on this one! GBE's ability to negotiate with customers is riding on it! And, remember, no customers, no GBE!
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