Yesterday, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley announced a commitment from U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to halt the $4.9B taxpayer-backed loan that Grain Belt Express had applied for back in 2022.
Without a risky, taxpayer-funded loan to build GBE, can GBE get financing elsewhere? Maybe not, since GBE doesn't have enough customers to make the project financially viable. There's a reason GBE applied for a government loan and spent the past 3 years winding its way toward approval paying for an overly expensive Environmental Impact Statement process.
The bell tolls for thee, Grain Belt Express. It's time to stop throwing good money after bad. GBE's attempt to make its merchant transmission line into something President Trump needs is not working. I heard that the President was also at the meeting and so now he knows the truth about Grain Belt Express, too.
But Grain Belt is still selling their own brand of snake oil:
Without a risky, taxpayer-funded loan to build GBE, can GBE get financing elsewhere? Maybe not, since GBE doesn't have enough customers to make the project financially viable. There's a reason GBE applied for a government loan and spent the past 3 years winding its way toward approval paying for an overly expensive Environmental Impact Statement process.
The bell tolls for thee, Grain Belt Express. It's time to stop throwing good money after bad. GBE's attempt to make its merchant transmission line into something President Trump needs is not working. I heard that the President was also at the meeting and so now he knows the truth about Grain Belt Express, too.
But Grain Belt is still selling their own brand of snake oil:
In a statement from the Grain Belt Express, it says, in part, that Hawley is attempting to kill the largest transmission infrastructure project in U.S. history.
“Senator Hawley is trying to deprive Americans billions of dollars in energy cost savings, thousands of jobs, grid reliability and national security, all in an era of exponentially growing demand. The project is the critical infrastructure needed to achieve America’s energy future and has support from the White House and House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans,” the statement reads.
“The project has also secured approvals from all four route states.”
- Largest transmission project in U.S. history? You say that like it's a good thing, GBE. It's not a good thing, and it means absolutely NOTHING in the grand scheme of things except for the fact that it was always too ambitious to succeed.
- Deprive Americans of cost savings? Cost savings how? There's no generation at the Kansas end of the project so there's no way to know how expensive that would be. It's also unknown how much extra it would cost to buy capacity on GBE to import that mysterious energy from western Kansas. There's no proof that it would save anyone a dime. And maybe that's why GBE doesn't have enough voluntary customers? If it was really a cost saver, GBE would have customers lined up around the block. The lack of customers speaks for itself.
- Jobs? You mean that artificial jobs number that was spit out by IMPLAN's software? That really means nothing and the vast majority of any real jobs will be filled by out of state contractors. Tell me, GBE, how many of those new jobs are related to building new generation in Kansas?
- Grid reliability. NOT!!! That's reliability nobody needs. If GBE was needed for grid reliability, it would be a project planned and ordered by SPP and/or MISO, and Grain Belt Express has never even been reviewed by the grid operators. These federally regulated grid operators are the sole determinant of what's needed for reliability. Because GBE is a merchant, speculative, voluntary project, there is no reliability need associated with it. Sure, my electric service would be more reliable if there were 6 or a dozen service lines coming off the street, but that's not "reliability" I need or want to pay for. GBE is the same... reliability we don't need and don't need to pay for.
- National security? No. The military has its own back up power sources. It doesn't trust the grid or privately owned transmission lines like GBE.
- Growing demand? Right. Growing demand requires growing generation. Not transmission. A transmission line is like an extension cord not plugged into anything.
- Critical infrastructure? NO! If it was it would be ordered by SPP or MISO. Not critical. Voluntary. Speculative. Extraneous.
- Support from the White House and Congress? Not really. You can't determine that earlier uninformed mistakes were some sort of actual support. GBE was able to fly under the radar earlier this year, but that's over now. The White House and Congressional Republicans know the truth.
- Approved in all four states? NO! GBE's Illinois permit was reversed by the Fifth District Appellate Court in August 2024. GBE doesn't have an approval in Illinois!!! Quit saying that, GBE, nobody likes a liar.
Ding Dong!
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