The U.S. Department of Energy has made a grave execution error in its rollout of National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors. The DOE *thought* it could keep the whole thing under the radar until its planned corridors were selected, only engaging in public notice and participation when it was too late for impacted communities to derail their plans. That hasn't worked out so swell, and citizen to citizen notification has created a public relations nightmare of epic proportions.
Midwestern states are rightfully terrified at the thought of 5 to 18 mile wide scorched earth corridors being taken from private landowners using federal eminent domain. And because there was absolutely no useful information provided by the DOE, rumor and speculation has created a firestorm of opposition. Elected officials have stepped up to defend their constituents, with numerous local resolutions against NIETCs being passed, and state and federal legislation to thwart the program being introduced. The die has been cast... the public has written its own NIETC narrative, and they HATE the idea of NIETCs.
One such state is Kansas, which recently called staff from the Kansas Corporation Commission before a legislative committee to provide answers. Why is a state utility commission explaining the actions of the federal government? I will say, though, that the KCC representatives generally provided accurate information and only tried to "sell" Grain Belt Express to the legislature, not the NIETCs. You can watch the approximately hour-long presentation and Q&A with the legislators here.
Midwestern states are rightfully terrified at the thought of 5 to 18 mile wide scorched earth corridors being taken from private landowners using federal eminent domain. And because there was absolutely no useful information provided by the DOE, rumor and speculation has created a firestorm of opposition. Elected officials have stepped up to defend their constituents, with numerous local resolutions against NIETCs being passed, and state and federal legislation to thwart the program being introduced. The die has been cast... the public has written its own NIETC narrative, and they HATE the idea of NIETCs.
One such state is Kansas, which recently called staff from the Kansas Corporation Commission before a legislative committee to provide answers. Why is a state utility commission explaining the actions of the federal government? I will say, though, that the KCC representatives generally provided accurate information and only tried to "sell" Grain Belt Express to the legislature, not the NIETCs. You can watch the approximately hour-long presentation and Q&A with the legislators here.
Fast forward the video to hour 5:07:58 to get to the the beginning of the KCC presentation before the committee.
The KCC shares that the Midwest-Plains Corridor was originally requested from DOE by Grain Belt Express, but now GBE has asked the DOE to narrow the 5-mile wide corridor to "only" half a mile. Even at half a mile wide, this corridor could still house another 12.2 transmission lines like GBE! A half mile is 2640 feet. Grain Belt Express, and other large AC transmission projects of 500 or 765 kV use a 200 ft. wide right of way. 2640 feet could house 13.2 transmission lines. Were the legislators supposed to feel better about a possibility of "only" 13 new transmission lines across Kansas?
Here's another point to ponder... the KCC guys explained that GBE has a current application at the KCC for approval of the "collector lines" GBE wants to build to connect proposed wind and solar farms in southwest Kansas to the Grain Belt Express. KCC expects to approve this application on September 30 (like the good little Polsky lap dogs that they are). However, the collector lines are NOT within the proposed NIETC.
The KCC shares that the Midwest-Plains Corridor was originally requested from DOE by Grain Belt Express, but now GBE has asked the DOE to narrow the 5-mile wide corridor to "only" half a mile. Even at half a mile wide, this corridor could still house another 12.2 transmission lines like GBE! A half mile is 2640 feet. Grain Belt Express, and other large AC transmission projects of 500 or 765 kV use a 200 ft. wide right of way. 2640 feet could house 13.2 transmission lines. Were the legislators supposed to feel better about a possibility of "only" 13 new transmission lines across Kansas?
Here's another point to ponder... the KCC guys explained that GBE has a current application at the KCC for approval of the "collector lines" GBE wants to build to connect proposed wind and solar farms in southwest Kansas to the Grain Belt Express. KCC expects to approve this application on September 30 (like the good little Polsky lap dogs that they are). However, the collector lines are NOT within the proposed NIETC.
The collector lines are the red and blue lines. Proposed NIETC corridors are the green and tan lines. The collectors are not within the proposed corridor. I guess GBE doesn't really "need" those after all? And why should they when the light green NIETC brings power to GBE from Oklahoma? Here's what that looks like.
The Midwest-Plains corridor connects to the Mountain-Plains-Southwest corridor, which covers a huge swath of land in the Oklahoma Panhandle, where Invenergy is building the country's largest wind farm. If Kansas thinks that GBE is going to spur economic development of large wind farms in Kansas, perhaps it should take a deep breath and think again.
The KCC says that GBE has asked for the NIETC in order to help itself to certain government handouts, but it forgot to mention the federal loan guarantee that GBE has applied for. That program guarantees that the U.S. taxpayers will cover the $7B cost of GBE if Invenergy defaults on its loan. GBE has not yet shown that it has enough customers to pay for its transmission project, and without customers it would not have enough revenue to pay the loan back. The KCC instead suggested that GBE could help itself to "capacity contracts" where the DOE buys service on the transmission line that it will never use. Instead, the DOE would pay for the use of the line until it can manage to re-sell it to some other customer (that didn't want to buy it in the first place). Unfortunately, the KCC doesn't seem to realize that there is a finite amount of money to be used for capacity contracts and that the money has already been awarded to other projects. There isn't enough money left to sign capacity contracts with GBE. What GBE wants is that federal loan guarantee.
One of the legislators questioned whether NIETCs are a violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which reserves certain powers to the states. He should also recognize that it's also a violation of the Fifth Amendment, because it takes private property and reserves it for future transmission lines without compensation to the landowner.
For some reason, these guys think that Invenergy is "better" than Clean Line Energy Partners. It's not. It's that Invenergy is using eminent domain and the threat thereof to secure easements. Clean Line never used eminent domain, and Clean Line actually intended to export Kansas wind on its transmission line.
Eminent domain is still eminent domain, whether it is granted by the KCC or the federal government. It was greed that made the KCC give GBE utility status back in 2011. It's utility status that gives transmission companies the right of eminent domain under Kansas law.
The KCC's Justin Grady did a lovely little dance trying to sell the legislative committee on GBE's ability to reverse flow and provide power to Kansas during a grid emergency. He obviously doesn't know that it's not quite that simple. While GBE may have the physical ability to do that, it cannot do that without injection rights granted by the Southwest Power Pool (SPP). SPP is the grid operator at GBE's western terminus, which is the only place GBE could connect to the Kansas grid. SPP operates the power grid and it must approve any injections of power into its grid to ensure the injections don't cause issues that can crash the grid. Injection rights require lengthy study and enormous fees paid to SPP in order to gain approval. Grain Belt Express hasn't engaged in that expensive and time consuming process. GBE and its KCC representative, Justin Grady, are selling the legislators a pig in a poke.
Aside from Justin's love of Grain Belt Express (yes, the landowners know how much you threw them under the bus time and time again, Justin) the information provided to the committee was educational and accurate.
Maybe Kansas should rethink this whole thing? It's not too late!
The KCC says that GBE has asked for the NIETC in order to help itself to certain government handouts, but it forgot to mention the federal loan guarantee that GBE has applied for. That program guarantees that the U.S. taxpayers will cover the $7B cost of GBE if Invenergy defaults on its loan. GBE has not yet shown that it has enough customers to pay for its transmission project, and without customers it would not have enough revenue to pay the loan back. The KCC instead suggested that GBE could help itself to "capacity contracts" where the DOE buys service on the transmission line that it will never use. Instead, the DOE would pay for the use of the line until it can manage to re-sell it to some other customer (that didn't want to buy it in the first place). Unfortunately, the KCC doesn't seem to realize that there is a finite amount of money to be used for capacity contracts and that the money has already been awarded to other projects. There isn't enough money left to sign capacity contracts with GBE. What GBE wants is that federal loan guarantee.
One of the legislators questioned whether NIETCs are a violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which reserves certain powers to the states. He should also recognize that it's also a violation of the Fifth Amendment, because it takes private property and reserves it for future transmission lines without compensation to the landowner.
For some reason, these guys think that Invenergy is "better" than Clean Line Energy Partners. It's not. It's that Invenergy is using eminent domain and the threat thereof to secure easements. Clean Line never used eminent domain, and Clean Line actually intended to export Kansas wind on its transmission line.
Eminent domain is still eminent domain, whether it is granted by the KCC or the federal government. It was greed that made the KCC give GBE utility status back in 2011. It's utility status that gives transmission companies the right of eminent domain under Kansas law.
The KCC's Justin Grady did a lovely little dance trying to sell the legislative committee on GBE's ability to reverse flow and provide power to Kansas during a grid emergency. He obviously doesn't know that it's not quite that simple. While GBE may have the physical ability to do that, it cannot do that without injection rights granted by the Southwest Power Pool (SPP). SPP is the grid operator at GBE's western terminus, which is the only place GBE could connect to the Kansas grid. SPP operates the power grid and it must approve any injections of power into its grid to ensure the injections don't cause issues that can crash the grid. Injection rights require lengthy study and enormous fees paid to SPP in order to gain approval. Grain Belt Express hasn't engaged in that expensive and time consuming process. GBE and its KCC representative, Justin Grady, are selling the legislators a pig in a poke.
Aside from Justin's love of Grain Belt Express (yes, the landowners know how much you threw them under the bus time and time again, Justin) the information provided to the committee was educational and accurate.
Maybe Kansas should rethink this whole thing? It's not too late!
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