Remember the days of yesteryear when one of the highlights of summer was the circus coming to your town? Well, we're all getting to relive those glory days with this summer's Grain Belt Express Circus Spectacular!
The circus is indeed in town, and it's a three ring biggie! In the first ring, we have ringmaster Attorney General Andrew Bailey, whipping the GBE pony with an investigation into its business practices. In the other ring, we have ringmaster Missouri PSC Chair Kayla Hahn, yanking on the highwire on which GBE's acrobats are balanced. And, in the center ring, we have ringmaster Senator Josh Hawley unloading the GBE clowns out of their tiny car before lighting it on fire with his magical Department of Energy torch. It's all so much I don't know where to look first!
Let's start at the beginning...
On March 1, 2025, the Grain Belt Express website looked like this. It was all about clean energy (from Kansas) and powering 3.2 million homes. But, suddenly the website changed mid-March to remove any reference to clean energy and to, instead, power 50 data centers. Why the change? It's sort of like jumping from one galloping horse to another during a circus act. Many believe that the change was an attempt to morph into something that would be supported under President Donald Trump's unleashing American energy policies. If GBE could suddenly be something that Trump supports, then perhaps it could survive the Trump clean energy purge. It may have worked initially, when nobody was really paying attention, however there were a couple of people who saw right through GBE's sheep costume.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sprang into action to out GBE from the Trump henhouse. He opened an investigation into GBE's business practices and requested a long list of information from the company. I read an early news article where the company welcomed the investigation, saying it had nothing to hide. Grain Belt's initial comments on that investigation seem to have gone missing lately, and now GBE has filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General, asking the circuit court of Cole County to quash and set aside the investigation. All of a sudden, Invenergy has lots to hide.
AG Bailey also sent a letter to the Missouri Public Service Commission asking them to hold GBE accountable for its wrongdoing by requesting new information about some of GBE's incredulous claims made during the PSC case. Bailey said in his letter that the PSC may revoke GBE's certificate at its discretion if the project is no longer beneficial to Missourians. He supported this with reference to Missouri code that he says "...support[s] the PSC’s authority to revoke a CCN if the utility fails to comply with the imposed conditions or if the operation or construction is deemed imprudent." It only makes sense that the PSC could take action if a utility is not complying with a certificate it issued, otherwise why have the certificate in the first place? Does the PSC really have no authority to ensure that its orders are followed? More on that in the other ring...
AG Bailey also sent a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to urge rescission of the DOE's conditional loan guarantee issued by the Biden administration in its waning days.
Meanwhile, in another ring, the MO PSC discussed AG Bailey's letter at their open meeting this week. Despite GBE's spin about the PSC rejecting the request to revoke the certificate outright, that's not exactly what the PSC did. Watch the video for yourself, beginning at 1:06:00 on the video. The staff attorney said while the Commission cannot outright revoke the certificate, it can request that the company file further information and monitor the situation as it sees fit. PSC Chair Kayla Hahn proposed that the PSC request that GBE submit a range of updated studies regarding the project's electric bill savings and wage and jobs claims. She thinks the companies claims were aggressive, especially when including a carbon price in 2027 (that is never going to happen now). She thinks the company should have submitted a range of assumptions on the project's economic impacts, wage and jobs information to better explain their assumptions under different modeling scenarios. My impression is that the PSC simply swallowed GBE's aggressive studies hook, line and sinker and perhaps that wasn't the smartest approach. Commissioner Kolkmeyer said that MISO and SPP "convinced us" that Missouri is short on generation and transmission. Huh? Those entities never testified in the GBE case and I'm sure they never told the PSC that Missouri needed Grain Belt. Perhaps he's remembering Grain Belt telling the Commission that MISO and SPP were short on generation and transmission, but the Commission never verified that at the source and, again, simply swallowed GBE's claims hook, line and sinker. Nevertheless, Comm. Kolkmeyer thinks that GBE's numbers were aggressive and the PSC needs to determine whether they are still relevant. The order of the PSC, therefore, was to issue a notice in the GBE case file that more information must be filed. Not exactly the GBE win that the press reported, but just another example of an entity swallowing what GBE says without question. Isn't it time to STOP doing that, Missouri?
And, in the center ring, Senator Josh Hawley recently tweeted that he met with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and President Donald Trump and came away with a promise to put a stop to the Grain Belt Express project. Senator Hawley followed that up by filing an amendment to the rescissions package that passed last night. The amendment says:
The circus is indeed in town, and it's a three ring biggie! In the first ring, we have ringmaster Attorney General Andrew Bailey, whipping the GBE pony with an investigation into its business practices. In the other ring, we have ringmaster Missouri PSC Chair Kayla Hahn, yanking on the highwire on which GBE's acrobats are balanced. And, in the center ring, we have ringmaster Senator Josh Hawley unloading the GBE clowns out of their tiny car before lighting it on fire with his magical Department of Energy torch. It's all so much I don't know where to look first!
Let's start at the beginning...
On March 1, 2025, the Grain Belt Express website looked like this. It was all about clean energy (from Kansas) and powering 3.2 million homes. But, suddenly the website changed mid-March to remove any reference to clean energy and to, instead, power 50 data centers. Why the change? It's sort of like jumping from one galloping horse to another during a circus act. Many believe that the change was an attempt to morph into something that would be supported under President Donald Trump's unleashing American energy policies. If GBE could suddenly be something that Trump supports, then perhaps it could survive the Trump clean energy purge. It may have worked initially, when nobody was really paying attention, however there were a couple of people who saw right through GBE's sheep costume.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sprang into action to out GBE from the Trump henhouse. He opened an investigation into GBE's business practices and requested a long list of information from the company. I read an early news article where the company welcomed the investigation, saying it had nothing to hide. Grain Belt's initial comments on that investigation seem to have gone missing lately, and now GBE has filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General, asking the circuit court of Cole County to quash and set aside the investigation. All of a sudden, Invenergy has lots to hide.
AG Bailey also sent a letter to the Missouri Public Service Commission asking them to hold GBE accountable for its wrongdoing by requesting new information about some of GBE's incredulous claims made during the PSC case. Bailey said in his letter that the PSC may revoke GBE's certificate at its discretion if the project is no longer beneficial to Missourians. He supported this with reference to Missouri code that he says "...support[s] the PSC’s authority to revoke a CCN if the utility fails to comply with the imposed conditions or if the operation or construction is deemed imprudent." It only makes sense that the PSC could take action if a utility is not complying with a certificate it issued, otherwise why have the certificate in the first place? Does the PSC really have no authority to ensure that its orders are followed? More on that in the other ring...
AG Bailey also sent a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to urge rescission of the DOE's conditional loan guarantee issued by the Biden administration in its waning days.
Meanwhile, in another ring, the MO PSC discussed AG Bailey's letter at their open meeting this week. Despite GBE's spin about the PSC rejecting the request to revoke the certificate outright, that's not exactly what the PSC did. Watch the video for yourself, beginning at 1:06:00 on the video. The staff attorney said while the Commission cannot outright revoke the certificate, it can request that the company file further information and monitor the situation as it sees fit. PSC Chair Kayla Hahn proposed that the PSC request that GBE submit a range of updated studies regarding the project's electric bill savings and wage and jobs claims. She thinks the companies claims were aggressive, especially when including a carbon price in 2027 (that is never going to happen now). She thinks the company should have submitted a range of assumptions on the project's economic impacts, wage and jobs information to better explain their assumptions under different modeling scenarios. My impression is that the PSC simply swallowed GBE's aggressive studies hook, line and sinker and perhaps that wasn't the smartest approach. Commissioner Kolkmeyer said that MISO and SPP "convinced us" that Missouri is short on generation and transmission. Huh? Those entities never testified in the GBE case and I'm sure they never told the PSC that Missouri needed Grain Belt. Perhaps he's remembering Grain Belt telling the Commission that MISO and SPP were short on generation and transmission, but the Commission never verified that at the source and, again, simply swallowed GBE's claims hook, line and sinker. Nevertheless, Comm. Kolkmeyer thinks that GBE's numbers were aggressive and the PSC needs to determine whether they are still relevant. The order of the PSC, therefore, was to issue a notice in the GBE case file that more information must be filed. Not exactly the GBE win that the press reported, but just another example of an entity swallowing what GBE says without question. Isn't it time to STOP doing that, Missouri?
And, in the center ring, Senator Josh Hawley recently tweeted that he met with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and President Donald Trump and came away with a promise to put a stop to the Grain Belt Express project. Senator Hawley followed that up by filing an amendment to the rescissions package that passed last night. The amendment says:
NO EXPENDITURE OF AMOUNTS FOR GRAIN BELT EXPRESS LLC.
No funds appropriated under this Act or any other Act to the Department of Energy shall be made available for Grain Belt Express LLC.
Seems pretty clear to me. Grain Belt Express is going to have to get its project financing elsewhere if the rescissions package passed with that amendment still in place. We may have a little circus sideshow on that later today as the package passed in the wee hours of Friday morning and I can't get a list of what was in it when it passed (thanks, AI, you're still just a conglomeration of useless crap).
If GBE is going to have to get financing elsewhere, it's going to need more customers than the 39 Missouri cities that signed up to use less than 5% of its 5,000MW transmission capacity. But there is no indication that there are any other customers. I had this really wacky dream last night... in my dream, Invenergy was looking for a government loan to pay itself back for all the money it had wasted on Grain Belt over the past several years. Once it was paid back, Invenergy didn't care about Grain Belt anymore and abandoned the project for lack of customers. I woke up mad as hell that taxpayers ended up funding Grain Belt's colossal waste of money and paying back its lost investment, but luckily it was only a bad dream!
So, folks, enjoy the circus while the show lasts. It's costing GBE a bundle of money and distracting its attention from any progress. Have you seen GBE's statements and claims about the current circus? Calling a U.S Senator and a state Attorney General "unhinged" has to be a new low for a company that has been riding high on the political hog during the Biden administration and has engaged in lawfare when it suited them. Now they don't like being the star of this circus.
Remember what happened when Clean Line's circus went bust?
And you know what happens when the circus is over? The tent folds, the acts are packed up, and it chugs slowly out of town under cover of darkness.
If GBE is going to have to get financing elsewhere, it's going to need more customers than the 39 Missouri cities that signed up to use less than 5% of its 5,000MW transmission capacity. But there is no indication that there are any other customers. I had this really wacky dream last night... in my dream, Invenergy was looking for a government loan to pay itself back for all the money it had wasted on Grain Belt over the past several years. Once it was paid back, Invenergy didn't care about Grain Belt anymore and abandoned the project for lack of customers. I woke up mad as hell that taxpayers ended up funding Grain Belt's colossal waste of money and paying back its lost investment, but luckily it was only a bad dream!
So, folks, enjoy the circus while the show lasts. It's costing GBE a bundle of money and distracting its attention from any progress. Have you seen GBE's statements and claims about the current circus? Calling a U.S Senator and a state Attorney General "unhinged" has to be a new low for a company that has been riding high on the political hog during the Biden administration and has engaged in lawfare when it suited them. Now they don't like being the star of this circus.
Remember what happened when Clean Line's circus went bust?
And you know what happens when the circus is over? The tent folds, the acts are packed up, and it chugs slowly out of town under cover of darkness.
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