Letters to Editor

Andrew Bailey,

Missouri Attorney General to:

Dear Secretary Wright:

I am writing in strong opposition to a proposal by the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (DOE LPO) for a $4.9 billion loan guarantee to aid in the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (DOE LPO) for a $4.9 billion loan guarantee to aid in financing Invenergy’s Grain Belt Express (GBE) wind energy transmission line project, which will waste bil- lions of taxpayers’ dollars and cause irreparable harm to Missouri’s farmers and ranchers.

During the waning, chaotic days of the Biden ad- ministration, DOE LPO granted “conditional approval” of this financing, before issuing a draft environmen- tal impact statement (DEIS), in what appears to be a last-minute, rushed effort to carry out its “green ener- gy” agenda. Invenergy is a privately held corporation seeking to profit on the backs of Missouri landowners. According to recent media reports, its proposed GBE transmission line has exercised eminent domain proceedings against nearly forty (40) Missouri landowners to date. This boondoggle project has persistently and consistently drawn the ire of Missouri farmers and ranchers, as the proposed massive merchant transmis- sion line will be housed on their land for many years to come.

This proposal, crafted by the former administration, is one of the most egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars in recent memory, and is nothing more than a govern- ment-sponsored land grab disguised as “environmen- talism.” GBE seems willing to stop at nothing to see this “green energy” project to fruition, even if that means suing Missouri counties over road use agreements. My office was glad to intervene in this litigation, and will continue to do so.

Late last year, I called on the Biden administration to immediately reverse its short-sighted, egregious abuse of power and reckless spending on a project that the vast majority of Missourians do not want and did not ask for. I also called for a series of robust, in-per- son meetings to afford Missourians the opportunity to share their insights regarding the impact of GBE on their livelihoods. Predictably, that request went unan- swered.

Instead, DOE LPO pressed forward and granted a mere 45 days for public review of an over 400-page DEIS, a key requirement for the agency to fund or not fund GBE’s requested loan guarantee. The agency held only two in-person, open-house, poster board and easel public meetings in Missouri, which also coincided with inclement winter weather, resulting in poor attendance. In addition, the agency hosted two virtual stakeholder meetings, which were also lightly attended.

Due to this inadequate comment period and anemic effort at public engagement, I call on DOE LPO to ter- minate this wasteful and unnecessary project immedi- ately. Or, at the very least, I call on DOE LPO to extend the comment period to 120 days and to hold additional in-person meetings so Missourians can have a mean- ingful opportunity to be heard.

For all of the above stated reasons, the agency should adopt its “no-action” alternative and reject funding for this wasteful project that was committed to by the previous administration.

In addition to not funding this project that tramples on landowner rights, DOE LPO should require GBE to examine new siting that would minimize impacts to landowners, whom for years have been asking for the project to be located along existing public rights of ways, or to underground portions of the line. If the agency would stop and listen to these concerns, I am confident that it could come up with a much better scenario than the current proposal, slated to disturb over 600 acres of floodplain, and about 1600 acres of vegetation – and most of all – one that would cause substantially less negative impact to Missouri’s agri- cultural land that is the backbone of our state and our rural communities.

Plain and simple, I will not stand back and allow Missouri to become a “green energy” playground for well-heeled, private, out-of-state interests looking to line their own pockets with government funding.