Regulatory staff recommends denying Grain Belt project
By JODIE JACKSON JR.
Grain Belt Express must provide the Missouri Public Service Commission with additional information before a decision is made whether to authorize its proposed high-voltage transmission line through a portion of southern Randolph County.
Meanwhile, the PSC’s staff has recommended that the commission deny the application for a certificate of convenience and necessity — the authority that Grain Belt needs to build and operate the transmission line that would carry wind-generated power from Kansas to Indiana through Missouri and Illinois.
“The commission” staff “finds that Grain Belt Express … transmission line project is not needed in Missouri,” the staff said in a legal briefing to the commission.
In addition, five of the eight counties affected by the power line project have rescinded support they had previously given Grain Belt. Public meetings and hearings last spring and summer in Randolph County were heavily attended, mostly by landowners opposed to the project because of the possibility of being forced to sell easements via eminent domain.
The deadline for providing additional documentation is April 11. The order for more information was issued Feb. 11. The PSC wants more documentation about business contracts, financial backers and amounts, proposed economic benefits, rate structures and efforts to meet regulatory requirements in other states.
