Farm Bureau leader fights eminent domain in Missouri’s wind power project

The President of the Missouri Farm Bureau writes that rural Missourians are united against giving the power of eminent domain to the company building the massive power line to move wind powered electricity from western Kansas to Illinois and Indiana.

The Grain Belt Express, a proposed $2.5 billion, 780-mile transmission line, would bring cheap wind energy from Kansas to Eastern states.

The Clean Line project is the transmission line that originally would be built across Missouri but not offer any of the electricity to Missouri. Blake Hurst, the leader of the Missouri Farm Bureau, argues the project won state approval only after Clean Line finally offered electrical power to a few municipalities.

“Voila! The project is now a Missouri utility, and after turning down the request for eminent domain twice, the Public Service Commission approved the project,” he wrote in a commentary for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“If this project goes forward, property rights in Missouri will be considerably less secure. The company promises that the discounted electricity would save Missouri municipalities receiving the power $12 million a year. So the market price of eminent domain has been established for the state. For $12 million, you, too, can be a public utility with the right to condemn and seize property from unwilling sellers.”

Click here to read entire commentary.

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch