Missouri Supreme Court upholds decision by court of appeals on Grain Belt Express

 

The transmission line to carry southwest Kansas wind powered electricity across Missouri and into Illinois still has life after a court ruling this week.

The Missouri Supreme Court upheld the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District’s 2019 decision reaffirming a PSC decision that approved a certificate of need and necessity for the Grain Belt Express Project (GBX).

This Supreme Court action ends a long effort by project opponents to overturn the PSC decision on the Grain Belt Express. This is the project that has a route through north Missouri.

The Project benefits 350,000 Missourians in rural communities across the state with low-cost, reliable energy. This decision sends a strong signal to the state legislature that time after time, it has been upheld that indeed the GBX project has the constitutional basis to proceed with a wind energy transmission line in Missouri.

Duncan Kincheloe, MPUA President, and General Manager said, “The Missouri Supreme Court decision was welcome news for nearly forty communities across our state. We look forward to seeing this project proceed so that customers of our consumer-owned utilities can realize the cost savings this project provides.”

Over the last two sessions, bills have been filed in both the Missouri House and Senate that would effectively kill the project, despite it benefitting 39 Missouri communities whose local utility has contracted to receive power transmission from the energy project.

Source: KTTN news