Missouri is stifling efforts to bring wind power sweeping down the plains from Kansas to Indiana and into the grid beyond. State Public Service Commission regulators have invoked a controversial court ruling that says wind transmission lines must be approved by each individual county along their path.
The ruling gives some of the state's least populated counties authority to disrupt plans for power distribution on a regional, or even broader, scale. The $2.2 billion line would help make the nation less dependent on dirty, coal-fired power plants and provide a clean, renewable energy source.
Missouri has been for years the only one of four states to withhold approval for the 780-mile Grain Belt Express overhead transmission line. A Houston-based company is developing the Clean Line Energy project, which regulators acknowledge is "in the public interest" and could save electric customers in some Missouri cities millions of dollars annually.
Those claims have not stopped landowners along parts of the line from objecting to the use of eminent domain to build transmission towers on their property. While the Grain Belt Express line has hit one snag after another trying to win regulatory approval, the PSC last month gave permission to an Ameren subsidiary to proceed with its $250 million, 100-mile Mark Twain Transmission Project in northeast Missouri.
The subsidiary, Ameren Transmission Co. of Illinois, gained local approval from the counties along its path in September. The PSC said it would pass through Marion, Knox, Adair, Schuyler and Lewis counties, "mostly via existing transmission easements."
The Grain Belt Express plan is more ambitious. It would cross the northern part of the state from St. Joseph on the west to a terminus between Bowling Green and Hannibal on the east. It would cross Buchanan, Clinton, Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, Randolph, Monroe and Ralls counties.
Opponents from the group Block Grain Belt Express-Missouri warn that the project would not bring cheap clean energy or jobs to their communities. They say the company is offering "empty claims and false promises," when their intent is to force property owners to sell easements or have their land condemned through eminent domain.
Rural property owners fear that the lines will displace communities, disrupt farm operations and bring economic disaster for some while others get wealthy. It's easy to understand why farmers may not want wind turbines whipping the air over their land, but more is at stake than picturesque farms and a long-valued way of life.
The Earth is in the grip of global warming, and the nation's power sector is the largest source of carbon emissions contributing to the problem. Working together to harness renewable energy rather than blocking progress will go a long way in guaranteeing that the rural way of life doesn't change.
