StopPATH WV Blog

Take Back Your Power, West Virginia!

8/5/2025

For years, West Virginia has been the target of big green lawsuits, and the butt of arrogantly rude jokes. Our state has mined coal, burned coal, and exported the electricity produced for more than 100 years. West Virginia is one of only two consistent electric power exporters in our PJM Interconnection grid region. States to our east, however, have adopted their own "clean energy" legislation that causes fossil fuel electric generation within their borders to close, such as the Virginia Clean Economy Act. However, these "clean" states have no qualms about importing increasing amounts of dirty coal-fired electricity from West Virginia though. Virginia's plan to supply its "clean" economy with electricity relies on increased imports of electricity from West Virginia.

Virginia's economy has created "data center alley," the largest concentration of data centers in the world. The whole world! And Virginia has been powering them with our dirty coal-fired power from West Virginia. This is what has made Loudoun County, Virginia, the wealthiest county in the nation. The whole nation!

And there Virginia sits, sneering at West Virginia and making jokes about how we're at the bottom of many state achievement lists and maligning us as a bunch of hillbillies who actually LIKE being trodden by Virginia's polished boots on our neck. If there's something the "civilized" in Northern Virginia want that comes with impacts, they look right away to West Virginia as their sacrifice zone.

Today's West Virginia is DONE with that!

Now Virginia wants to build out a network of AI data centers, the largest in the world. But Virginia also doesn't want to have the infrastructure necessary to power those data centers in their own back yard. Virginians would yell and scream about the protection of their environment, while demanding that the infrastructure they don't want be moved to West Virginia.

Instead of building the infrastructure to power the data centers Virginia wants near the load they are creating, Virginia is playing a coy game with regional grid operator PJM Interconnection. They simply encourage new AI data centers to make load requests to Virginia public utility Dominion Energy. Dominion sends these impossible load forecasts up to PJM Interconnection, and PJM uses the only tool at its disposal to meet the load request of a public utility... transmission! PJM does not and cannot order the construction of new generation. It can only plan and order transmission, and that's exactly what it's done... planned and ordered new transmission extension cords from West Virginia's coal-fired power plants to serve the new AI data centers in Virginia. West Virginia's public utilities, owned by corporations based in Ohio, are thrilled with this arrangement because they not only make money selling more electricity produced in West Virginia, they also rake in billions of dollars building new transmission extension cords.

This has to STOP!

AI data centers can be built practically anywhere that there is power and water available. They don't need to be located within Northern Virginia's data center alley. AI data centers could actually be built in West Virginia, in communities that want them and their tax revenue. That's exactly what West Virginia's elected officials were thinking this year when they passed The Power Generation and Consumption Act (aka HB 2014). However, it seems that data companies are hardly beating a path to our door. Instead, there was a big announcement recently where Pennsylvania became the home to many new data centers in the planning stage.

Apparently it takes *more* than just allowing data centers to build their own generation. And it's all about who pays! West Virginia's Power Generation and Consumption Act makes the data center pay to build its own power. Other states simply push the service requests up to PJM interconnection, who orders new transmission that electric consumers pay for. West Virginia is also a vertically integrated state where utilities own generation, transmission and distribution. Generation built by our utilities is paid for by West Virginians. When data centers get built in other states, West Virginians end up footing the bill to power them! Frankly, that is OUTRAGEOUS!

After all these years, West Virginia finally has something other states want. West Virginia needs to quit giving it away and being satisfied with the crumbs left from the other state feasts.

Take back your power, West Virginia! Don't allow new transmission extension cords that drain our power to be built in West Virginia! West Virginia has the final say whether new transmission extension cords are built in West Virginia. If West Virginia keeps allowing other states to siphon off our power, there's nothing here to attract data centers. They'll locate in surrounding states and suck all our power out of West Virginia.

Say NO to new transmission extension cords providing OUR power to surrounding parasitic states! If we keep feeding new data centers in Virginia, they never have any reason to build here instead. Keep our power here, providing economic development to our own state.

Take back your power, West Virginia! Say NO to new transmission extension cords across our beautiful state!

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What's a Transmission Open House?

7/29/2025

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Yesterday, landowners in Virginia began receiving letters from FirstEnergy's transmission group with information about the first of several transmission extension cords ordered by regional grid operator PJM Interconnection to power Loudoun County's data centers with West Virginia generated coal-fired electricity. The letters also invited landowners to several "Open House" meetings to be held along the project route in mid-August.

Tuesday, August 12, 2025
6:00-8:00 P.M.
Lovettsville, VA
Lovettsville Volunteer Fire Hall
12837 Berlin Turnpike
Lovettsville, VA 20180

Wednesday, August 13, 2025
6:00-8:00 P.M.
Shepherdstown, WV
Shepherd University Wellness Center
164 University Drive
Shepherdstown, WV 25443

Thursday, August 14, 2025
6:00-8:00 P.M.
Winchester, VA
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
901 Amherst Street
Winchester, VA 22601

If you didn't get a letter (yet), you can read the letter by downloading this file. Sorry, but FirstEnergy is withholding access to its website until August 12. Be sure to mark that down to include in your comments to the Public Service Commission... withholding of information and insufficient time to meaningfully interact with the community during routing.

firstenergy_gdgc_open_house_letter.pdf
File Size:	1443 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

You are encouraged to attend these Open House meetings to get more information and to ask questions, lots of questions. Feel free to attend any (or ALL) of the meetings, but the meetings will be identical. So, if you forget to ask a question, or need more information, hit repeat the next night at a new location.

The Open House meetings for transmission projects are always the same format, and I've been to lots of them. It's NOT a "Town Hall" or other form of meeting with a formal information presentation with designated speakers followed by a Q&A for everyone at the meeting to take turns asking questions. Instead, these meetings are a place for individuals to hunt for little bits of information at certain "stations" set up around the room. Bring your Sherlock Holmes outfit, not a prepared speech. It's pure divide and conquer. Each station will cover a specific topic and be staffed by one or more FirstEnergy subject matter "experts". You are supposed to enter the room and sign in to give FirstEnergy all your contact information so that their land agents have an easier time harassing you in the future. Then you are supposed to filter through and interact with each station set up along the perimeter of the room like cattle in a chute. When you finally get to the end of the stations (back where you began) you will be asked to fill out a comment card and let FirstEnergy know what you think about the project. This is a diagram of their set up:

There is no place for you to make a public comment to all the meeting attendees, so don't bother writing one. Instead, you will talk one-on-one with FirstEnergy employees and contractors. If you insist on having a moment and making a shouted announcement to all the attendees inside, count on FirstEnergy to have security at the meeting who will escort you out.

Open House meetings are loud and confusing. There are hundreds of people talking at once in a confined space. It is extremely hard to hear what anyone is saying, even someone right next to you.

Sometimes, the companies go all out and provide food, drink and freebie souveniers, such as keychains, notebooks, or cheap Chinese Yeti knockoffs with their project name on them. FirstEnergy ain't having none of that at the Maryland meetings for Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek (aka MARL). There will be nothing for you except paper handouts. Not even a drink of water. Bring your own so you can stay hydrated. It's been hot out there!

And speaking of hot out there... feel free to stage a protest outside the Open House meeting. Wave signs, sing songs, chant, but don't block the entrance or waylay people on their way inside. They'll probably be back to join you after getting their own dose of "information" from inside. Get to know other people in your community who are also affected by the transmission project. Exchange contact information. Create a petition against the project for people to sign. But remember, keep it peaceful and don't interfere with what FirstEnergy is doing inside. Sorry I won't see you there, but we can talk afterwards.

Here are some photos from FirstEnergy's June Open House in Montgomery County, Maryland.

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Is the Deep State Conspiring with Grain Belt Express?

7/28/2025

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It didn't take long for the deep state at DOE to "resist" Secretary Wright's cancellation of Grain Belt's conditional loan guarantee by spilling to some obscure fake news media outlet. In doing so, they really step in it... deeply! Secretary Wright ought to investigate these leakers... and fire every last one of them. They admit to breaking the law and conspiring with Grain Belt Express to hide the truth about the project in an attempt to fool President Trump and to push through a loan guarantee whose application process was not complete. The DOE never finished GBE's Environmental Impact Statement, which is supposed to guide its decision on whether or not to take an action (such as making a conditional loan guarantee). The admissions here are stunning. Is the DOE Deep State really that ignorant about energy laws? Or was this done arrogantly and on purpose with full intent? I'd like to ask these leakers some questions...

The Energy Department pulled the project's $4.9 billion conditional commitment against the advice of its attorneys — and without career staff.

You say that like it's a bad thing, but is it because they're the Deep State who issued that conditional approval as an attempt to guarantee the loan even though Grain Belt Express had not completed its EIS? And then the Deep State conspired with Grain Belt to hide the project's true purpose from the incoming administration!

When the second Trump administration took office, LPO staff worried that a requirement to secure wind and solar contracts for a certain portion of the line’s capacity could prevent the loan from moving forward — particularly after the publication of an executive order that made it much harder to build wind power. Right up until the last few weeks, sources told Latitude Media, both the office and Invenergy were discussing how to bring the Grain Belt Express agreement more in line with the administration’s priorities, by expanding offtakers beyond wind power.

So, let me get this straight... the DOE staff was advising Invenergy to remove all reference to wind (and solar) from its website and to leak that bogus story about building a gas plant and negotiating with coal-fired generators? And the DOE staff did this knowing Grain Belt's eligibility for a DOE taxpayer-backed loan is tied to Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) (42 U.S. Code [U.S.C.] 16513), as amended. Section 1703 of Title XVII (the Clean Energy Financing Program) defines eligible projects as those that, “avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases [GHGs]; and employ new or significantly improved technologies as compared to commercial technologies in service in the United States at the time the guarantee is issued” (Public Law [P.L.] 109-58, Section 1703(a)). When Grain Belt's "clean energy" premise went away, so did its eligibility for the loan. How was DOE staff planning to explain how a transmission line carrying gas- and coal-fired power was avoiding, reducing or sequestering air pollutants or greenhouse gases? Or was DOE planning to have two faces... one for Trump and his administration, and one for the public and the courts? How did they ever think they would get away with this? Fact is, they didn't.

But, even when their horrible duplicity could have been buried forever and forgotten, these same Deep Staters decided instead to parade it around like a virtue and thumb their nose at everyone, drunk on their own power. These are people who survive on your tax dollars, arrogantly doing whatever they want. It's time to clean house at LPO, and probably a lot of other places, too. It's not "resistance", it's insubordination and law breaking.

And what else here breaks the rules?

...LPO staff worried that a requirement to secure wind and solar contracts for a certain portion of the line’s capacity could prevent the loan from moving forward ...

That requirement by DOE VIOLATES GBE's Negotiated Rate Authority issued by FERC. In GBE's original Negotiated Rate Authority Order (which may or may not have been amended, extended, or renewed recently) the Commission was emphatic that Grain Belt Express could not use generation source as a factor when selecting customers.

Grain Belt Express has not proposed in its application, and we do not approve, selection or ranking criteria based upon the type of generation that a potential transmission customer might seek to interconnect.

If the DOE was requiring that GBE use generation source as a factor to select its customers, then that means that GBE has violated it's Negotiated Rate Authority and therefore has no authority to negotiate with customers. And without voluntary customers... there is no Grain Belt Express! So the DOE Deep Staters were also thumbing their nose at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. How arrogant can those little government functionaries be?

And here's another...

Notably, the agreement didn’t require the federal government to shell out direct funds; instead, LPO agreed to act as a guarantor for the project, reducing risk for private lenders, but not making any payments itself unless the project failed.

Let's go back to that same FERC NRA Order...

To approve negotiated rates for a transmission project, the Commission must find that the rates are just and reasonable. To do so, the Commission must determine that the merchant transmission owner has assumed the full market risk for the cost of constructing its proposed transmission project.

The federal government using American taxpayers as a loan guarantor for the construction costs of Grain Belt Express means that the risk of the project has been shifted to taxpayers. If the project fails, then the taxpayers will pay for it. Taxpayers are being used as the insurer of last resort for a 100% voluntary, unneeded transmission line whose only purpose is to make a profit for Invenergy. LPO doesn't have any of its own money, it simply plays Monopoly with OPM (Other People's Money).

That decision, Latitude Media has learned, was made against the recommendation of career attorneys inside LPO, who advised the agency that rescinding the conditional commitment would constitute a breach of contract, and would be illegal. It was also made without the involvement of career staff who worked on the deal.

Ya know what else might be illegal? Issuing a conditional loan guarantee before the EIS was completed. And completely ignoring a FERC Order that DOE was aware of. And conspiring to thwart the intent of Title 17 of the EP Act.

In the case of Grain Belt Express, DOE is asserting that the project isn’t going to meet certain milestones that are required to finalize the loan.
But Grain Belt Express, which has already gone through two years of due diligence with LPO, still had a window of at least four months to reach financial close. Indeed, in the early months of this year, LPO career staff believed the project was moving in the right direction.

Right... was that during the time when DOE staff thought their cover up of GBE's windy purpose was working with the Trump administration? Even if it had another four years, I don't think GBE could find enough customers to provide collateral necessary for this loan. Wait... what? Collateral? Something pledged as security for repayment of a loan, to be forfeited in the event of a default. Does this mean that DOE was planning to guarantee a loan using tax payers as collateral WITHOUT ASSURING THAT GBE HAD ENOUGH CUSTOMERS TO REPAY THE LOAN? Due diligence, my ass!

...when Energy Secretary Chris Wright stepped in to order the cancellation of the loan guarantee in mid-July, DOE’s general counsel didn’t seem to look to offtake numbers for legal justification at all.

What the heck? Offtake numbers? That means nothing! It's only signed contracts from customers obligated to pay for capacity on Grain Belt Express that matter, and GBE has exactly NONE of those. The one contract GBE has said it has is completely optional and the Missouri municipalities can get out of it whenever they want. Does this mean that DOE pretended that "offtake numbers" in the form of Memorandums of Understanding, or simply a utility's future renewable plans unrelated to Grain Belt Express, were used as a form of collateral? No bank would ever rely on such flimsy collateral, and neither should DOE. That's how DOE got into trouble before with Solyndra.

In the spring, the far-right Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri began to publicly take issue with the project and its impact on farmers...

Sorry, far-left reporters, but Senator Hawley has been concerned about Grain Belt Express for the past several years, at least. Don't make it sound like he just found out about it.

The International Energy Agency estimates that nearly 50 million miles (80 million kilometers) of power lines will need to be added or replaced globally by 2040 in order to meet climate and clean energy goals

Well, there's another Deep State agency waste of taxpayer money. The federal government doesn't currently have any climate and clean energy goals, therefore this statement is irrelevant.

According to Rob Gramlich, president of the transmission and power markets-focused consultancy Grid Strategies, federal support could be particularly impactful for interregional transmission lines “where it’s hardest to find any other way to recover costs.”

“It is very hard to find state regulators to approve cost recovery for a multi-state line like this,” Gramlich said. “I’ve always thought that DOE should have a big pot of money for interregional transmission, and that should be the main focus of DOE spending across all of its programs.”

Rob Gramlich is not the federal government. In fact, he works for dark money organizations pushing a political agenda. He continues trying to get "permitting reform" passed so that the federal government can control transmission permitting. Doesn't look like it's going to do him much good right now, is it? The Trump administration is intent on building power generation on site with those new data centers, not doing something as inefficient as trying to transmit it hundreds of miles from generation to load. There's really no use for these kinds of transmission lines.

It's time to clean the Deep State out of our Department of Energy. I'm betting Gramlich knows exactly who they are. Who knows? Maybe they're having cocktails right now celebrating their "resistance"?

That was a close call. Never think that your vote doesn't matter. It stopped this Deep State hustle in its tracks.

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Weekend at Mikey's

7/24/2025

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"All I'm saying is why don't we just pretend he didn't die? Just for a bit?"

Introducing...

It sure took GBE a long time to make a statement after the DOE cancelled their taxpayer-backed conditional loan yesterday. And then what profound wisdom did Grain Belt finally have?

America is energy dominant and an AI powerhouse, and Grain Belt Express will be America’s largest power pipeline. While we are disappointed about the LPO loan guarantee, a privately financed Grain Belt Express transmission superhighway will advance President Trump’s agenda of American energy and technology dominance while delivering billions of dollars in energy cost savings, strengthening grid reliability and resiliency, and creating thousands of American jobs.

Sure says a lot of nothing even though it took all day to write. Sorry, Invenergy, but Trump isn't buying your nonsense about Grain Belt Express. The DOE actually took a look at your project and decided it was never going to pencil out financially. It's over.

There's a reason Grain Belt opted to apply for a DOE taxpayer backed loan under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) (42 U.S. Code [U.S.C.] 16513), as amended. Section 1703 of Title XVII (the Clean Energy Financing Program) that defines eligible projects as those that, “avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases [GHGs]; and employ new or significantly improved technologies as compared to commercial technologies in service in the United States at the time the guarantee is issued” (Public Law [P.L.] 109-58, Section 1703(a)). Applying for this loan cost Grain Belt a bundle and it required an Environmental Impact Statement, the cost of which has been said to have made other energy executives have meltdowns in the Secretary of Energy's office. Surely if private financing was available, Grain Belt would have pursued that instead. Except other commercial financing usually requires some proof of enough revenue to repay the loan. Grain Belt's only customer is a collection of Missouri municipalities that might want to purchase up to 225 MW of transmission capacity on Grain Belt, less than 5% of its total available capacity. That isn't going to make the loan payments, especially because Grain Belt gave the municipalities a loss leader price for signing up in order to secure Missouri PSC approval. And on top of that, the Missouri munis want to purchase wind energy from Kansas and have inked a series of contracts to purchase energy from wind farms over the years. I'm pretty sure the munis don't need to import coal or gas from Kansas... they've got enough of that right there in Missouri. The other possibility for Invenergy would be to find itself a sugar daddy Skelly-style. However, it's not just $200M that Invenergy needs, but $11 BILLION. Who's got that kind of money to risk it all on Grain Belt Express? And doesn't GBE's reputation precede it in this circle of influence, where investors lost hundreds of millions on the project already when it was owned by Clean Line? GBE had a reason for applying for the DOE loan and perhaps that was because it thought DOE was going to loan it money it would never be able to repay. Isn't that what happened with Solyndra?

My guess is that Invenergy really hasn't decided what it wants to do with Grain Belt yet, so for now it's going to parade it around like Bernie and pretend it's still viable. It's a project idea whose time has come and gone and it is not adaptable to new energy sources or new purposes. Grain Belt has been trying to find customers for its project since 2010. And they have found none, other than a gullible group of municipalities that thought there was a free lunch somewhere. If Grain Belt Express was needed, or provided any ratepayer savings, or had any useful purpose, then customers would be lined up around the block to purchase capacity. The fact that they are not speaks for itself. Speculative merchant projects do not work unless they have buyers up front.

But Grain Belt continues its charade, pretending it's now a transmission line for gas and coal-fired electricity. Just a day before the DOE cancelled its conditional loan, Grain Belt craftily leaked to Axios that Invenergy was planning to build a gas-fired generation station to provide power to Grain Belt Express and the company is "also in active discussion with a company to bring existing coal-fired generation onto the proposed Grain Belt Express project." Invenergy wants to change how the line is perceived.

Perception is the least of Grain Belt's problems. The real problem with GBE is that is was a project designed for a very specific purpose... to export electricity produced by wind turbines in Kansas to east coast cities. When that purpose is removed, GBE is nothing but an extension cord in the middle of nowhere that isn't plugged into anything. When the proposed wind turbines are gone, GBE's beginning is in a generation desert in southwest Kansas. There's nothing there to connect and therefore GBE isn't needed. Invenergy's ambitions to build a gas plant are not even logical. Is there enough natural gas available near GBE's AC Collector transmission system in Kansas? Where are these existing coal plants? Are they anywhere near the AC Collector system?

Why not build the new gas plant somewhere near load, Invenergy? There is no load to serve in southwestern Kansas. Building a gas plant there serves no purpose... except to try to create a "need" for GBE to move those electrons to load...when the actual gas generation plant could be built near load and avoid the cost of transmitting the energy 825 miles.

Or, how about this? If Invenergy builds new gas plants in southwestern Kansas, how about if new load moves there to use the energy? Again, transmitting the energy 825 miles is completely unnecessary. And what load could Kansas build near new generators in the southwestern part of the state? AI data centers. Data centers have made Loudoun County, Virginia, the wealthiest county in the nation. Why wouldn't Kansas want a little of that tax revenue for themselves, instead of continuing with the Grain Belt Express farce that simply ships power out of state so that other states can build AI data centers and realize the tax revenue? Wake up, Kansas! There are now better ways to monetize your energy potential than Grain Belt Express! President Trump is looking for places that would welcome new data centers that bring their own power generation. Kansas no longer needs Grain Belt Express at all!

But, back to the puzzle of what Invenergy WAS going to build and what it says it WILL build now...

Invenergy has long been planning two enormous new wind farms to generate the energy for Grain Belt Express.

That's a total of 1,800 MW. Grain Belt was supposed to deliver 2,500 MW of power to Missouri. And how was Invenergy going to connect its new wind farms to Grain Belt Express? Using the recently approved GBE AC Collector system shown on the below map.

Lines up perfectly with the Mako and Thresher projects, doesn't it? Because of the location of the collector system, all energy development for Grain Belt must take place south of Dodge City. And what's south of Dodge City?

This is a map of the electric grid around Dodge City. There's nothing but wind south of Dodge City... and lots of open space without grid infrastructure at all. Where are you going to put your gas plant, Invenergy? And why isn't there any actual plan for it that you can point to? What about those coal plants Invenergy is having talks with? The only ones anywhere nearby are in Dodge City and Holcomb to the west. Both of these plants are what would be considered TINY plants by West Virginia standards. How would they even have any need to ship excess capacity anywhere? These coal plants are nowhere near the AC Collector system. What's supposed to happen to Mako and Thresher? Are you cancelling them? Are you cancelling the AC Collector System?

Grain Belt's claims about remaking the project into one that exports coal and gas-fired electricity are about as realistic as Bernie. It's just pretend.

Grain Belt Express was only logical when it was supposed to export wind energy from Kansas. And even then it was too expensive to be financially viable. Now it's just a hot mess of pretend projects that are propping up a dead transmission line and marching it around to commercial and private financing sources pretending it's still alive.

It's time for Kansas and Missouri to re-think their approvals (Illinois doesn't have to because that approval was reversed). GBE is no longer the project they approved and everything has changed. Missouri has already taken the first step to request updated economic studies. Kansas needs to follow suit in the best interest of its people and state (and not in the best interest of a company from Illinois). Unwinding the Grain Belt Express is going to be complicated, but it can be done. It's no longer needed. Any new plans are just an attempt to prop up an unneeded transmission line... and throw good money after bad.

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Ding Dong! The Grain Belt Express Witch is DEAD!

7/23/2025

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Play it loud! It's time to celebrate!

As coroner, I must aver, I've thoroughly examined her. And she's not only merely dead. She's really most sincerely dead!!!

Today the U.S. Department of Energy issued a press release that cancels its conditional loan commitment.

Grain Belt Express will no longer be getting a $4.9B taxpayer funded loan for its unmarketable project.

After a thorough review of the project’s financials, DOE found that the conditions necessary to issue the guarantee are unlikely to be met and it is not critical for the federal government to have a role in supporting this project. To ensure more responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources, DOE has terminated its conditional commitment.

It's amazing what you can see when you take off those green-tinted glasses!

Of course this doesn't necessarily mean that Grain Belt Express is done, but now it will have to find commercial financing for its project and not rely on a taxpayer handout. There's a reason GBE was trying to get the government to finance it... maybe due to its lack of customers?

Without customers, there will be no loan. Just like you can't get a bank loan without a job, GBE cannot get a bank loan without revenue. The circus is over. It's time to pack up and head out of town, Invenergy.

Congratulations, citizens of Kansas, Missouri and Illinois! After 15 years of entrenched opposition, victory is yours! Never give up!

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The Grain Belt Express Circus Has Come To Town!

7/18/2025

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Remember the days of yesteryear when one of the highlights of summer was the circus coming to your town? Well, we're all getting to relive those glory days with this summer's Grain Belt Express Circus Spectacular!

The circus is indeed in town, and it's a three ring biggie! In the first ring, we have ringmaster Attorney General Andrew Bailey, whipping the GBE pony with an investigation into its business practices. In the other ring, we have ringmaster Missouri PSC Chair Kayla Hahn, yanking on the highwire on which GBE's acrobats are balanced. And, in the center ring, we have ringmaster Senator Josh Hawley unloading the GBE clowns out of their tiny car before lighting it on fire with his magical Department of Energy torch. It's all so much I don't know where to look first!

Let's start at the beginning...

On March 1, 2025, the Grain Belt Express website looked like this. It was all about clean energy (from Kansas) and powering 3.2 million homes. But, suddenly the website changed mid-March to remove any reference to clean energy and to, instead, power 50 data centers. Why the change? It's sort of like jumping from one galloping horse to another during a circus act. Many believe that the change was an attempt to morph into something that would be supported under President Donald Trump's unleashing American energy policies. If GBE could suddenly be something that Trump supports, then perhaps it could survive the Trump clean energy purge. It may have worked initially, when nobody was really paying attention, however there were a couple of people who saw right through GBE's sheep costume.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sprang into action to out GBE from the Trump henhouse. He opened an investigation into GBE's business practices and requested a long list of information from the company. I read an early news article where the company welcomed the investigation, saying it had nothing to hide. Grain Belt's initial comments on that investigation seem to have gone missing lately, and now GBE has filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General, asking the circuit court of Cole County to quash and set aside the investigation. All of a sudden, Invenergy has lots to hide.

AG Bailey also sent a letter to the Missouri Public Service Commission asking them to hold GBE accountable for its wrongdoing by requesting new information about some of GBE's incredulous claims made during the PSC case. Bailey said in his letter that the PSC may revoke GBE's certificate at its discretion if the project is no longer beneficial to Missourians. He supported this with reference to Missouri code that he says "...support[s] the PSC’s authority to revoke a CCN if the utility fails to comply with the imposed conditions or if the operation or construction is deemed imprudent." It only makes sense that the PSC could take action if a utility is not complying with a certificate it issued, otherwise why have the certificate in the first place? Does the PSC really have no authority to ensure that its orders are followed? More on that in the other ring...

AG Bailey also sent a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to urge rescission of the DOE's conditional loan guarantee issued by the Biden administration in its waning days.

Meanwhile, in another ring, the MO PSC discussed AG Bailey's letter at their open meeting this week. Despite GBE's spin about the PSC rejecting the request to revoke the certificate outright, that's not exactly what the PSC did. Watch the video for yourself, beginning at 1:06:00 on the video. The staff attorney said while the Commission cannot outright revoke the certificate, it can request that the company file further information and monitor the situation as it sees fit. PSC Chair Kayla Hahn proposed that the PSC request that GBE submit a range of updated studies regarding the project's electric bill savings and wage and jobs claims. She thinks the companies claims were aggressive, especially when including a carbon price in 2027 (that is never going to happen now). She thinks the company should have submitted a range of assumptions on the project's economic impacts, wage and jobs information to better explain their assumptions under different modeling scenarios. My impression is that the PSC simply swallowed GBE's aggressive studies hook, line and sinker and perhaps that wasn't the smartest approach. Commissioner Kolkmeyer said that MISO and SPP "convinced us" that Missouri is short on generation and transmission. Huh? Those entities never testified in the GBE case and I'm sure they never told the PSC that Missouri needed Grain Belt. Perhaps he's remembering Grain Belt telling the Commission that MISO and SPP were short on generation and transmission, but the Commission never verified that at the source and, again, simply swallowed GBE's claims hook, line and sinker. Nevertheless, Comm. Kolkmeyer thinks that GBE's numbers were aggressive and the PSC needs to determine whether they are still relevant. The order of the PSC, therefore, was to issue a notice in the GBE case file that more information must be filed. Not exactly the GBE win that the press reported, but just another example of an entity swallowing what GBE says without question. Isn't it time to STOP doing that, Missouri?

And, in the center ring, Senator Josh Hawley recently tweeted that he met with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and President Donald Trump and came away with a promise to put a stop to the Grain Belt Express project. Senator Hawley followed that up by filing an amendment to the rescissions package that passed last night. The amendment says:

NO EXPENDITURE OF AMOUNTS FOR GRAIN BELT EXPRESS LLC.
No funds appropriated under this Act or any other Act to the Department of Energy shall be made available for Grain Belt Express LLC.

Seems pretty clear to me. Grain Belt Express is going to have to get its project financing elsewhere if the rescissions package passed with that amendment still in place. We may have a little circus sideshow on that later today as the package passed in the wee hours of Friday morning and I can't get a list of what was in it when it passed (thanks, AI, you're still just a conglomeration of useless crap).

If GBE is going to have to get financing elsewhere, it's going to need more customers than the 39 Missouri cities that signed up to use less than 5% of its 5,000MW transmission capacity. But there is no indication that there are any other customers. I had this really wacky dream last night... in my dream, Invenergy was looking for a government loan to pay itself back for all the money it had wasted on Grain Belt over the past several years. Once it was paid back, Invenergy didn't care about Grain Belt anymore and abandoned the project for lack of customers. I woke up mad as hell that taxpayers ended up funding Grain Belt's colossal waste of money and paying back its lost investment, but luckily it was only a bad dream!

So, folks, enjoy the circus while the show lasts. It's costing GBE a bundle of money and distracting its attention from any progress. Have you seen GBE's statements and claims about the current circus? Calling a U.S Senator and a state Attorney General "unhinged" has to be a new low for a company that has been riding high on the political hog during the Biden administration and has engaged in lawfare when it suited them. Now they don't like being the star of this circus.

Remember what happened when Clean Line's circus went bust?

And you know what happens when the circus is over? The tent folds, the acts are packed up, and it chugs slowly out of town under cover of darkness.

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Hark! Is That Grain Belt's Death Knell I Hear?

7/11/2025

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Yesterday, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley announced a commitment from U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to halt the $4.9B taxpayer-backed loan that Grain Belt Express had applied for back in 2022.

Without a risky, taxpayer-funded loan to build GBE, can GBE get financing elsewhere? Maybe not, since GBE doesn't have enough customers to make the project financially viable. There's a reason GBE applied for a government loan and spent the past 3 years winding its way toward approval paying for an overly expensive Environmental Impact Statement process.

The bell tolls for thee, Grain Belt Express. It's time to stop throwing good money after bad. GBE's attempt to make its merchant transmission line into something President Trump needs is not working. I heard that the President was also at the meeting and so now he knows the truth about Grain Belt Express, too.

But Grain Belt is still selling their own brand of snake oil:

In a statement from the Grain Belt Express, it says, in part, that Hawley is attempting to kill the largest transmission infrastructure project in U.S. history.

“Senator Hawley is trying to deprive Americans billions of dollars in energy cost savings, thousands of jobs, grid reliability and national security, all in an era of exponentially growing demand. The project is the critical infrastructure needed to achieve America’s energy future and has support from the White House and House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans,” the statement reads.

“The project has also secured approvals from all four route states.”

Largest transmission project in U.S. history? You say that like it's a good thing, GBE. It's not a good thing, and it means absolutely NOTHING in the grand scheme of things except for the fact that it was always too ambitious to succeed.
Deprive Americans of cost savings? Cost savings how? There's no generation at the Kansas end of the project so there's no way to know how expensive that would be. It's also unknown how much extra it would cost to buy capacity on GBE to import that mysterious energy from western Kansas. There's no proof that it would save anyone a dime. And maybe that's why GBE doesn't have enough voluntary customers? If it was really a cost saver, GBE would have customers lined up around the block. The lack of customers speaks for itself.
Jobs? You mean that artificial jobs number that was spit out by IMPLAN's software? That really means nothing and the vast majority of any real jobs will be filled by out of state contractors. Tell me, GBE, how many of those new jobs are related to building new generation in Kansas?
Grid reliability. NOT!!! That's reliability nobody needs. If GBE was needed for grid reliability, it would be a project planned and ordered by SPP and/or MISO, and Grain Belt Express has never even been reviewed by the grid operators. These federally regulated grid operators are the sole determinant of what's needed for reliability. Because GBE is a merchant, speculative, voluntary project, there is no reliability need associated with it. Sure, my electric service would be more reliable if there were 6 or a dozen service lines coming off the street, but that's not "reliability" I need or want to pay for. GBE is the same... reliability we don't need and don't need to pay for.
National security? No. The military has its own back up power sources. It doesn't trust the grid or privately owned transmission lines like GBE.
Growing demand? Right. Growing demand requires growing generation. Not transmission. A transmission line is like an extension cord not plugged into anything.
Critical infrastructure? NO! If it was it would be ordered by SPP or MISO. Not critical. Voluntary. Speculative. Extraneous.
Support from the White House and Congress? Not really. You can't determine that earlier uninformed mistakes were some sort of actual support. GBE was able to fly under the radar earlier this year, but that's over now. The White House and Congressional Republicans know the truth.
Approved in all four states? NO! GBE's Illinois permit was reversed by the Fifth District Appellate Court in August 2024. GBE doesn't have an approval in Illinois!!! Quit saying that, GBE, nobody likes a liar.

Ding Dong!

3 Comments

MO AG Investigates Changes to Grain Belt Express

7/8/2025

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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has opened an investigation into "the misleading claims and a track record of dishonesty surrounding the Grain Belt Express transmission line project." He has issued a demand for documents and sent a letter to the Missouri Public Service Commission asking that they evaluate GBE's "at best speculative and faulty, or at worst intentionally fraudulent, information in their application, including in their impact analysis." He also reminds the PSC it has the authority to reevaluate the benefits of the project and request more information.

Looks like GBE's game of Permit Wack-A-Mole is back in full swing!

The Missouri PSC can snatch GBE's permit away and demand that they file a new application if there have been material changes to the project. What's a material change? It's anything the PSC wants it to be!

Maybe the PSC ought to take a gander at GBE's website and compare that to the project they thought they approved several years ago. Gone are the Kansas wind farms and solar panels. In fact there's no mention of any generation in southwestern Kansas, of any kind. Therefore, what's going to be "collected" on the GBE AC Collector lines the Kansas Corporation Commission recently approved? Without wind turbines or solar panels, what's there to collect? Is Kansas going to build five new large nuclear or gas-fired power plants there? What good is GBE's extension cord when it no longer plugs into anything?

Yeah, we all know that GBE is simply pulling on another sheep costume and trying to remake itself as an "all of the above" energy source transmission line so as to escape notice of the Trumpian sheep dogs. And maybe they'd have gotten away with it, too, except Missouri AG Andrew Bailey just hand delivered a letter to the Secretary of the Department of Energy yesterday, asking that the DOE rescind the "conditional" loan approval it was granted by Biden's goons on their way out the door.

Without the wind turbines, Grain Belt Express no longer even pretends to qualify for the loan it applied for, which was only for projects that "reduce greenhouse gases."

Grain Belt Express LLC, (the Applicant), applied for federal financial assistance via a loan guarantee from the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) (42 U.S. Code [U.S.C.] 16513), as amended. Section 1703 of Title XVII (the Clean Energy Financing Program) defines eligible projects as those that, “avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases [GHGs]; and employ new or significantly improved technologies as compared to commercial technologies in service in the United States at the time the guarantee is issued” (Public Law [P.L.] 109-58, Section 1703(a)).

It never even qualified in the first place because GBE is just a transmission line. It can accept electricity from any source and therefore it cannot, by itself reduce any gases. I told the DOE this in my comments on the draft EIS.

GBE is gas lighting everyone now pretending to be an energy source for data centers. Since GBE won't be connected to any source of energy, I'm pretty sure they're not interested. If a data center is looking for cheap energy from Kansas, it can locate... in Kansas! It doesn't need to pay GBE a bunch of extra money to ship electricity to Missouri so it can locate in Missouri. As much electricity as data centers use they can't afford to pay extra for unnecessary transmission.

GBE is an idea that has long outlived its usefulness. It's not even logical anymore. It's just a giant extension cord that doesn't connect with anything on either end. No generation. No customers. Just a bunch of exaggerations and half truths. Let's hope AG Bailey can finally get to the bottom of it.

1 Comment

Stand Up For West Virginia at FERC!

6/17/2025

3 Comments

Stand up for West Virginia at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission! FERC recently held a conference on the problem of “resource adequacy.” That’s just a fancy name for the fact that we don’t have enough electricity to power new data centers.

I sat through the entire first day of the conference, where PJM's resource adequacy was discussed, and took copious notes... so you didn't have to.

Now it's time to act!

Tell FERC that transmission extension cords across West Virginia are NOT the answer! It’s quick and easy to do with FERC’s online comment form!

Don’t know what to say? Here’s a little help.

Commenting on FERC Docket AD25-7

Existing generation is retiring and not enough new generation is being built.
Data centers, especially Artificial Intelligence, are creating skyrocketing load.
Transmission extension cords to import existing generation hundreds of miles to serve new data center load is inefficient, has devastating impacts, takes too long, and is the most expensive solution.
Transmission extension cords will take private property in West Virginia.
Transmission extension cords will cost West Virginians more than $440M and provide no benefit to West Virginia. Reference IEEFA study.
West Virginia is an electricity exporter.
Virginia is an electricity importer and wants transmission from West Virginia to increase imports to serve their data centers.
West Virginia’s Power Generation and Consumption Act allows companies seeking to build data centers in the state to create their own, independent energy grids to power them.
West Virginia’s Power Generation and Consumption Act requires data centers to pay for and build their own power on site. Does not require new transmission and does not shift costs of providing power to ratepayers.
Data centers are not just another electricity customer who must be served using existing rules that share burden among all consumers.
Data centers must be responsible for bringing and paying for their own power.
Resource adequacy cannot be solved by building more transmission.
Resource adequacy can be solved by building new generation at data centers.
Resource adequacy will be solved if data centers become the solution, and not the problem.

Need more inspiration? Here's what I just filed.

Comments of Keryn Newman
Docket No. AD25-7

“Breaking the internet” is a figurative phrase coined to describe an overwhelming surge in web traffic that impedes the operation of the World Wide Web. In an ironic twist, the internet is now breaking us, or more precisely our grid. The generators, transmission lines and distribution systems that make electricity available to everyone can no longer function in the same way they have for decades because they have been overwhelmed by new service requests from artificial intelligence data centers.

This enormous surge in electricity demand is breaking energy transition goals, bedrock regulatory principles, how we plan the energy system, and PJM’s capacity market, just to name a few. It is also breaking consumers ability to pay for the electricity they need. Soon it could even impede their ability to receive service at all as the amount of electric generation continues to shrink and the amount of electricity required by artificial intelligence skyrockets. We are sacrificing our real, human world for an artificial one that exists inside machines.

Our entire energy system and the way we regulate it needs to be torn down and rebuilt to efficiently and cost effectively serve today’s reality. Of course, that cannot happen. We no longer have the luxury of time. Elected officials and regulators have ignored the clear warning signs that were present for a number of years in favor of indulging in politicized industry fantasy. The fantasy is over. It’s now reality.

At FERC’s Resource Adequacy Technical Conference, Commissioner Christie asked whether states should require load-serving entities to acquire enough generation to cover their load forecasts in advance, requiring that they build or buy sufficient generation to meet load. That ought to be the first condition to be a member of a resource sharing organization such as PJM Interconnection, but it is not. PJM states such as Virginia are raking in the cash and benefits created by new data centers and leaning on other states to supply the power they need to enable those new data centers. As Commissioner Christie pointed out during the technical conference, when everybody leans on everybody else, everybody eventually falls down.

Importing more electricity from a neighboring state to serve increased demand is not smart energy policy. It’s a house of cards that cannot stand. PJM has become a group of “haves” and “have nots.” PJM’s State Import-Export Map shows a real time picture of which states are importing electricity, and which states are exporting it. West Virginia and Pennsylvania are consistent electricity exporters. Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Delaware and New Jersey are consistent energy importers. It is no longer an equitable sharing of resources among states. There are states that have energy, and states that have not. There are states that are givers, and states that are takers. Where’s the value of PJM membership for the states that are consistent exporters and perpetual givers? There is no value when one state is consistently taken advantage of over and over again. West Virginia has been treated as the east coast’s sacrifice zone, exploited by corporations to benefit wealthier states and treated like a dump that becomes the butt of rude jokes. But, perhaps artificial intelligence is also breaking West Virginia’s victimhood. This year West Virginia approved a new law called the Power Generation and Consumption Act, which allows companies seeking to build data centers in the state to create their own, independent energy grids to power them. West Virginia is getting into the data center game, trying to lure the industry here where energy is plentiful and data centers can bring their own generation and be part of the solution, not just the problem. It makes so much more economic and engineering sense to bring the load to the power than to try to bring the power to the load. West Virginia has found a way to accommodate data centers that does not create financial burden on other ratepayers, or land use burdens on private property.

Over the past several years, PJM Interconnection has planned and ordered more than $11B worth of new baseload transmission to import more and more electricity to Northern Virginia’s “data center alley” from West Virginia and Pennsylvania. These new transmission lines do not provide benefit to West Virginia and Pennsylvania. They are nothing more than gigantic extension cords for the purpose of exporting resources to “have not” taker states, mainly Virginia.

The resource adequacy crisis needs an immediate solution. Satisfying new data center demand can be done three different ways. The fastest and cheapest way is to restrict new data centers to locations with onsite or nearby available power. The second would be to build new generation near data center load, but that takes more time to permit and build and the price is steep. The last, most time consuming and expensive option would be to build transmission extension cords from existing generation to new data centers in other localities. Instead of selecting the fastest and cheapest option for the grid, PJM and the Commission have opted to rely on the slowest and most expensive way to power new data centers, building new transmission. This is not a viable solution and will take much too long to implement because new transmission is never a sure thing.

The impacts of Virginia’s skyrocketing data center load will be devastating to West Virginia, which is primarily bearing the brunt of the Commission’s broken regulatory system that no longer assists consumers in obtaining reliable, safe, secure, and economically efficient energy services at a reasonable cost through appropriate regulatory and market means, and collaborative efforts. West Virginians will pay more than $440M to construct and operate two new transmission extension cords for Virginia's data centers. The MidAtlantic Resiliency Link is a new 160-mile 500kV line that will take a new 200-foot wide right-of-way through private property. Valley Link is a new 261-mile 765kV transmission line that will take an additional 200 ft. wide right-of-way through private property. In Hampshire and Jefferson Counties, West Virginia, these two separate transmission lines will converge to create a transmission superhighway as wide as two football fields laid end to end. Hundreds of homes may be taken and demolished to make way for Virginia’s insatiable appetite for new data centers. There are no benefits for West Virginia, just impacts. Membership in PJM and the Commission’s transmission planning and cost allocation procedures no longer work to provide benefit to West Virginians. We’re being used to benefit other states.

The Commission has been constantly tinkering with interconnection queues, markets and other forms of regulation but has yet to find a solution to the growing problem of resource adequacy. There seems to be little the Commission can do in the face of rapidly increasing load from data centers. All its tools no longer work. What the system needs is more generation near data center load. Because Virginia refuses to build it, other states are being torn apart for new extension cords and consumers are quickly being priced out of being able to afford basic electric service. The system is broken.

Data centers are not just another electricity customer who must be accommodated using existing rules that share burden among all customers. The Commission should take a page from West Virginia’s book and require data centers to bring their own power to wherever they choose to locate, or locate where they may directly connect with generators with excess capacity. Those localities that will not allow data centers to build their own generation cannot continue to lean on the system to support their own economic development. It’s parasitic. Once data centers are separated from the host they have been feeding on and become self-reliant, the resiliency problem solves itself. We simply don’t have any more time to wait while the Commission slow rolls minor fixes here and there and hopes for results.

Stand up for West Virginia! It's not going to change until you do!

3 Comments

And YOU Get a Substation, and YOU Get a Substation, and...

6/15/2025

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YOU get a substation! Everyone gets a substation!

Has NextEra promised you a substation? Has another transmission company that wants to run a transmission line through your county or district offered you a substation? Does your county actually NEED a new substation, or is it being promised as a speculative draw for new data centers or industry in your county?

Talk is cheap. Reality is expensive. Really, really expensive. A new 500kV substation costs around $50M to build. Even looping MARL (or another new line) through an existing substation in your county costs about $20M. Who do you think is going to pay for that? If there's no actual NEED for a new substation, your county or district is going to pay for that. All of a sudden, it doesn't sound like such a bargain, does it? After all, your county doesn't have $50M to invest in speculative infrastructure to attract new businesses, does it?

All those promises about NextEra "dropping a substation" in your county or district are likely not only false promises, they are actually ludicrous to anyone who knows anything about how transmission is planned and built. Don't parade your lack of knowledge around like a blinking beacon. It's time to look your gift horse in the mouth. It's just not happening.

Here's the reality about how transmission lines (and substations connected to them) are planned. In the case of the MARL 500kV transmission project, the NEED came from increased load requests in the Dominion Power zone in Northern Virginia. Dominion could not serve all the requests it had received to hook up new data center proposals in its service territory. Dominion's load forecast is made up of actual requests from customers, not speculative requests from politicians or local county planners. Only electric companies that serve actual customers can add new service requests that become part of the electric company's load forecast at PJM. If there is no actual customer or NEED for new service, it doesn't go into the load forecast and it doesn't get to PJM.

Those new service requests at Dominion got added to Dominion's load forecast that was sent to PJM. In response, PJM opened a new proposal window to serve that need using the transmission system. MARL was one of the proposals that is purposed to provide 7,500MW of new electricity imports from coal-fired plants in northern West Virginia. Dominion and its future data center customers are counting on that new extension cord to build. Those customer requests were made several years ago and cannot be connected until the transmission line is built. Customers in Northern Virginia can expect to wait up to seven years to get service (if the project is built on time).

If a new data center wants to locate in Hampshire County, West Virginia, it would first make a new service request to the local electricity provider, Potomac Edison. Potomac Edison would make a determination if it could serve the new customer using the existing system. If not, Potomac Edison would add the new request to its load forecast that feeds up to PJM for transmission solutions. However, that new service request would become part of a new planning window, it would not simply "jump the line" to take service away from customers waiting for service in Northern Virginia.

However, if there is no customer in Hampshire, and no new service request for Potomac Edison to serve, Potomac Edison would not add speculative load to its forecast. The utilities only build the service we actually need. They don't overbuild their systems based on speculation or political promises. That's because new transmission and substations are paid for by ALL Potomac Edison customers, and for lines (and substations) 500kV and above, the costs are actually allocated to all consumers in PJM's 13-state region. Utilities can only charge ratepayers for infrastructure that is used and useful to them. It cannot charge ratepayers for speculative projects that don't even have a user.

So, where did NextEra's substation promises come from? Most likely from lobbyists... those sweet talkers who will promise elected officials anything they want to hear in exchange for getting what the company wants.

MARL was originally planned to begin at the 502 Junction substation in Greene Co., Pennsylvania. It was an unbroken "fly over" transmission line until it reached Frederick County, Virginia, more than 100 miles to the southeast. There, MARL would build a new 500kV substation to connect MARL with the existing 500kV transmission line called Bismark-Doubs. That new substation has been named Woodside. From Woodside, both the existing Bismark-Doubs and the new 500kV MARL line will continue east another 60 miles or so until they connect with an existing 500kV substation in Loudoun County's "data center alley" called Goose Creek.

However, when transmission lines have really long spans between connecting substations, they can lose voltage. Transmission system owner FirstEnergy noticed that the long span between 502 Junction and Woodside was going to cause unacceptable voltage drop, so they proposed to PJM that the line not simply bypass its existing Black Oak substation as originally planned, but connect there instead on its way east. According to PJM, the loop into Black Oak is to provide voltage support to the MARL line. It is NOT to serve new customers in Allegany County, Maryland, as it may have been sold to them in order to gain their support for MARL. It will actually be taking power from Black Oak, not delivering it.

But, since the Black Oak connection worked so well to snow Allegany County elected officials that they were "getting something" in exchange for hosting the transmission line, perhaps NextEra simply couldn't resist using the same tactic on other elected officials in other impacted communities? Next thing you know, everyone gets a substation! And they're just going to "drop" out of the sky, like magic... free magic! Do these elected officials think that NextEra is paying for all these free, unneeded substations? Sorry, NextEra has a hard cost cap on the MARL project. Any freebies they give away are coming out of NextEra's profits. Also, an unneeded substation is unlikely to be permitted by state regulators. PJM would have to testify that such a substation is NEEDED and, as as explained above, there is no NEED. As well, NextEra doesn't serve any end use customers in West Virginia and never will. Any new service request would be made to Potomac Edison.

In fact, when I asked PJM's planners about the possibility of a substation being "dropped" in Hampshire County (or any other county on MARL's route) I was told that there's currently no plan to do that. In fact, PJM said that any new customers in those counties would have to make a request to the local electricity provider (Potomac Edison) before anything was planned. Now go back where we started and read again about how new transmission and substations are planned to serve new customers.

There are currently NO PLANS for new substations to be "dropped" along MARL's route. Anyone who believes that had best check their facts.

A new substation is not any more likely than the promises of millions of dollars of new property tax revenue and jobs, jobs, jobs. It's just not happening. Oprah can give away cars, but NextEra cannot give away substations. Don't look like a fool.

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<<Previous

Take Back Your Power, West Virginia!

What's a Transmission Open House?

Is the Deep State Conspiring with Grain Belt Express?

Weekend at Mikey's

Ding Dong! The Grain Belt Express Witch is DEAD!

The Grain Belt Express Circus Has Come To Town!

Hark! Is That Grain Belt's Death Knell I Hear?

MO AG Investigates Changes to Grain Belt Express

Stand Up For West Virginia at FERC!

And YOU Get a Substation, and YOU Get a Substation, and...

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