“If the design and engineering of the project is materially different from how the Project is presented in Grain Belt Express Clean Line LLC’s Application, Grain Belt Express Clean Line LLC must file an updated application with the Commission for further Commission Review and determination.”

Transmission’s Moment

Michael Skelly, founder and CEO of Grid United, marveled at the attentiveness of the audience at his panel discussion Oct. 11.

“It may be that this is because transmission is one of the most legally intense aspects of the energy transition. Or as we say — ruefully — in our company, ‘No lawyer left behind,’” he said. “Or maybe we’re just having a moment with transmission. ... Transmission was in Esquire magazine. Come on.” Esquire’s article was titled, "The Sexiest Part of the Clean Energy Transition Is Big-Ass Power Lines.”

Grain Belt Express sought waiver of the requirement to file notice 60 days in advance, explaining that it filed the Notice of Intent as soon as practical after the finalization and public announcement of the proposed modifications to the Project.

Between the effective date of the Report and Order on Remand in Case No. EA-2016-0358 (i.e. April 19, 2019) and the end of the two year period established by Section 393.170.3 RSMo and referenced by 20 CSR 4240-20.045(2)(D) (i.e. April 19, 2021), Grain Belt Express conducted the following activities in exercise of its certificate of convenience and necessity (“CCN”).

1.  Constructing access roads of approximately 800 feet in total with such work commencing on April 9, 2021 at approximately State Hwy C & County Rd 141, Braymer, MO 64624 in Caldwell County and April 12, 2021 at approximately Hwy 3, Huntsville, MO 65259 in Randolph County.

2.  Installing foundations for transmission towers on property owned in fee simple in Chariton County at approximately Allen Rd & St. Joseph Ave, Keytesville, MO 65261 and Clinton County at approximately NE 280th St & NE Estep Rd, Turney, MO 64493, with such work commencing on April 13, 2021 in both counties and completed on April 17 and 20, 2021, respectively.

A.  Enter a preliminary injunction staying ICC Docket # 22-0499 during the pendency of this action;
B.  Pursuant to Article I, Section 2 of the 1970 Illinois Constitution, declare that 220 ILCS 5/8-406(b-5) is unconstitutional;
C.  Pursuant to Article II, Section 1 of the 1970 Illinois Constitution, declare that 220 ILCS 5/8-406(b-5) is unconstitutional;
D.  Pursuant to Article IV, Section 13 of the 1970 Illinois Constitution, declare that 220 ILCS 5/8-406(b-5) is unconstitutional;
E.  Remand the July 26, 2022, application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity, ICC Docket # 22-0499, to the ICC for further proceedings without regard to § 8-406(b-5); and
F.  Other such preliminary and final legal and equitable relief as the law and facts require.

delegates regulatory control to the ICC to protect consumers by ensuring that construction of plants, equipment, property or facilities provides for services and facilities that are “for public use” and, in all respects, adequate, efficient, reliable and environmentally safe and which constitute the least-cost means of meeting the utility’s service obligations.

Without a hearing under §§ 8-406(b)(1) and 8-406.1(f)(1), Plaintiff and similarly situated landowners are deprived due process by being stripped of the opportunity to submit  evidence that GBE has not established that the Project is necessary to provide adequate, reliable, and efficient service to its customers and is the least-cost means of satisfying the service needs of its customers or that the Project will promote the development of an effectively competitive electricity market that operates efficiently, is equitable to all customers, and is the least cost means of satisfying those objectives.

Section 8-406(b-5) allows GBE to qualify for a CPCN for the Project without review of the ICC or the courts as to whether GBE meets the requirements for a CPCN as a public utility.

The determination of whether a given use is a public use is a judicial function.

Through enactment of § 8- 406(b-5), the Illinois General Assembly has exercised judicial power to determine that the Project constitutes a public use.

Previous winners of the Ripple of Hope Award include Stacey Abrams, former Vice President Joe Biden, Bono, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, George Clooney, Tim Cook, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Amanda Gorman, Vice President Kamala Harris, Dolores Huerta, Colin Kaepernick, late Congressman John Lewis, former President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Desmond Tutu.

"Robert F. Kennedy's vision of a better world spanned all areas and industries – he understood that advancing human rights and social justice requires investment in everything from education to energy and the environment," said Polsky. "I'm honored to receive this award and look forward to growing Invenergy's impact as we fulfill our mission as innovators building a sustainable world."
Shaped by Polsky's philanthropic values, Invenergy invests heavily in project communities through an impact program. His humble roots ignited a commitment by him and his family to giving back to many causes including education, entrepreneurship, climate and sustainability, healthcare, women's rights, immigration, veterans, and arts and culture. Most recently, Polsky's philanthropic efforts have been focused on his native Ukraine to ensure the well-being of Ukraine's people, the nation's victory, and ultimate reconstruction. 
The Ripple of Hope Award is inspired by Robert F. Kennedy's most famous speech, the 1966 Day of Affirmation address he gave in South Africa at the height of apartheid: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples to build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Smith says it is unfair for farmers to have their land used against their consent when they are the ones who have maintained the land for decades. 

"They weren't here when we were bringing in the crops in the fall," Smith said. "They weren't here when my family was bringing in the cows and vaccinating them. They weren't here for planting."

...farmers have earned the right to manage their land as they see fit. “We like to be able to look out at see this without any big power lines,” Smith said.

"Some farmers are not necessarily going to want this going across their farms, but others are going to welcome the opportunity because they could make some additional money for the rights of way," McCarty said.

"If you ask any farmer, they will tell you they can't pay me enough to put that line through my farm," Smith said. 

"And also understand that it may help them get out of a jam if they’re able to get power from that source when otherwise they wouldn’t be able to."

McCarty says projects like the Grain Belt Express are necessities to several parts of the community. 

"Electricity is an essential commodity," McCarty said. "We have to have it to run our farms, we have to have it to run our businesses, we have to have it in our homes."

The Tiger Connector would expand the reach of the Grain Belt Express in Missouri by bringing power from the main line in northern Missouri to the McCredie Substation in Callaway County, which would send that energy out to thousands more Missouri homes and businesses. 

It’s not just state regulatory authorities that reject transmission projects when they don’t see a benefit. Ranchers and other local landowners are sometimes put off by how these (admittedly hulking) metal constructs will look on their property. The lines can be buried underground—or even underwater—but it’s more expensive. Everybody has a price, and you might just as easily find success paying the landowner what you would’ve spent burying the line.

That makes using existing infrastructure corridors so enticing. We’ve already got tracts of land connecting different parts of the country that are pre-approved for public works projects, like highways and railroads. If we could layer in transmission lines, it would avoid a lot of these land-use conflicts. We could also use existing electricity corridors to pump through a lot more power using modern technology. Issues remain: Our roadways are usually designed with shoulders where people can regain control of their cars if they veer off the road, which doesn’t always leave room for power lines. But many places, such as along railroads, should have sufficient capacity. You could run high voltage, direct current lines through those areas to high-population centers in need of clean energy.

And the most productive solar and wind farms will not be located right next door to our population centers. Broadly speaking, they’ll be in more rural areas in the middle of the country, while the majority of people live on the coasts. Many of the rest live in metro areas inland. We need to move clean power from the places where we’ll harvest the bulk of it to the places where we’ll consume the bulk of it.

“Transmission, these big regional lines, often have benefit-cost ratios of 2:1 or 3:1, and that's because you can access resources that are on really low-cost land. Sometimes these solar and wind plants produce twice as much power at a given location than if you get closer to [where it’s used].”

​In practice, these lines would primarily carry energy from the center of the country—between Texas and North Dakota, where the wind really blows—to the East.  Others would carry energy from solar facilities in the South—particularly the Southwest, but also the Southeast—northwards.

The old environmental movement was about stopping things from getting built. The new environmental movement's about building stuff.

The fix is to make it easier to build large transmission lines in anticipation of need, like an interstate highway, and allow power markets to spring up near them like communities along the road. Sen. Joe Manchin’s larger permitting reform bill goes some way in this direction, making it easier to site these lines and setting time limits for the environmental review and stakeholder comment periods. (It would do the same for fossil-fuel projects, which climate activists are not happy about. The bill is on hold after Manchin agreed to pull it from a larger funding bill at the end of September.) The bill would develop predefined corridors where this stuff can go on federal land and make it easier to create these corridors in general. Finally, Gramlich says, it will help with cost allocation, creating a regulatory framework to recover the upfront cost of these large interstate lines.

Keeping the lights on is a matter of life and death, and so is transforming our energy system.