ST. LOUIS — After a decade of setbacks, Missouri and Kansas may grant final approvals this year to the massive, four-state Grain Belt Express power transmission project, which promises to deliver wind power across the Midwest.
The project has faced various rejections, sticking points, and other hurdles over the past decade, but secured a significant approval earlier this month, when Illinois officials gave it a green light.
Invenergy, the Chicago-based developer behind Grain Belt, hailed the Illinois decision as "another key milestone for the project."
Now, with Indiana's approval passed, Missouri and Kansas are the last to grant their final blessings.
And while the project has stoked ample opposition in Missouri in the past — including regular legislative attempts to derail its construction — the state's approval might be easier to come by this time around.
Regulators at the Missouri Public Service Commission have already approved it before, deeming the project to be squarely in the public interest. This time, the agency must review a modified version of the original plan, which now promises to bring five times as much electricity to users in the state, after Invenergy essentially sweetened the deal for Missourians last year.
Meanwhile, Missouri lawmakers agreed last year that they would back off on their attempts to block the project.
"Right now, we're still moving forward with the assumptions that were laid out from last year," said Brad Pnazek, the vice president of transmission development for Invenergy.
Kansas regulators are in a similar position as their Missouri counterparts: They granted prior approval to the originally proposed project, but are now tasked with reviewing the amended version that offers enhanced transmission capacity.
Both Missouri and Kansas officials are expected to reach decisions on the project later this year, Pnazek said.
He said Invenergy maintains hope that construction can finally begin on the project by the end of next year. A plan announced last summer aims to build an initial phase of the line soonest, stretching from Kansas to Monroe County in northeast Missouri.
If completed, the project could help address what many energy experts say are increasingly crucial transmission bottleneck issues that carry major implications for energy reliability and carbon emissions, alike. For instance, more transmission projects are needed to facilitate the distribution of cheap and clean energy from rural hotbeds of renewable power generation — like wind-rich swaths of Kansas — to far-off regions and cities that generally anchor demand for that electricity.
Invenergy currently has around 90% of the easements it needs to construct the line along the first portion, from Kansas to Missouri, Pnazek said. He added that Invenergy is just now beginning the process of securing easements for the second phase of the line's construction, which mainly covers its roughly 200-mile trek across Illinois.
Just inside Indiana, the Grain Belt will connect with lines serving points even farther to the east.
