President Donald Trump's administration has pledged to halt an 800-mile transmission line designed to deliver wind power from Kansas to eastern states, according to a US senator.
US energy secretary Chris Wright has said he "will be putting a stop" to the Grain Belt Express transmission line, senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) said on Thursday via the X social media platform. Hawley has made repeated calls for the Department of Energy (DOE) to cancel a $4.9bn conditional loan awarded to the project in the waning days of former president Joe Biden's administration. The senator has called the project an "elitist land grab harming Missouri farmers and ranchers".
Whether Wright pledged to rescind the loan or take other action to stop work on Grain Belt Express was not immediately clear from Hawley's statement. Neither the senator's office nor DOE immediately responded to requests for additional information.
Hawley's statement is "bizarre", according to Invenergy, the Chicago-based developer behind the project. The company said that the transmission line has already received approvals from all four states that it will traverse, acquired 1,500 agreements with landowners tied to construction and announced "significant" supply chain agreements for materials sourced domestically.
"Senator Hawley is attempting to kill the largest transmission infrastructure project in US history, which is already approved by four states and is aligned with the president's energy dominance agenda," the company said.
The Grain Belt Express would deliver wind power from Kansas to converter stations in Missouri and Indiana, with the Missouri station connecting to grids overseen by the Associated Electric Cooperative and Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), while the Indiana station links with the PJM Interconnection.
Invenergy plans to build the project in two phases, with the first delivering 2,500MW into Missouri and the second ferrying another 2,500MW to the PJM region, which includes the District of Columbia and 13 states in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic. DOE in November 2024 awarded the project a conditional loan of up to $4.9bn to help finance the initial stage as part of Biden's larger push to decarbonize the electricity sector. Invenergy intends to start construction on the first phase next year.
Ultimately, the line would supply 15mn MWh/yr to Missouri, with 60pc of the capacity allocated to MISO and the remainder to the Associated Electric Cooperative. Another 15mn MWh/yr would flow into the PJM markets. Altogether, the line would supply enough electricity to cover the demand of more than 2.8mn households.
Landowner groups in Missouri have long targeted the Grain Belt Express, but have failed to stymie the project through a challenge to its use of eminent domain. Opponents have since continued their efforts against the project, and Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey, a Republican, last week called on state utility regulators to rescind the line's permit on grounds that Invenergy relied on "deceptive" information to secure its approval.
