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The company promoting the Grain Belt Express project added voltage to the already contentious power-line debate. Clean Line has now identified a single proposed route across Missouri, and it’s dramatically different than earlier proposed routes.
Even though they weren’t on the list last week, some folks in Caldwell County and elsewhere could very well see their farms bisected by a string of power poles, 100 to 200 feet in height, and a series of high-voltage power lines carrying wind energy from Kansas to customers east of Missouri.
By Wednesday, commissioners in seven counties along or bordering the proposed route had refused to support or rescinded their support of the project.
In Buchanan County, commissioners have agreed to allow the company access to county roads and easements for surveying and other preliminary operations. But they have not formally weighed in on whether they support the project itself. Western District Commissioner Ron Hook says it all hinges on state regulators.
“Only the Public Service Commission can grant their request to be a public utility,” Hook said, “and after that, our support doesn’t mean very much.”
Hook says it’s too early in the process to place the project as a whole on the commission agenda.
In the meantime, public meetings are being offered to share information, both by the utility and those who oppose construction of the power lines.
For the information meetings scheduled by Clean Line, click here.
A group opposing the project, called “Block Grain Belt Express — Missouri” is also offering meetings, as we reported here.
Jennifer Gatrel is a third-generation cattle rancher near Cowgill, Missouri, and is vice president of Block Grain Belt Express — Missouri. Gatrel says the new route unveiled Tuesday is dramatically different than earlier proposed routes.
“Those people have not had the option of notification yet,” Gatrel said, “throughout the entire state, the line has drastically moved.”
“Even though this is the proposed route, in Kansas they proposed one route and ended with another. So, no one should feel safe at this point, because the lines have moved in the past, and could continue to move as the process moves forward.”