Over the past year or more, power companies have been using a provision of federal power called “eminent domain” to condemn and confiscate or seize farmers’ land all across Missouri and other states to build electricity generation and transmission networks.
This practice, described by some as a land grab by the federal government, has kickstarted a fightback from Missouri farmers as well as state authorities and lawmakers, who criticized the 4-to-1 vote to approve the energy projects by regulators with the Missouri Public Service Commission.
As explained on the website of Denlow & Henry, an eminent law firm: “Missouri lawmakers attempted to block the vote as opponents called it a violation of property rights. <!–more–>
“Many of the more than 500 landowners along the route opposed the project, saying it was a land grab from a private company that would offer little value.”
Missouri state senator, Republican Josh Hawley, has been spearheading a campaign against the practice of unfairly using eminent domain since last year, and confronted Invenergy, one of the companies involved in the “power grab”, at a Senate hearing (main picture).
Additionally, in November, 2023, Hawley sent a letter to the CEO of Invenergy, Michael Polsky, calling on him to make commitments to operate in good faith, as well as adequately compensate landowners affected by the company’s Grain Belt Express construction project, and the Tiger Connector, which is like a tributary, running south from the main line. (See map below.)
Senator Hawley wrote in the letter: “Your company’s Grain Belt Express construction campaign has hurt Missouri’s farmers.
“They have lost the use of arable land, seen their property values decline, and been forced to operate under a cloud of uncertainty as your company vacillates over the full scope of the project.”
Hawley added: “There is a clear remedy for these harms: as a gesture of goodwill, your company should commit to following all of the requirements passed in House Bill 2005 for the construction of the Tiger Connector Line.
“Additionally, your company should retroactively compensate landowners whose land was originally taken for the Grain Belt Express project at the new 150 percent rate.
“Your company should also commit to compensating farmers for any ongoing losses sustained as a result of your company’s construction and maintenance of both the Grain Belt Express and Tiger Connector.”
For its part, Invenergy said that the $7 billion, 800-mile Grain Belt Express electric transmission infrastructure project secured approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities that provide electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water and sewer service to households and businesses throughout the state.
In a press release, Invenergy said: “For Missouri electric consumers, today’s decision provides certainty of power delivery, billions of dollars in additional energy savings, and increased reliability for major grid regions that serve the Show Me state.
“Across the route states of Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois, Grain Belt Express will deliver over $11 billion in energy cost savings over 15 years and enhance reliability for millions of homes and businesses in the Midwest and other regions.”
Nevetheless, the use of eminent domain to grab farmers’ land has concerned many in Missouri, with Andrew Bailey, Missouri attorney general, calling for the reform of eminent domain in an article on FarmProgress.com.
Bailey said: “Big corporations with no ties to Missouri should not be allowed to take our land and convert family farms into electrical transmission lines that will not serve Missourians. Yet that is exactly what is about to happen here in my home state.
“Soon, when Missourians look up, they will see 130-foot towering transmission lines cutting through our landscape, traversing a route originating in Kansas and ending in Indiana: the Grain Belt Expressway.”
He added: “Nearly 20 years ago, the General Assembly passed a law that barred authorities from declaring our farmland worthless for the purposes of exercising eminent domain.”
Bailey said the current use of eminent domain to benefit private corporations is a reverse “Robin Hood” that only benefits those citizens and businesses with “disproportionate power and influence over the political process”.
In his latest statement on the issue, Senator Hawley said he pressed Eric Beightel, the Biden-appointed Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, on his agency’s endorsement of the Grain Belt Express.
Hawley asked Beightel: “Why is it a good idea to go over the heads of the people of Missouri and give this expressway—which is being developed by a private company that’s making probably billions of dollars on it as they take farmers’ land—why is that a good idea?”
He added: “On behalf of the people from my state, I think it’s outrageous that a private corporation can take this kind of land. We’re talking about a massive corridor right across the central part of Missouri. We’re talking about taking land from farmers whom whose families it has been in for generations.”
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