the Grain Belt Express is designed to carry 5,000 megawatts of electricity to the eastern half of the country. It would connect solar and wind farms in the Midwest to cities in the East, eventually contributing power to 3.1 million homes (Robert Zullo/ States Newsroom).
Grain Belt Express has filed nearly 40 eminent domain petitions against Missouri property owners since 2021 as it prepares to build a transmission line across the state.
The first eminent domain petition in Callaway County was filed last month for an easement of nearly an acre of land owned by Jordyn and Mitchell Christensen.
Grain Belt Express offered the property owners $8,046 for the easement, but the owners rejected the offer and the two parties could not agree on compensation.
If granted, the easement would be within an 81-acre piece of land on County Road 264.
Eminent domain is the power to acquire property for public use with compensation to the owners. This legal proceeding can allow the government or a company to gain access to land for its purposes, independent of the property owner’s wishes.
Grain Belt Express is a $7 billion clean-energy project run by Invenergy, an Illinois-based company. Stretching from Kansas to Indiana, the transmission line is designed to bring wind and solar energy to communities in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, as well as cities farther east.
According to the Grain Belt Express website, construction is scheduled to begin sometime this year and be completed by 2028, barring complications.
The line would run through eight counties in northern Missouri with a spur called the Tiger Connector in Callaway County. The Missouri Public Service Commission approved the Tiger Connector route in October 2023.
The connector extends from the main line near Moberly south to Kingdom City.
To build the 800-mile line across four states, Invenergy must secure land permits called easements. Original landowners retain ownership of the property but allow transmission infrastructure to be built with access to the site for construction and maintenance crews.
“Grain Belt Express team has already voluntarily secured over 1,450 easements needed for the project,” said Patrick Whitty, senior vice president of public affairs for transmission at Invenergy.
“These voluntary easement agreements provide tens of millions of dollars to project landowners, who maintain ownership and use of their land for farming, ranching, hunting and other uses.”
According to Invenegy, 97% of property owners in Kansas and Missouri have already agreed to the deals offered by the company.
In 2022, then-Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation requiring developers to pay landowners 150% of fair market value for property taken through eminent domain for electrical transmission projects.
The compromise legislation was reached after Republican legislators spent years fighting the project by seeking tougher eminent domain provisions.
Although it may seem profitable for landowners to reject offers and hold out for 150% compensation, going to court may be costly and not worth the risk, said James Owen, director of Renew Missouri, a local clean energy nonprofit organization.
“I do not believe it is going to be in anyone’s best interest to challenge this in court,” he said. “They’re going to have to pay attorney fees on that. It’s going to be dragged out.”
Since the first eminent domain proceeding in 2021 in Missouri, nearly 40 petitions have been filed by Grain Belt Express to clear the way for the line.
Five petitions were filed in 2021, 11 in both 2022 and 2023, and seven in 2024. Three more have been filed since January. Of that total, at least 17 have been dismissed.
Almost all of the petitions have been filed against property owners in the western part of the state and relate to Phase 1 of the project — the portion of the line that brings power from Kansas to mid-Missouri.
“For over a year, we have been negotiating voluntary easements along the Tiger Connector, which continues to this day,” Whitty said. “In certain cases, and always as a last resort when efforts to reach negotiated agreements have been exhausted, the only option available is a legal proceeding.”
According to Missouri Public Service officials, the Grain Belt Express can save Missouri residents roughly $17.6 billion on utilities by 2066. Invenegy already has agreements with 39 Missouri communities intended to save residents roughly $12 million each year in utility payments, Whitty said.
“I think it’s an enormous value to help keeping utility rates down and keeping them competitive, to attract businesses here,” Owen said.
“A lot of businesses want to be able to take clean energy as the main source of how their power is received.”
In the works since 2010, the Grain Belt Express is designed to carry 5,000 megawatts of electricity to the eastern half of the country. It would connect solar and wind farms in the Midwest to cities in the East, eventually contributing power to 3.1 million homes.
This story originally appeared in the Columbia Missourian. It can be republished in print or online.