Missouri Supreme Court reverses denial of wind-powered electric project

The Supreme Court of Missouri reversed a decision made by utility regulators to reject a wind-powered electric transmission line project.

The decision sent the Grain Belt Express case back to the Public Service Commission, and ordered it to hear the case again.

The commission turned down the project in 2017 because the company had not received permission from the eight counties through which the line would pass.

The court ruled that the type of certificate of convenience and necessity Grain Belt sought did not require that permission. State law does require counties to agree for an area CCN, but not a line CCN, which is what Grain Belt needed.

Grain Belt, a project of Clean Line Energy Partners out of Texas, would bring 206 miles of transmission lines through the counties of Buchanan, Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, Clinton, Monroe, Randolph, and Ralls. The line would start at a wind farm in Kansas, bringing the energy it creates through Missouri and Illinois, and end in Indiana. The line would connect to a substation in Ralls County, to which some Missouri cities could connect their electric systems for a price.

Landowners in the area contested Grain Belt’s claim that the project would provide low-cost energy from the wind farms.