Dive Brief:
- Clean Line Energy Partners has asked Missouri regulators to reconsider their denial last month of a 780-mile direct current transmission line that will deliver wind energy from western Kansas to utilities and customers in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and neighboring states.
- Earlier this month, for the second time, the Missouri Public Service Commission rejected the Grain Belt Express project. This time, regulators said project backers had failed to get pre-approval from counties that would be impacted.
- Local newspaper Hannibal Courier-Post reports the request for rehearing alleges regulators improperly applied case law in rejecting the proposal.
Dive Insight:
Grain Belt Express could wind up back in front of Missouri regulators for a third time, as developers try again to get past the final sticking point. In addition to erring in requiring the project to get approval from impacted counties, Clean Line Partners also alleges that the PSC's decision violates the Commerce Clause by intruding into interstate commerce.
Missouri is the final authorization needed for Clean Line to move ahead with the project, but the company has been stuck at the state's Public Service Commission for two years. In 2015, the PSC concluded Missouri consumers did not need the additional energy that would be brought to the state.
The company has already obtained regulatory approvals in Kansas, Illinois and Indiana, and would privately finance the $2 billion line. Previous denials by regulators concluded that even though the additional energy was unneeded, the company could have successfully pulled off the project.
In case the rehearing is granted, The Courier-Post says the Missouri Landowners Alliance has also filed for reconsideration — but that request will be dropped if the PSC declines Clean Line's petition for rehearing.
