The Grain Belt Express Wind Energy Superhighway Is Still Alive

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Last Updated on: 27th July 2025, 02:02 pm

To the shock and surprise of nobody, former natural gas CEO and current US Energy Secretary Chris Wright summarily canceled a federal loan guarantee of almost $5 billion for the Grain Belt Express, a new 5-gigawatt transmission project of historic proportions aimed at bringing wind energy from Kansas to kilowatt-thirsty points east. If yanking the loan was meant to be a kill shot, Wright missed the mark. The project lives on.

The Grain Belt Express Wind Energy Project

In terms of historic proportions, the Grain Belt Express meets the bar of transformative infrastructure projects like the Transcontinental Railroad. Completed in 1869, the new railway revolutionized the US economy when it shaved travel time between New York and San Francisco from an arduous months-long journey down to a single week.

The Grain Belt Express will have a similar, seismic-scale impact on electricity transmission in the US, if and when it goes into operation.

That will take some doing. The ambitious, multi-state project has already jumped on and off the CleanTechnica radar for almost 15 years. It began to take shape during the Obama administration under the wing of the Texas startup Clean Line Energy Partners, which launched in 2009. In 2011, Clean Line announced plans for a new, 700-mile high voltage direct current transmission line shunting wind energy from Kansas to interconnections in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and beyond. After a series of fits and starts, the project seemed to hit the end of the trail in 2015, when the Missouri Public Service Commission nixed it.

Undeterred, Clean Line appealed the decision and the Public Service Commission turned it down again. Still undeterred, Clean Line took its case to the Missouri Supreme Court. In 2018, the court greenlit the project, but by that time, Clean Line had already seen enough. The firm had other projects in the works, and it dropped the Grain Belt Express from its roster in 2019.

Follow The Money To Wind Energy

Clean Line was not the end of the line for the wind energy dream. In February of 2019, the Chicago-based clean energy developer Invenergy slipped word that it was willing to pick up the Grain Belt thread. That same year, the Missouri Public Service Commission reversed itself, greenlit the project, and okayed Invenergy’s plan to acquire it.

And … that’s where things went south again. In Missouri, state lawmakers stepped in to quash the project with new anti-wind legislation. Property owners also vowed to appeal. In an even more concerning development, the state of Illinois abruptly decided not to let the Grain Belt Express go through after all.

Nevertheless, Invenergy persisted. By 2023, the company assembled almost $4 billion from Blackstone Infrastructure Partners to support its various renewable energy ventures, including its portfolio of interregional transmission lines. The company also broke the project into phases, beginning with Missouri, where it counted transmission agreements with almost 40 municipal utilities by 2023.

More Money For A Massive Wind Energy Project

With private sector dollars and municipal utilities in its pocket, Invenergy applied to the Loan Programs Office of the US Department of Energy for a loan guarantee. On January 16 of this year, the DOE came through with conditional approval of a $4.9 billion loan guarantee for Phase I of the project, a 578-mile, 2.5-gigawatt high-voltage line from Ford County in Kansas to Callaway County in Missouri.

To be clear, a DOE loan guarantee is not a direct loan. The loan program was launched under the Bush administration in order to help transformative energy projects obtain favorable credit terms, not to dole out taxpayer dollars willy-nilly. It was designed from the start to absorb a degree of risk while yielding significant economic benefits overall, which it has done (see lots more LPO background here).

The Missouri phase is not the whole Grain Belt project, but it will have a significant impact on regional transmission. “The project will connect three regional grids: the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), and Associated Electric Cooperative Incorporated (AECI),” the DOE explained upon awarding the conditional guarantee, adding that it will “significantly expand import and export capabilities between these areas.”

“MISO, which is already a net importer of electricity, is expected to have a growing electricity supply gap as electricity demand grows,” the DOE added. “Grain Belt Express Phase 1 would unlock access to low-cost energy in Kansas to help bridge this gap.”

The US Department Of Energy Steps In It Again

With approvals from all four states finally in hand, the path ahead seemed clear. However, that’s when things went even farther south. On July 17, The New York Times noted that Republican US Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri raised a series of objections to the project beginning in March. The state’s Republican Attorney General also called upon the Missouri PSC to reverse itself again.

The ruckus reportedly culminated in a consequential Oval Office chat last week between Hawley and US President Donald Trump in person, with Energy Secretary Wright on the line. The consequence was that all those years of work and all those billions of dollars went up in smoke. On July 23, Wright announced the termination of the loan guarantee.

Invenergy was having none of it. As reported by the Times, the firm took to X (formerly Twitter) to make sure everyone still on X understands what happened to their transformative wind energy project, without saying wind energy. “Senator Hawley is attempting to kill the largest transmission infrastructure project in U.S. history, which is already approved by all four states and is aligned with the President’s energy dominance agenda,” Invenergy asserted, as cited by the Times.

“Senator Hawley is trying to deprive Americans of billions of dollars in energy cost savings, thousands of jobs, and grid reliability and national security, all in an era of exponentially growing electricity demand,” Invenergy added for good measure, still without mentioning wind energy.

When last heard from, Invenergy is also going to court to stop the Missouri Attorney General from creating any more mischief.

The Wind Energy Dream Rises From The Ashes

The story doesn’t end there. Digging in its heels on the Grain Belt Express website, Invenergy also reminded everyone that it has already assembled a binder full of private investors. “While we are disappointed about the LPO loan guarantee, a privately financed Grain Belt Express transmission superhighway will advance President Trump’s agenda of American energy and technology dominance while delivering billions of dollars in energy cost savings, strengthening grid reliability and resiliency, and creating thousands of American jobs,” the company stated.

So, it’s onwards and upwards for the most transformative wind energy project of its kind in US history. We sure have come a long way from the early 20th century, when thousands of windmills — not wind turbines, windmills — dotted the US landscape, performing vital water supply tasks at farms and ranches all over the US.

Or, have we? If you’re thinking Invenergy is being somewhat overly optimistic about their chances, consider that the project already has more than 14 years of project development under its belt. What’s another 3.5 years? On January 20, 2029, Trump will hand the reins of government over — peacefully this time, one hopes — to another Commander-in-Chief, presumably one more fit to steer the ship of the nation.

Image (cropped): A new attempt to quash the on-again, off-again Grain Belt Express wind energy transmission project has failed to hit the mark (courtesy of US Department of Energy).