The Missouri Public Service Commission denied an application filed by Grain Belt Express Clean Line, LLC.
The application sought Commission authority and a certificate of convenience and necessity to construct, own, operate, control, manage and maintain a high voltage, direct current transmission line and associated facilities within eight Missouri counties.
Those counties were Buchanan, Clinton, Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, Randolph, Monroe, and Ralls.
The Commission determined it lacks the authority to grant a certificate of convenience because Grain Belt Express failed to obtain all county assents necessary as required by a Missouri Western District Court of Appeals decision in a recent Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois case.
The Commission issued a concurrence with its order explaining that four of the five commissioners found a need for the service offered by the Grain Belt Express project, that the company was qualified to provide the proposed service, it had the financial ability to provide the service, the proposal was economically feasible, and that the project would have been in the public interest.
Those commissioners indicated they would have approved the application if not for the Western District Court of Appeals’ opinion.
