GREENE: Grain Belt’s $4.9 billion loan cancelled

By Editor | August 5, 2025 |

By Carmen Ensinger

Landowners in Greene, Scott and Jersey counties will be thrilled to learn that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) cancelled a $4.9 billion loan for the Grain Belt Express transmission line project.
The (DOE) announced the Loan Programs Office (LPO) has terminated its conditional commitment for the 800-mile Grain Belt Express Phase 1 project, a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line intended to connect wind and solar capacity across Kansas and Missouri.
The conditional commitment, which would have provided a taxpayer-funded loan guarantee of up to $4.9 billion dollars, was issued by the Biden administration in November 2024.
After a thorough review of the project’s financials, DOE found that the conditions necessary to issue the guarantee are unlikely to be met and it is not critical for the federal government to have a role in supporting this project. To ensure more responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources, DOE has terminated its conditional commitment.
What this means for the future of the project is unclear, though a spokesman for the company behind the transmission line, Illinois-based Invenergy, remains positive.
“America is energy dominant and an AI powerhouse, and Grain Belt Express will be America’s largest power pipeline,” Project Spokesman Martin Grego said. “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 project has been in the works for more than a decade. The Grain Belt Express is expected to run from Southwest Kansas carrying renewable energy through Illinois and Missouri before ending at the Indiana border.
However, to complete the project, the line needs to cross thousands of properties and requires easements on landowners’ properties across three states.
According to Invenergy, they have obtained the vast majority of those easements through voluntary negotiations with landowners. For those who refused to approve the easements, the project was granted the right of eminent domain which allows utilities and governments to take land or easements from unwilling landowners and compensate them.
The project has faced major legal challenges in Illinois over whether it qualifies as a public utility and if the Illinois Commerce Commission has the authority to approve it.
In 2018, the 5th District Appellate Court ruled the ICC lacked the authority to grant the necessary certification because Grain Belt Express did not meet the definition of a public utility.
This led the Illinois General Assembly to pass a law in 2021 allowing private developers to seek public utility status, which led the ICC to approve the project in 2023.
However, the appellate court reversed that approval in 2024 due to concerns about the company’s financing and the case is now before the Illinois Supreme Court.
Grain Belt Express Vice President Jim Shield sent a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright soon after the announcement of the cancellation of the loan.
“The Grain Belt Express transmission line is a critical energy security project, supported by a broad, multi-state coalition of stakeholders,” Shield said. “It will strengthen reliability and resilience while saving U.S. Consumers billions of dollars. It is an open access line that will deliver all forms of American energy based on customer demand and available market power, enhancing the ability of the largest grid operators to share power, including from generators direct to operate under the DOE’s authority.”
According to Shield, the 800-mile power pipeline is capable of delivering four nuclear power plants’ worth of electricity. It is the highest capacity and second longest line in U.S. history.
By connecting four U.S. grid regions, the Grain Belt Express will deliver cost savings and strengthen reliability for 29 states and D.C. as well as 40 percent of Americans and 25 percent of Department of Defense installations.