Reports related to this article:
Project(s): View 1 related project in PECWeb
Plant(s): View 1 related plant in PECWeb
Released August 06, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
en
Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The developer of the proposed Grain Belt Express merchant high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line spent more than a decade negotiating with Midwestern landowners and state utility regulators. Eventually, it was successful. Then the developer began negotiating with the Biden administration for a loan guarantee. In that, too, it was successful, last November winning a conditional $4.9 billion loan guarantee to build a transmission project to move up to 5,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity on an 800-mile journey, from Kansas through Missouri and Illinois to Indiana.
But the Trump administration's U.S. Department of Energy terminated that loan guarantee July 23, asserting 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." It added that the loan guarantee was "one of many conditional commitments that were rushed out the door in the final days of the Biden administration."
But Invenergy LLC (Chicago, Illinois), the project's developer, remains undeterred. It has vowed to move forward with the project without federal loan guarantees.
In an email interview, a Grain Belt Express spokesman said, "America is energy dominant and an AI [artificial intelligence] powerhouse, and Grain Belt Express will be America's largest power pipeline. While we are disappointed about the (DOE Loan Program Office) 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."
Industrial Info is tracking five active projects that make up the Grain Belt Express project, valued collectively at about $1.9 billion. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Project Database can learn more by viewing the related project reports. For more on the origins of the project, see November 11, 2011, article - Grain Belt Express Transmission Project Seeks to 'Break the Mold.' The project, originally developed by Clean Line Energy Partners (Dallas, Texas) was sold to Invenergy in 2018.
At first, it may seem odd that the Trump administration, which has repeatedly and consistently said more transmission projects needed to be built to bring a 20th-century electric grid into the 21st century, yanked the conditional loan guarantee. But, on closer inspection, losing that guarantee likely stemmed from two factors: renewable energy and U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri).
Initially, the Grain Belt Express was slated to transmit electricity generated by renewable resources. The president has long been a sharp critic of renewable electric generation. But the project has broadened its horizons to transmit electricity without regard for how it was generated, presumably making renewable energy less of a sticking point for the president.
The more impactful factor may have been Sen. Hawley, who has long opposed that project. According to an article in The New York Times, Hawley pressed the president to pull the loan guarantee just days after the senator voted to support the president's "One Big Beautiful Bill," which passed the Senate July 1 with one vote to spare.
Invenergy vowed to keep moving forward with the project. It noted that it would connect with four wholesale markets -- the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the Associated Electric Cooperative Incorporated (AECI), with potential links to the PJM Interchange -- boosting electric reliability and providing much-needed liquidity for power to move from one region to another. Increased liquidity should lower electric costs, reduce electric price disparities across regions and increase electric reliability and resilience.
Invenergy has signed contracts with 39 municipal utilities in Missouri to transmit power for them, underscoring its positive local impact. As well, the developer also recently inked about $1.7 billion of contracts to contractors to build the line.
In a July 2 blog post, three weeks before the loss of the loan guarantee, Invenergy, possibly sensing the guarantee was slipping away, asked, rhetorically, if America has lost its will to build.
"American strength and security depend on winning global races in artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced manufacturing, while ensuring affordable, reliable power for communities," the company said. "Doing so requires meeting surging electricity demand and securing grid reliability--which requires building new, immediate, large-scale physical infrastructure."
Grain Belt Express, continued the blog, "is a critical project for American grid security. In Missouri, a spurious and obviously politically motivated investigation has been launched with the express purpose of blocking the project from ever getting built, by way of rolling back a state regulatory approval already granted by the Missouri Public Service Commission and sustained on Missouri Supreme Court-reviewed appeal. It is the kind of last-ditch political attempt to delay project construction that unfortunately has become a hallmark of America's infrastructure quagmire."
Noting that its project received approval from the four state utility commissions with jurisdiction over it, Invenergy also noted that the regulatory process can be "abused. And that's what's happening today with political actors making last-gasp attempts to reopen existing state approvals or halt a years-long federal review in its tracks."
Construction of the project originally was slated to begin in 2015, and the developer expected the line to be operating by the end of 2018, according to IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform. This summer, just prior to the loss of the loan guarantee, the GMI platform showed Invenergy planned to begin construction of the project by mid-2026. The scheduled in-service date was the end of 2029. A spokesman for the developer did not respond when asked about new construction start and in-service dates.
Ultimately, it appears the market to determine if, and in what form, the Grain Belt Express project will get built. But as the project's lengthy saga shows, no group has a monopoly on NIMBY when it comes to transmission development.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
But the Trump administration's U.S. Department of Energy terminated that loan guarantee July 23, asserting 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." It added that the loan guarantee was "one of many conditional commitments that were rushed out the door in the final days of the Biden administration."
But Invenergy LLC (Chicago, Illinois), the project's developer, remains undeterred. It has vowed to move forward with the project without federal loan guarantees.
In an email interview, a Grain Belt Express spokesman said, "America is energy dominant and an AI [artificial intelligence] powerhouse, and Grain Belt Express will be America's largest power pipeline. While we are disappointed about the (DOE Loan Program Office) 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."
Industrial Info is tracking five active projects that make up the Grain Belt Express project, valued collectively at about $1.9 billion. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Project Database can learn more by viewing the related project reports. For more on the origins of the project, see November 11, 2011, article - Grain Belt Express Transmission Project Seeks to 'Break the Mold.' The project, originally developed by Clean Line Energy Partners (Dallas, Texas) was sold to Invenergy in 2018.
At first, it may seem odd that the Trump administration, which has repeatedly and consistently said more transmission projects needed to be built to bring a 20th-century electric grid into the 21st century, yanked the conditional loan guarantee. But, on closer inspection, losing that guarantee likely stemmed from two factors: renewable energy and U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri).
Initially, the Grain Belt Express was slated to transmit electricity generated by renewable resources. The president has long been a sharp critic of renewable electric generation. But the project has broadened its horizons to transmit electricity without regard for how it was generated, presumably making renewable energy less of a sticking point for the president.
The more impactful factor may have been Sen. Hawley, who has long opposed that project. According to an article in The New York Times, Hawley pressed the president to pull the loan guarantee just days after the senator voted to support the president's "One Big Beautiful Bill," which passed the Senate July 1 with one vote to spare.
Invenergy vowed to keep moving forward with the project. It noted that it would connect with four wholesale markets -- the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the Associated Electric Cooperative Incorporated (AECI), with potential links to the PJM Interchange -- boosting electric reliability and providing much-needed liquidity for power to move from one region to another. Increased liquidity should lower electric costs, reduce electric price disparities across regions and increase electric reliability and resilience.
Invenergy has signed contracts with 39 municipal utilities in Missouri to transmit power for them, underscoring its positive local impact. As well, the developer also recently inked about $1.7 billion of contracts to contractors to build the line.
In a July 2 blog post, three weeks before the loss of the loan guarantee, Invenergy, possibly sensing the guarantee was slipping away, asked, rhetorically, if America has lost its will to build.
"American strength and security depend on winning global races in artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced manufacturing, while ensuring affordable, reliable power for communities," the company said. "Doing so requires meeting surging electricity demand and securing grid reliability--which requires building new, immediate, large-scale physical infrastructure."
Grain Belt Express, continued the blog, "is a critical project for American grid security. In Missouri, a spurious and obviously politically motivated investigation has been launched with the express purpose of blocking the project from ever getting built, by way of rolling back a state regulatory approval already granted by the Missouri Public Service Commission and sustained on Missouri Supreme Court-reviewed appeal. It is the kind of last-ditch political attempt to delay project construction that unfortunately has become a hallmark of America's infrastructure quagmire."
Noting that its project received approval from the four state utility commissions with jurisdiction over it, Invenergy also noted that the regulatory process can be "abused. And that's what's happening today with political actors making last-gasp attempts to reopen existing state approvals or halt a years-long federal review in its tracks."
Construction of the project originally was slated to begin in 2015, and the developer expected the line to be operating by the end of 2018, according to IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform. This summer, just prior to the loss of the loan guarantee, the GMI platform showed Invenergy planned to begin construction of the project by mid-2026. The scheduled in-service date was the end of 2029. A spokesman for the developer did not respond when asked about new construction start and in-service dates.
Ultimately, it appears the market to determine if, and in what form, the Grain Belt Express project will get built. But as the project's lengthy saga shows, no group has a monopoly on NIMBY when it comes to transmission development.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
