trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/ps_mutzyumgjfojc_4-7dg2 content esgSubNav
In This List

Mo. appeals court finds regulator can issue permit for transmission line

Podcast

Next in Tech | Episode 49: Carbon reduction in cloud

Blog

Using ESG Analysis to Support a Sustainable Future

Research

US utility commissioners: Who they are and how they impact regulation

Blog

Q&A: Datacenters: Energy Hogs or Sustainability Helpers?


Mo. appeals court finds regulator can issue permit for transmission line

A Missouri appeals court said state regulators could issue a decision on a transmission line developer's request for a permit but sent the case to the state Supreme Court for a final ruling.

In a Feb. 27 opinion, the Eastern District Court of Appeals sided with the Grain Belt Express Clean Line LLC, the developer of the line and subsidiary of Clean Line Energy Partners LLC. The Eastern District court agreed with Clean Line's argument that the Missouri Public Service Commission erred in its interpretation of state law when it declined to grant the developer a certificate of convenience and necessity needed to start construction.

As proposed, the Grain Belt Express line is a 780-mile high-voltage, direct-current transmission line that would start in western Kansas and deliver wind-generated power across Missouri and Illinois to a connection point in Indiana. The intent is for the line to line to carry wind power into the regional power markets operated by the Midcontinent ISO and PJM Interconnection. About 206 miles of the line would cross eight counties in Missouri, according to the opinion. The line can carry up to 4,000 MW, and the developer has plans to allow for 500 MW to be provided to Missouri consumers.

The Missouri PSC in 2015 and again in 2017 rejected Clean Line's permit application. According to an August 2017 order, the PSC said it was precluded from issuing the construction permit by an August 2017 decision by the Western District state Court of Appeals, which had said the commission could deny a construction permit to Ameren Corp. subsidiary Ameren Transmission Co. of Illinois for its 345-kV Mark Twain line for not first getting approvals from each county the line would cross. Ameren got commission approval to build the Mark Twain line after revising the route to gain county approvals.

Clean Line had argued that that prioritizing county approvals ahead of the PSC's was counter to prior commission permitting practices.

The Eastern District Court essentially disagreed with the Western District Court's conclusions in the Ameren case and said that therefore, the PSC was wrong in finding that it could not grant a permit to Clean Line. "[T]his interpretation empowers a local entity to withhold its consent and prevent the commission from issuing a [certificate of convenience and necessity]," which is not the intent of the state legislature, Eastern District Presiding Judge Lisa Page said in her opinion.

Page could have directed the PSC to reconsider its decision, but "because of the general interest of importance of the question involved in the present case, we order this case transferred to the Missouri Supreme Court...," she said in the order.

"It basically means that they do not want any ongoing ambiguity between these two districts, so it makes senses that they would have the Supreme Court basically sign off on their interpretation of the statute," Clean Line Vice President of Development Mark Lawlor said on Feb. 28, adding that he expects the Missouri Supreme Court review to take a few months.