Grain Belt Express

Missouri Republicans for years have criticized the use of eminent domain to build high-voltage transmission lines.

The Missouri Public Service Commission has approved the high-capacity transmission line to carry clean energy from Kansas through northern Missouri and Illinois despite landowners’ concerns.

The measure is in response to a long fight over the Grain Belt Express, a planned transmission line that will cut across a 200-mile stretch of northern Missouri. The changes, however, will not affect that project.

The proposed clean-energy transmission line would stretch from Kansas to Indiana.

The transmission line known as the Grain Belt Express would deliver wind energy from southwest Kansas to other parts of the country — the equivalent of 15 million barrels of oil annually. Some landowners oppose a private company using eminent domain to complete its project.

Hawkins succeed Blake Hurst as president of one of Missouri's oldest and most influential agricultural organizations.

Invenergy has bought 45% of the land it needs to run the electric transmission line across northern Missouri.

The House passed a bill that could essentially block the Grain Belt Express from connecting wind farms in Kansas to customers to the east.

The Missouri Public Service Commission gave the green light Wednesday to allow a 780-mile wind-energy transmission line to be built across Missouri.The…