MISSOURI, USA — Missouri’s utility regulators want the state to be home to one of the nation’s largest clean energy projects. They’re wrong, claims the state’s top legal official. 

The “Grain Belt Express” is an over 800-mile electricity transmission project that is expected to run from wind farms in Kansas to Indiana, dubbed the “largest transmission line in U.S. history.” The project is expected to bring clean energy and strengthen grid reliability for 29 states, along with saving Missouri residents around $18 billion in utility costs, project runner Invenergy told 5 On Your Side.

Invenergy’s claims were legitimized by the Missouri Public Service Commission, the regulatory board that oversees utilities in the state. The commission fully approved the project in 2023, clearing the way for the transmission line to drop nearly half its power into the state, which Invenergy said is equivalent to two new nuclear power plants.

The people in charge of regulating the state’s utilities were wrong, according to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. He said the project has a “history of lies and false promises” in a legal notice filed Tuesday. He also called on the commission to “reconsider” their approval for the project, along with demanding the project release documents related to its economic claims.

“Grain Belt Express has repeatedly lied to Missourians about the jobs it would create, the benefits it would deliver, and the land it seeks to take,” Bailey said in an emailed press release. “We will not allow a private corporation to trample property rights and mislead regulators for a bait and switch that serves out-of-state interests instead of Missourians.”

Bailey likely doesn’t have the authority to stop the project, despite Tuesday’s legal filing, according to Renew Missouri Executive Director James Owen. 

Owen said Bailey can’t overrule the commission’s utility regulators and claimed Tuesday’s announcement was likely made to make him look better to the state’s agricultural groups, who have opposed the project to a fault. The Missouri Farm Bureau, the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, and the Missouri Soybean Association previously tried to get the state’s Supreme Court to overturn state regulators’ approval of the project, but the court denied their request to take up the case.

Owen also argued that the Grain Belt Express has already been overly investigated by state officials, and all complaints have been resolved.

“I’d argue that no other entity in Missouri has had more scrutiny applied to it than the Grain Belt Express,” Owen told 5 On Your Side. “It has been in front of the Public Service Commission three times, the legislature has tried to overturn it, it’s gone to the appellate courts…it has had more due process applied to it than any project I can think of.”

Owen also said Bailey’s stance aligns with Republicans’ general poor opinion of renewable energy. However, it stands in opposition to the President Donald Trump Administration’s widespread support of the project, with Trump including Invenergy’s $1.7 billion investment in the project as part of his “America First agenda.”

One of Bailey’s top problems with the project is the nearly 50 eminent domain petitions it has filed against Missouri property owners. The vast majority of those petitions, however, have already been settled. Invenergy said that 97% of property owners in Kansas and Missouri had already agreed to property easement deals offered by the company, totaling over $86 million in payments to landowners.

Invenergy said project development was continuing despite Bailey’s demands. It also denied Bailey’s claims that it had lied, saying it has always been transparent and will fully cooperate with Bailey’s “politically driven” request. 

“We should be building energy infrastructure in America, but the Missouri Attorney General is instead playing politics with U.S. power,” a project spokesperson said. “(Bailey’s) last-ditch and obviously politically driven attempt to delay construction of a critical American power project comes at a time when our country is facing a national energy emergency—declared by the Administration. Electricity demand is rising across the country, and we urgently need transmission infrastructure to deliver power. Projects like Grain Belt Express are the answer to providing all forms of affordable and reliable electricity to U.S. consumers.”

The Missouri Public Service Commission told 5 On Your Side that it was reviewing Bailey’s request and could not speak further as of this article’s publication.