By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Anyone wishing to halt the construction of a high-powered transmission line through Barton County will have to look beyond zoning regulations to do it. Zoning Administrator Judy Goreham briefed commissioners during a Feb. 15 study session about the Grain Belt Express. She was at a commission meeting some 10 years ago when the line was first discussed.
"I remember a handful of people here in extreme opposition because it was going to affect their oil production, it was going to affect their farming capability," she said. "I think when this comes up again, you're going to have that same pushback, but zoning isn't the answer because we can't do anything about it."
The Express would transfer 4,000 megawatts, enough to power 1.6 million homes, each year from wind and solar energy produced near Dodge City, through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. The proposed line would follow the same path as US-56 between Larned and Great Bend, then veer north to go west of Heizer before cutting east to follow K-4 north out of the county.
Goreham laid out exemptions to zoning regulations, including poles, wires, cables, as well as other equipment for distribution to consumers of telephones, electricity, gas, or water.
The Grain Belt Express project has stirred controversy in each of the states in its path. The Kansas Corporation Commission has authorized construction of the line in Kansas, but only after plans had been approved in the other three states. The KCC did set a sunset on the project, but with an extension due to delays in Missouri and Illinois, Chicago-based Invenergy, which acquired the project in 2018, has until December 2024 to show it has made strides in acquiring easements for the line.
That is the crux of the issue. Nearly 400 miles of line will pass through Kansas, much of which sits over private property. Invenergy will pay landowners for easements that, on average, are 150 feet wide. Invenergy Senior Vice President Patrick Whitty said in an interview last year the company already has agreements with landowners totaling $77 million, and $10 million of that has been paid upfront. The Missouri Independent reported in December 2021 that the company has acquired 65 percent of the 1,700 parcels required for the project throughout Kansas and Missouri. The project offers 110 percent of market value of the land, plus $18,000 for each tower structure, which have bases that are 40 feet by 40 feet wide and range from 130 to 160 feet tall.
The project does have eminent domain in Kansas and Missouri, meaning the company can acquire those easements even if the landowners are unwilling to negotiate. Opponents do not like the idea of a private, for-profit company using eminent domain to take private land.
There are many proponents of the project. As of April 2021, 39 municipalities in Missouri had signed on to use power from the line with total expected savings of $12.8 millon each year. The company also claims the project will create thousands of jobs, save Kansas and Missouri residents up to $7 billion over 20 years, and create an efficient source of power for the 25 states that could ultimately draw power from the line.