Henry Robertson, Climate and Energy Director for Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, is in Jefferson City, Missouri today as the Missouri Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case for the Clean Line Grain Belt Express. This project would bring clean, renewable, and affordable wind energy from Kansas to the Eastern energy grid. If built, the line will pass through northern Missouri, and will provide some of this energy to local utilities, as well.

Henry is representing our clients the Sierra Club and Renew Missouri in favor of this project. Unlike many transimission lines, which will carry any type of energy across the grid, the Grain Belt Express would transport only wind energy. Addressing the threat of climate change will demand a way to get the cleanest renewable energy from where it is most abundant to where the demand for energy is most abundant – the Grain Belt Express addresses that need.

The Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) rejected the project last fall because it considers itself bound by an opinion of the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District in a different transmission line case. Clean Line appealed to the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District, where we intervened on behalf of the Sierra Club and filed a brief in support of Clean Line on November 28, 2017, as co-counsel for Renew Missouri as well.

The Court of Appeals ruled in our favor, and the case has been transferred to the Missouri Supreme Court. We are hopeful that the arguments made this morning in favor of Clean Line by their attorney, Jay Nixon, will lead to cleaner air and more sustainable energy for us all.