93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
(Missourinet) The Missouri House is considering a bill that would stop Grain Belt Express in its tracks.
The Public Service Commission last month approved the plan for Clean Line to place wind energy overhead transmission lines across Missouri. This bill would ban companies being able to place those lines through eminent domain.
Jeff Bergstrom with Marshall Municipal Utilities said at a House hearing this week that Grain Belt would save his customers a lot of money.
“Marshall is a small community. We struggle. We have poverty. An opportunity like this is very huge for Marshall…to compete in today’s world.”
But some of the landowners who would see power poles on their property are not fans.
“I’m going, as a landowner, [to] give up a lot of income to allow something to come across my property that I will get no value from,” farmer Marilyn O’Bannon says.
The PSC says landowners will get paid at a fair rate for the property taken from them.
Grain Belt Express would cross our area in Chariton, Randolph, and Monroe counties.
