In the end of the failed Biden administration, Washington, D.C. is desperately trying to do what the American public rejected on the ballot box a few weeks ago: imposing its aggressive green agenda on a dissatisfied voter. [emphasis, links added]
For example – Biden’s Department of Energy (DOE) approved a multi-billion dollar loan for the Cereal Belt Express (GBE), a project so unpopular and unnecessary that its developers have resorted to a petition for outstanding areas of land seized by Missouri families.
It's more than just a piece of land. This is a taxpayer-funded attack on property rights.
GBE is a $11 billion 800-mile transmission project that has been cut in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and Indiana. Despite its huge scope and impact, much of its electricity will not even serve Missouri customers.
It will export energy from wind farms in western Kansas to other states, leaving Missouri the first to bear the brunt, while others are making the profit.
However, supporters of green projects obviously cannot make math work alone. If cereals with express delivery are indeed essential and profitable, taxpayers are not required.
But in November, the Biden administration quietly stepped in through the DOE Loan Program Office (LPO) and granted the company behind it a $4.9 billion conditional loan guarantee.
This means that if the project fails, federal taxpayers (not investors, not utilities, or even project owners) are on the hook.
Worse, the same taxpayer-backed funds can now be used to fight those who are trying to stop it.
To date, more than 50 Missouri landowners have had to defend themselves in court after GBE’s parent company filed a condemnation lawsuit against them. What are their crimes? They want to keep the land where their family works for generations.
A couple offered $8,100 for less than $8,100 to have permanent easements on their property and rejected the deal and sued quickly.
The company has filed dozens of important areas of petitions designed to force unwilling sellers to comply. Legal pressure is ruthless, and for rural families, the cost is real.
To show how the project’s deaf supporters became, one GBE supporter advised families not to object to rejecting their own land, threatening a protracted court struggle, saying: “They will have to pay attorney fees for this. It will be dragged out.”
It raises a very critical question: If this federal loan is completed, will taxpayer-backed funds be used to fund the legal team to drag Missouri landowners into court?
Fortunately, Missouri leaders didn’t represent it.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey formally investigated the Grain Belt Express on how the company received approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission “lie and false promises.”
His office has issued civil investigation requests and requested answers to questions that the Biden administration has never asked.
At the federal level, Senator Josh Hawley led the charge. In a letter to the DOE, he asked to cancel the $4.9 billion loan and end its financial support for a project that actively utilizes outstanding areas of American families.
“Missourians should not take the land from them so Wall Street investors and energy executives can make money,” Hawley wrote.
Reading and rest in town
