Missouri Landowners fight back against private company seeking eminent domain
“Over 700 vocal opponents attended and spoke out at the Missouri PSC Hearing in Monroe City on Aug. 12.
The Missouri PSC held its first two public hearings concerning the highly controversial Grain Belt Express on Tuesday. The company is seeking to become a public utility in Missouri with the hope of building a mega high voltage DC power line through the state that would originate in Kansas and terminate in Indiana and provide power to the east coast. The company has promised that they will build a substation that would make less than 1% of Missouri’s annual energy usage available for purchase by local utilities.
Opponents of the project were mostly Missouri landowners and farmers who are determined to block the company from receiving public utility status, because it would allow them to use eminent domain to force landowners to host massive power lines on their property. The Missouri PSC will ultimately decide if the private, speculative company from Texas should be granted such power over Missouri citizens. The PSC is holding a series of public hearings in each of the eight impacted counties.”
Caldwell County News 19 August 2014.