As Invenergy Transmission filed its application for its Tiger Connector route to be added on to its original Grain Belt Express project Wednesday, the company released its plans to the public.

Invenergy told The Mexico Ledger they would file their application with the Public Service Commission (PSC) Thursday and in doing so announced on its website the final proposed route for the Tiger Connector (see accompanying art) on its website. For a more detailed look at the route visit https://grainbeltexpress.com/tiger-connector.html.

The route is planned to run straight south of the proposed converter station located in southwest Monroe Country, crossing its farms before heading into Audrain County. It would then follow existing power lines starting on Route EE toward Route C north of Centralia then turn southeast for a distance before taking a direct route south into South Callaway County toward the McCredie substation.

Dia Kuykendall, Grain Belt Express Director of Public Affairs, noted some of the highlights of the routing study submitted with the PSC.

“Our proposed route was presented to the MPSC after considering all landowner input along with a number of engineering and other factors,” Kuykendall said. “The proposed route crosses the fewest number of parcels and maximizes distance from homes, compared to the other route options that were presented and discussed at our community meetings. This route was also found to substantially minimize overall tree clearing and to follow parcel boundaries more often than our other options - both of which we know to be important to minimizing impacts to landowners and agricultural operations.”

Kuykendall added these items from the routing study noting that the selection was based on the following Alternative Route B advantages:

• Crosses the fewest total parcels and has the fewest number of residences within 250, 300, and 500 feet of its centerline.

• Utilizes the greatest length of parcel boundary parallel, thereby minimizing impacts to agricultural activities (e.g., cropland cultivation, pivot irrigation).

• Requires the least impact to water resources by spanning the fewest number of streams and crossing less wetlands and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) floodplain.

• Substantially minimizes the overall tree clearing acreage of all routes.

It was also reported that representatives of Invenergy visited with Audrain and Callaway County commissioners to let them know the application would be filed, while letters to landowners whose properties would be affected by the Tiger Connector proposed route, were distributed.

In the meantime, a  growing group of farmland owners, spearheaded by Centralia’s Pat Stemme, plan on voicing their concerns via protest at the PSC’s Jefferson City location 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday.

“I am a farm wife, and we live in Boone County, but our farms are in Audrain and Callaway,” Stemme said. “There are several residents from Audrain that will be attending the protest. I don’t have the commissioners schedule, so I don’t know if they will be in house or not. It doesn’t matter: We will still be able to get our message across, that we are opposed to any decision that allows the Tiger Belt (Connector) to move forward. I don’t feel the (House Bill) 2005 is very comforting. Our Fifth Amendment rights are being abused.
“The PSC has no agricultural representation. They also have no oversight.”

According to Stemme’s press release announcing the protest, Invenergy proposes to add a “completely unnecessary” 40-mile double circuit 345-kV electric transmission line on a destructive course that would impact prime farmland that is presently producing crops for ethanol and biodiesel. These valuable farms are helping reduce emissions in St. Louis, Columbia and Kansas City.

Stemme noted that Invenergy has only revealed customers for less than 10 percent of its planned delivery to Missouri.

“As a merchant transmission project, the company cannot charge captive ratepayers for its project and can only recover its costs from voluntary customers,” the press release states. “Without customers, there is no revenue to pay for the project.”

Stemme’s press release adds, “The PSC’s prior granting of a permit and eminent domain to Grain Belt’s speculative plan have directly caused the Tiger Connector proposal by encouraging the company to take land for a route that has now changed and must be extended into Audrain and Callaway in order to connect with Missouri’s electric grid. Without an approved grid interconnection and enough customers to pay for its construction, Grain Belt Express remains nothing more than speculation and could change again in the future.”

Attorney Brent Haden, who was raised in Mexico, noted that the route is an encroachment on the lives of many.

“Regardless of route, Missouri landowners are being forced to sell their land to a private out-of-state company for no reason other than that company claims they can do something more productive with the land than local farmers and ranchers,” Haden said. “If the shoe were on the other foot, would Invenergy or its executives consent to a forced sale of their property to Missouri farmers and ranchers? We could run cow-calf pairs on their lawns in Chicago, and they’d probably even come out ahead on mowing cost. But something tells me they might feel differently about the eminent domain doctrine if that were the proposal.

“Missouri landowners should not be forced to sell their land to private companies, period. This is an abuse of eminent domain authority.”

Alan Winders, presiding commissioner for Audrain County, issued a statement for the commission.

“We have just received the map, so we haven’t really studied the route,” Winders said. “If it is approved by the PSC, our expectation is that the company minimizes impacts on property owners no matter what the route in Audrain County.”