5 years, 9 months ago by Scott Hardy
Rules unanimously to overturn PSC ruling on high-voltage power line
The Missouri Supreme Court has overturned a ruling by the state's Public Service Commission that denied a permit to build a high-voltage power line across the state, including Monroe and Ralls Counties.
The High Court ruled unanimously Tuesday to overturn the ruling against the Grain Belt Express project, and send it back to the PSC. In its' ruling, the Supreme Court said that the type of certificate Clean Line Energy Partners sought does not require prior consent from affected counties, and that a ruling by the Western Appellate Court should not be followed. That ruling involved an earlier attempt by Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois to build an electric line in Northeast Missouri from Palmyra to the Iowa line. The Appellate Court ruled in that case that each county in the path of the line had to approve the project before it was built. The PSC used that ruling to justify its' rejection of Clean Line's request. Clean Line wants to build a high-voltage line to transmit wind-generated electricity from western Kansas, across Missouri and Illinois to Indiana. It's now possible that the company can get the OK for the project in Missouri, after being rejected three previous times. The project's also being reviewed in Illinois, after a May court ruling sending the application back to the Illinois Commerce Commission.
You can read the Supreme Court's ruling below.
