The Department of Energy (DOE) has terminated a conditional award of up to $4.9 billion in loan guarantee for phase I of the proposed Grain Belt Express, a two-phase transmission line project that would span Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
The cancellation stems from a review of agreements signed by the DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) during the last weeks of the Biden administration.
“After a thorough review of the project’s financials, DOE found that the conditions necessary to issue the guarantee are unlikely to be met and it is not critical for the federal government to have a role in supporting this project”, the DOE said in a statement online.
“DOE is conducting a review of every applicant and borrower – including the nearly $100 billion in closed loans and conditional commitments LPO made between Election Day 2024 to Inauguration Day 2025 – to ensure every single taxpayer dollar is being used to advance the best interest of the American people”, the DOE added.
“This ongoing review positions LPO to move forward with a lower risk tolerance in lending practices and an uncompromising focus on expanding access to affordable, reliable and secure energy for the American people.
“DOE remains focused on advancing projects that expand American energy dominance and deliver on President Trump’s commitment to lower energy prices for the American people”.
Grain Belt Express LLC, owned by Chicago, Illinois-based Invenergy LLC, indicated in a statement the project would push through with private funding.
“America is energy dominant and an AI powerhouse, and Grain Belt Express will be America’s largest power pipeline”, Grain Belt Express said. “While we are disappointed about the LPO loan guarantee [cancellation], a privately financed Grain Belt Express transmission superhighway will advance President Trump’s agenda of American energy and technology dominance while delivering billions of dollars in energy cost savings, strengthening grid reliability and resiliency, and creating thousands of American jobs”.
On July 11 Grain Belt Express vice president Jim Shield wrote to Energy Secretary Chris Wright urging the DOE to proceed to financial close amid attacks by Missouri Attorney-General Andrew Bailey and Senator Josh Hawley. Shield told Wright conditions in the conditional commitment had been met.
“The Grain Belt Express transmission line is a critical energy security project, supported by a broad, multi-state coalition of stakeholders”, stated the letter, shared on Grain Belt Express’ website.
“It is an open-access line that will deliver all forms of American energy based on customer demand and available market power, enhancing the ability of the largest grid operators to share power, including from generators directed to operate under DOE’s 202(c) authority”, the letter added.
“This 800-mile power pipeline is capable of delivering four nuclear power plants’ worth of electricity. It is the highest capacity and second longest line in U.S. history.
“By connecting four U.S. grid regions – also a historic first – the Grain Belt Express will deliver cost savings and strengthen reliability for 29 states and DC, more than 40 percent of Americans, and 25 percent of Department of Defense installations”.
The project obtained certificates of “public convenience and necessity” from Kansas and Missouri in 2019, Illinois in 2023 and Indiana in 2013.
According to the government’s online Permitting Dashboard, the environmental review and permitting process for phase I is expected April 2026. Enlistment on the Dashboard gives a project the benefits of transparency and efficiency under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41). Grain Belt Express made it into the Dashboard under the Briden government on February 20, 2024.
On May 7, 2025, Grain Belt Express said it had awarded $1.7-billion contracts to Quanta Services and Kiewit Energy Group Inc. Construction is expected to start next year, it said then.
In response to the DOE’s cancellation of support, the office of Bailey, the Missouri attorney-general, said in a statement the project is “a multi-billion-dollar green energy scam that threatened Missouri’s farmers, landowners, and rural communities”.
“If Invenergy still intends to force this project on unwilling landowners, we will continue to fight every step of the way”, Bailey said.
Rigzone emailed comment requests to Invenergy and Grain Belt Express about Bailey’s threat to have the project junked.
Separately, Hawley, a Republican senator for Missouri, also claimed victory, saying it was he who had secured a pledge from Wright to “halt” the project. Hawley has also accused the project of land grabbing.
In the letter to Wright, Shield, the Grain Belt Express vice president, said, “Senator Hawley and AG Bailey have pursued an unwarranted and unhinged crusade against the Grain Belt Express through media attacks and letters to you seeking rescission of the Grain Belt Express’ conditionally approved DOE loan guarantee, as well as AG Bailey’s own separate consumer protection investigation and request to the Missouri Public Service Commission (MPSC) to reopen its Grain Belt approval”.
“Recent false accusations from Senator Hawley and AG Bailey saying that the Grain Belt Express will cost America billions instead of saving us billions, whether mistaken or purposefully declared, are misleading at best”, Shield added.
“The questions raised by AG Bailey were all considered and decided by the MPSC through a long and rigorous regulatory process that started in August of 2022 and appealed to exhaustion in the Missouri courts reaching finality on April 28, 2025”.
Missouri Farm Bureau president Garrett Hawkins said in a statement about the DOE cancellation, “This move demonstrates a long-overdue recognition of the voices of rural communities who have consistently and clearly expressed their deep concerns about the project’s impact on their land, livelihoods, and private property rights”.
In support of the project, environmental watchdog Sierra Club said of the DOE decision, “Missouri is a coal-dependent state, in the midst of a transition to cleaner sources of power. The Grain Belt transmission line would deliver 2.5 gigawatts of around-the-clock electricity – mostly from wind – to Missouri in the first phase of the project”.
“The project would provide options to Missouri towns for where they can buy power if looking for cheaper and cleaner electricity”, Sierra Club added.
Gretchen Waddell-Barwick, director of Sierra Club’s Missouri chapter, said the project “played by the rules, received multiple state approvals, and withstood legal challenges”.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
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