Kansas lawmakers challenge proposed energy corridor project
TOPEKA (KSNT) - U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, along with U.S. Representative Tracey Mann, have introduced legislation preventing the federal government from seizing land for a proposed transmission corridor in Kansas.
The Department of Energy (DOE) proposed the National Interest Transmission Corridor (NIETC) with an information-gathering phase that was started on Dec. 19, 2023. According to the DOE, the project aims to improve electric reliability and resilience, alleviate congestion and consumer costs, meet future demand growth and increase clean energy integration.
The project has come under flak from residents who live in the middle of the proposed corridor. The Midwest-Plains corridor would run through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. It would be five miles wide and 780 miles long. Pawnee County Attorney Douglass McNett told KSN News that the new concern is the possible use of eminent domain.
According to a press release from Moran's office, the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allows the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue permits for transmission lines in a corridor when state regulators have denied the application.
“Kansans have made it clear to the federal government that their land is not for sale,” Moran said. “The NIETC proposal has been problematic from the start since the DOE permitted only 45 days for folks to submit their comments regarding the proposed transmission line. Sen. Marshall, Congressman Mann and I introduced legislation, the passage of which would prohibit the Department of Energy from trampling on the rights of Kansas landowners or usurping the authority of state regulators in order to build a transmission line across Kansas. These decisions should be left up to Kansans, not Washington.”
“At more than a century old, our power grid is showing its age, leaving American consumers to bear the costs of maintaining it with frequent and longer power outages from extreme weather,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The Biden-Harris Administration is leveraging every tool to expand transmission and deploy more reliable, affordable, and clean power in every pocket of the nation.”
The legislation introduced would ban federal funds from being used to condemn private property for the project and prohibit the FERC from overruling a state regulator’s rejection of electric transmission projects, according to the letter from Moran's office.
If you have questions or would like to voice your concerns you can contact the Department of Energy at NIETC@hq.doe.gov.
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