The $4.9 billion loan guarantee given to the developers of the Grain Belt Express has been canceled.

The U.S. Department of Energy issued a statement Wednesday after the cancellation, which reads in part:

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. To ensure more responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources, DOE has terminated its conditional commitment.

The loan guarantee was issued by the Biden Administration in mid-November of last year, just days after Donald Trump was elected president again. The DOE’s statement also described it as being “rushed out the door in the final days of the Biden Administration.”

The proposed Grain Belt Express would construct a network of transmission towers from Kansas, across Missouri and Illinois, to Indiana – transmitting electricity generated by wind turbines.

There have been many critics of the proposed green energy project, including U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri. He told Missourinet that he’s “delighted” by the loan guarantee cancellation.

“They shouldn’t be taking $5 billion of tax money for their Green New Deal boondoggle,” he said. “Which, by the way, crosses Missouri right across, east to west, eight counties. Multiple farmers and ranchers have had their land taken from them, and their original plans called for zero power to come to the state of Missouri. Zero.”

That later changed when the project was expanded to include the “Tiger Connector,” a proposed 36-mile-long transmission line that would funnel some of the electricity along the Grain Belt Express to existing power infrastructure in Callaway County. But Hawley maintains that the parent company has not shown concern for Missouri landowners.

“This is a private corporation, I would emphasize, that has used the power of eminent domain to come in and seize farmers’ land, pay them less than they deserve, take them to court when they won’t agree — it’s unbelievable,” Hawley said. “This never should have been getting federal funding, let alone $5 billion of taxpayer money. It’s outrageous. I called on the Energy secretary to cancel it. He has done so, and I’m thrilled about that.”

Hawley had also asked DOE Secretary Chris Wright to rescind the loan guarantee and in addition filed legislation in the U.S. Senate to block federal funding for the GBE. He indicated that he will now withdraw the measure.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is also celebrating the DOE’s decision to yank the project’s federal loan guarantee. He told Missourinet that the Grain Belt Express has been a fraud since Day One.

“The project was sold to the people of the state of Missouri as some kind of green New Deal, dependent upon a carbon tax that the corporation had not secured yet,” Bailey said. “The point I’ve made all along is that the project never benefited the people of the state of Missouri and all the promises that Grain Belt Express has made in this entire time, none of them have come true. And so, this is a positive first step in ending the project.”

Baily launched an investigation earlier this month into the project, stating that Invenergy has made misleading claims and possibly committed fraud when it secured its Certificate of Convenience and Necessity from the Missouri Public Service Commission. That investigation is ongoing.

“Before a company like this can start using eminent domain and taking land away from farmers, they have to convince the Public Service Commission of certain things,” Bailey said. “And the point I’ve made all along is that the evidence they presented to the PSC was either so speculative that it should have never been relied on in making a decision, or it was an outright lie.”

Bailey’s office has issued subpoenas to Invenergy, demanding documents on how it arrived at its estimated costs and savings. He says the company is currently suing to block enforcement of those subpoenas.

In response to the revocation of the loan guarantee, Invenergy issued the following statement on Wednesday:

America is energy dominant and an AI powerhouse, and Grain Belt Express will be America’s largest power pipeline. While we are disappointed about the LPO loan guarantee, 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.

Gretchen Waddell-Barwick, Director of the Sierra Club’s Missouri Chapter, is also condemning the cancellation of the loan guarantee:

“(Wednesday’s) decision continues the Republican agenda of extracting wealth from average American families and transferring it to the richest corporations in the history of the world. It’s sadly predictable that Senator Hawley doesn’t care that this project played by the rules, received multiple state approvals, and withstood legal challenges. This reeks of desperation to satisfy political interests at the expense of Missouri families and businesses throughout the state that may have to pay higher electric rates because of this decision.”

Invenergy maintains that the Grain Belt Express will save Missouri consumers up to $18 billion and create more than 1,500 jobs in Missouri alone. A separate recent statement said that the GBE is a “critical national security project, supported by a broad coalition of stakeholders, that will save U.S. consumers billions of dollars and strengthen grid reliability and resilience by delivering all forms of American energy.”

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