Jeff City can’t let Grain Belt Express trample Missourians’ private property rights
Property rights are fundamental rights as important as any legal protection. Currently, a project known as the Grain Belt Express running through northern Missouri threatens to take away the property of everyday Missourians by deceptively hijacking the power of eminent domain. If the Missouri legislature does not act swiftly and protect rural property owners, these modern-day robber barons who represent out-of-state interests would set a dangerous precedent that could allow corporate land-grabbing to continue.
If built, the massive Grain Belt Express project would send electricity to the East Coast, distributing its profits to out-of-state private investors. It would transform Missouri’s landscape and harmfully disrupt hundreds of landowners who are essential to Missouri agriculture, our state’s No. 1 industry. Allowing any private company to gain the benefit of eminent domain is not only an affront to the Constitution, but has potential reverberating effects far beyond our rural communities for all Missourians.
House Bill 527, now before the Missouri Senate, is critical legislation that would protect Missourians from the harmful abuses of eminent domain laws by profit-generating merchant transmission lines. The Missouri House of Representatives recently passed important legislation to safeguard and strengthen private property protections by an overwhelming 123-33 margin, sending a clear message that Missouri family farms and constitutional rights are not for sale to profit-driven coastal corporate behemoths.
We will not waste time debating the merits of eminent domain. There are indeed valid government uses for legitimate infrastructure purposes that have enabled historic progress and development truly in service of the public good. But Missouri should and must draw the line when bad actors propose a private energy superhighway for powering people on the East Coast and lining their pockets.
The legislation before the Senate would ensure that private transmission lines are not simply gifted the governmental power of eminent domain. This commonsense measure specifies that entities seeking approval for a merchant transmission line must first provide the Missouri Public Service Commission with a resolution of support passed by the county commission in each county through which the line would be built.
We believe most Missourians strongly agree that private land should not be taken by government edict for the sole benefit of private investors. That is why many of Missouri’s leading agriculture organizations, including the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, Missouri Farm Bureau, Missouri Corn Growers Association and Missouri Pork Association — representing hundreds of thousands of Missouri family farmers — are in favor of these critical protections. We fully understand that jobs, development and economic progress largely benefit Missourians and help grow our state to meet its potential. But our leaders must not set a precedent for private companies to profit solely at the expense of Missourians by acquiring land for cheap through the power of eminent domain.
HB 527 could be considered by the Missouri Senate in the coming weeks. Without lawmakers’ action, Missouri is poised to be the next frontier for profit-driven coastal interests to turn our land into an energy superhighway for all the wrong reasons. Taking advantage of this opportunity would send a resoundingly clear message that our property rights are not for sale to the highest corporate bidder making the most promises.
It’s time for the state Senate to stand in favor of Missourians’ constitutional private property rights and deliver this important bill to the governor’s desk.
Bruce Mershon of Buckner is owner and CEO of Mershon Cattle LLC, and serves as president-elect of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association.
