With Push From Josh Hawley, DOE Cancels Loan To Connect High Plains Wind Power To The National Grid

[hatrack]

The Energy Department on Wednesday said it had terminated a commitment to provide a $4.9 billion loan guarantee to a company building a contentious transmission line across the Midwest. The cancellation may imperil the $11 billion project, known as Grain Belt Express, which would cross 800 miles of farmland and is designed to carry electricity generated by wind farms in Kansas to population centers in Illinois and Indiana.

It is the kind of infrastructure that experts say is necessary to update America’s aging electrical grid at a time of rising energy demand. If built, it would be the largest privately funded transmission line in the country’s history.

But the project, which is being developed by the Chicago-based company, Invenergy, has drawn intense backlash from some landowners and Republican lawmakers.

This month, in a conversation with President Trump in the Oval Office, Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, pressed Mr. Trump to cancel the loan commitment. At Mr. Trump’s urging, Senator Hawley said, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said he would do so.

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/climate/grain-belt-express-energy-department-loan.html