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Developers of the Grain Belt Express, a proposed $11 billion transmission line that would carry wind-generated electricity from western Kansas to Illinois and other Midwestern states, scored a legal victory Jan. 23 when the Illinois Supreme Court rejected a challenge by a state farmers’ organization and others to their state permit.
In a 6-0 ruling, the court ruled that the project developed by Chicago-based Invenergy had met its obligation under the state’s Fair Employment and Climate Change Act to demonstrate that it could finance the project “without significant adverse financial consequences to the company or its customers.”
TThe Illinois Supreme Court “issued a strong decision affirming the validity of Grain Belt Express’s certificate of public convenience and necessity in Illinois,” said a Grain Belt Express spokesman related to the decision.
The ruling comes despite the Trump administration’s decision in July 2025 to cancel a $4.9 billion federal loan guarantee approved by the Biden administration in November 2024 to finance the first phase of construction of the power line in Kansas and Missouri.
At the time, Grain Belt said it intended to proceed with the project with private financing.
Invenergy awarded contracts last May totaling about $1.7 billion to Quanta Services and Kiewit Energy Group Inc. for the construction of the first phase of the project of transmission infrastructure and conversion stations in Kansas and Missouri with a capacity of 2,500 MW, and construction will begin this year.
The latest decision reverses a 2024 decision by the federal appeals court in New Orleans, which said the Illinois Commerce Commission erred when it originally granted a permit to the project.
Proof of Grain Belt’s “present and current financial capacity was not a condition precedent to the issuance of the document [certificate]. wrote Supreme Court Justice Mary K. O’Brien. “Instead, evidence of the industry’s method of financing the construction of large-scale energy projects, along with unrebutted evidence that such projects do not generate revenue until regulatory permits are issued and contracts with customers are executed, support the … decision to issue [a certificate]”to the project.
The project calls for an 800-mile, 600-kV high-voltage direct current line designed to carry up to 5 GW of wind and solar power from Kansas through Missouri to Illinois and Indiana. Its first phase, covering 530 miles from western Kansas to central Missouri, was expected to cost $4.4 billion, including conversion stations and right-of-way acquisition.
In 2018, the state Supreme Court overturned a state decision to grant a permit to build and operate the Illinois portion of the project, saying the company did not meet the state’s definition of a public utility.
In 2021, state lawmakers passed the climate law, which was planned to incentivize the development of renewable energy in Illinois, with the goal of transitioning the state to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045. The law contained a provision specifically designed for the Grain Belt that allowed Illinois to issue permits to a “qualifying direct current” as defined by the project and described by its applicant.
After its passage, Grain Belt reapplied for the permit, which the state approved in March 2023.
The Illinois Farm Bureau joined with several landowners and opponents of the project to challenge the permit on several grounds, including the part of the law that specifically cleared the way for the project, alleging that it violated the equal protection and separation of powers clauses of the Illinois Constitution, as well as its limits on special legislation.
The Jan. 23 ruling addressed only the challenge to the funding requirements. The remaining challenges were sent back to the lower court for further consideration.
A lawyer for the Illinois Farm Bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
