Trump administration canceled a $4.9B loan guarantee for a line to deliver green power

FULL story: https://apnews.com/article/green-energy-transmission-line-grain-belt-express-6d674ba10fc2d5700133989695e838ec

By JOHN HANNA
Updated 6:57 PM CDT, July 23, 2025

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday canceled a $4.9 billion federal loan guarantee for a new high-voltage transmission line for delivering solar and wind-generated electricity from the Midwest to the eastern U.S., but the company indicated that project would go forward anyway.

The U.S. Department of Energy declared that it is “not critical for the federal government to have a role” in the first phase of Chicago-based Invenergy’s planned Grain Belt Express. The department also questioned whether the $11 billion project could meet the financial conditions required for a loan guarantee.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly derided wind and solar energy as unreliable and opposed efforts to combat climate change by moving away from fossil fuels. The Department of Energy also said Wednesday that the conditional commitment to Invenergy in November was among billions of dollars’ worth of commitments “rushed out the doors” by former President Joe Biden’s administration after Biden lost the election.

Two prominent Missouri Republicans, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and state Attorney General Andrew Bailey, have been vocal critics of the project, describing it as a threat to farmland and landowners’ property rights. Hawley said on July 10 that he had secured a pledge from U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright to cancel the loan guarantee in a conversation with him and Trump.