TOPEKA — Three Republican members of the Kansas congressional delegation have voiced their support for legislation that would limit federal authority to seize private property for the development of a national electric transmission corridor. U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann, along with U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, are backing a bill that would prevent the use of federal funding to condemn private property for proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors and would stop the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from overriding state regulators’ rejection of electric transmission projects.
The legislation has been praised by Joe Newland, president of the Kansas Farm Bureau, who believes it would ensure fair negotiations with landowners for the siting and construction of transmission lines. The bill aims to protect landowners from facing unilateral ultimatums from transmission developers using taxpayer dollars to build infrastructure.
The push for this legislation comes after the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed by President Joe Biden, granted FERC the power to issue permits for transmission lines within a national corridor, even if state officials had denied applications.
The proposed national electric transmission corridor, highlighted by a DOE map, includes a pathway from southwest Kansas to the northeast corner of the state and is linked to the controversial Grain Belt Express transmission line project. Construction of the line is set to begin in 2025, but farm groups and landowners have expressed opposition due to concerns about private property rights.
Mann has criticized the lack of clarity provided by the DOE’s announcement on the potential corridor’s impact on landowners and emphasized the importance of protecting the rights of Kansas landowners from federal overreach. Moran and Marshall have also voiced their concerns about the DOE’s potential disregard for state regulators and the need for decisions about transmission line projects to be made at the state level.
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