Trump administration cancels pending loan for massive power line project

The Energy Department said Wednesday it terminated a pending $4.9 billion loan guarantee offered by the Biden administration to one of the nation’s largest power line projects, marking the latest move by the Trump administration to undermine clean energy development in the United States.

The massive Grain Belt Express project is designed to transport mostly wind energy from rural Kansas into more populated areas of Indiana. But the department said it opted to terminate the pending guarantee for the $11 billion project after a “thorough review of the project’s financials.”

“To ensure more responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources, DOE has terminated its conditional commitment,” the department said in a release Wednesday.

The Trump administration canceled the conditional loan guarantee on the same day it outlined its plans to dominate the global artificial intelligence race, including spurring the additional energy needed to achieve that goal. The administration has instead taken action to stunt wind and solar development, including a recent executive order designed to limit the ability of those projects to continue to utilize tax incentives under the GOP megalaw.

The department said the conditions necessary to issue the loan guarantee for the Grain Belt Express project were “unlikely to be met,” and it “is not critical for the federal government to have a role in supporting” the project.

The decision lands after Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said the administration would kill the financing at his urging. Hawley has opposed the Grain Belt project over its use of eminent domain on farmland.

Hawley thanked President Donald Trump on X on Wednesday and called the would-be loan a "boondoggle."

The project is expected to break ground next year and would provide sorely needed interregional transmission capacity, carrying 5 gigawatts of power across four regional grids. It has received approvals from regulators in all four states it is set to cross.

Invenergy, the Chicago-based developer behind the project, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The power line has largely been marketed as a wind project, but Invenergy is now looking to connect a new gas plant and possibly existing coal generation to the line and paint the project as a key component of the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda.

The prior administration announced its intent to offer the loan guarantee in the final months of former President Joe Biden’s term. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s actions on billions of dollars of loans in its waning days but has said the loan office can play a vital role in supporting certain projects such as nuclear and critical minerals.

DOE said Wednesday it is conducting a review of the office’s portfolio, including the closed loans and conditional commitments made between Election Day 2024 to Trump’s inauguration to ensure taxpayer dollars are being used to “advance the best interest of the American people.”