HOUSTON, Texas — Despite Missouri’s recent rejection of the eminent domain request sought by Clean Line Energy Partners, the locally owned private electrical transmission company remains committed to its wind energy farm project in the state.

Clean Line, as the Houston-based company’s project is known, is a direct current transmission overhead line about 780 miles long. The line was to go from wind energy farms near Dodge City, Kan., to Sullivan, Ind., and deliver low-cost wind power from western Kansas to Missouri, Illinois and other neighboring states.

The line would cut through Buchanan, Clinton, Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, Randolph, Monroe and Ralls counties in Missouri and directly impact more than 500 landowners in the state, according to the Clean Line Energy Partners (CLEP) website.

A wind energy farm is made up of a number of wind turbines constructed in a specified location to generate large amounts of electrical power. Although thousands of wind farms have sprung up around the world, wind power and its impact on the area still raise issues in many quarters today.

Also, eminent domain is the legal right of a state, municipality or private person or corporation to take privately owned property for public use. The property owner must receive just compensation for the property, however.

“This (CLEP) project is very important to the state’s energy future, and we are reviewing all of our options to advance the project in Missouri,” Amy Kurt, communications director for Grain Belt Express, said last Friday.

She did not furnish a timeline or elaborate on the various options that could be available for CLEP to move the project forward in Missouri. However, Missouri’s eminent domain refusal does not affect the Clean Line proposal in Illinois, where Kurt said CLEP “is continuing to move the project forward.”

The company’s application is pending before the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) at this time and CLEP “will continue to seek ICC approval according to schedule,” she noted.

“I do want to clarify (the ICC) application is not for eminent domain,” Kurt said. “The application is for building, maintaining and operating the Clean Line project. That’s separate. If after a later date we voluntarily attempt to negotiate with landowners, at that point we would seek eminent domain.

“We would have to refile with the Illinois Commerce Commission on a parcel-by-parcel basis to request eminent domain. But that’s not what the ICC is considering at this point.”

She also said Clean Line would deliver benefits to Illinois consumers by delivering low-cost electricity to the state, creating jobs and bringing much-needed revenue to rural communities.

In a related move, Senate Bill 920, signed last week by Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, keeps wind farm approval in the hands of local government. The legislation provides that a county and municipality may establish standards for wind farms and electric-generating wind devices notwithstanding any other provision of law.