Many Kansans have made it clear that their farms, businesses and homes are not for sale to the U.S. federal government. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposed a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC) across much of Kansas, giving increased authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that could affect thousands of Kansans.

Problem: This NIETC proposal has been problematic from the start when the DOE’s proposal included a comment period of only 45 days – far too short a time to fully vet the proposal and its impact on agriculture and private property in the proposed pathway. It gave landowners only a short window of time to make their voices heard. I have spoken with Kansans who are concerned that the federal government could seize their land through eminent domain, impacting businesses and disrupting multi-generational farms.

By designating land as part of a NIETC, FERC would have increased authority to site electric transmission lines. The federal government has a responsibility to work in a good faith manner with landowners and not steamroll our state regulators. But the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allows FERC to issue permits for transmission lines in a corridor even when state regulators have denied an application.

Solution: Kansas landowners know that these decisions should not be left up to bureaucrats in Washington. When I return to Washington, D.C., I will be introducing legislation that will help protect Kansans private property from being seized by the federal government to build this transmission corridor.

This legislation will:

1. Ban federal funds from being used to condemn private property to be used in a NIETC designation corridor, and

2. Prohibit FERC from using its authority to overrule a state regulator’s rejection of an electric transmission project.

We must make certain that federal taxpayer dollars are not used for eminent domain and that decisions about electric transmission siting be left in Kansas, not Washington, D.C.