For more than a decade, attorney Douglas Healy has served at the Healy Law Offices, a boutique energy-focused firm based in Missouri. Representing clients from Europe, Asia, and North America, attorney Douglas Healy has been involved with several controversial projects, including Invenergy’s Grain Belt Express power transmission line. After months of legal challenges, Invenergy, a Chicago-based company building the Grain Belt Express project, scored a victory in a legal battle against northern Missouri landowners in December 2019. The project is designed to deliver wind-driven power from Kansas to several Midwestern states, including Missouri. In total, it is projected to save Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission (MJMEUC) customers millions of dollars a year. The Grain Belt Express’s legal issues in 2019 began in April, shortly after Missouri’s Public Service Commission (PSC) voted to give the project a certificate of convenience and necessity, granting the use of eminent domain to acquire land for the power line’s path. In light of this, a bill was introduced in the Missouri House to stop the project, but it was ultimately defeated during a filibuster in the Senate. An appeal against the PSC ruling was subsequently filed in the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District by project opponents, arguing that the PSC erred in granting eminent domain for the Grain Belt Express project. The Missouri Farm Bureau and a group of landowners filed the appeal, but the court upheld the PSC’s action.

1. Douglas Healy

2. Introduction
For more than a decade, attorney Douglas Healy has served at the Healy Law Offices, a boutique
energy-focused firm based in Missouri. Representing clients from Europe, Asia, and North
America, attorney Douglas Healy has been involved with several controversial projects,
including Invenergy’s Grain Belt Express power transmission line.
After months of legal challenges, Invenergy, a Chicago-based company building the Grain Belt
Express project, scored a victory in a legal battle against northern Missouri landowners in
December 2019. The project is designed to deliver wind-driven power from Kansas to several
Midwestern states, including Missouri. In total, it is projected to save Missouri Joint Municipal
Electric Utility Commission (MJMEUC) customers millions of dollars a year.

3. The Grain Belt Express’s legal issues in 2019 began in April, shortly after Missouri’s Public
Service Commission (PSC) voted to give the project a certificate of convenience and
necessity, granting the use of eminent domain to acquire land for the power line’s path. In
light of this, a bill was introduced in the Missouri House to stop the project, but it was
ultimately defeated during a filibuster in the Senate.
An appeal against the PSC ruling was subsequently filed in the Missouri Court of Appeals
Eastern District by project opponents, arguing that the PSC erred in granting eminent
domain for the Grain Belt Express project. The Missouri Farm Bureau and a group of
landowners filed the appeal, but the court upheld the PSC’s action.