Pritzker calls Bailey a ‘liar’ without addressing farmers’ Grain Belt Express concerns

[August 30, 2022]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Several times in the past week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has avoided addressing a major criticism farmers have of a recent state law allowing a private company to use eminent domain to lay a transmission line across the state.

Republican gubernatorial candidate state Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, was asked at last week’s Illinois Farm Bureau forum about the provision in the energy law Pritzker signed last year.

“If there was one reason and one reason alone why I would vote no on this bill, it would be because of the eminent domain clause,” Bailey said about his opposition to the bill on the Senate floor. Eminent domain allows private land to be seized if the government deems it is needed for a public good.

Bailey said two of his counties are impacted by the Grain Belt Express project. The project touted in a radio ad earlier this year $1.2 billion in economic benefits for the state with 2,200 local jobs and $33 million in new revenue for area communities.

“The message that came back to me was, ‘well one of these days we may need to tie into that for our own needs,’” Bailey said. “There’s no reason why that line needs to cross our state.”

Before separately being asked about the issue at the IFB forum last week, Pritzker told the group Bailey is a liar and there’s nothing that expands eminent domain authority. Asked specifically why a project that’s not a public utility should have a right to take private property, Pritzker deflected.
 

“There is not an eminent domain provision in the bill that allows the state to take property under eminent domain anymore than there was before there was a Climate and Equitable Jobs Act,” Pritzker said.

But the measure does give the private project a way to utilize eminent domain if certain private land is needed. The company behind Grain Belt has said land acquisition “will be minimal.”

The 800-mile project from wind farms in Kansas has a 200-mile primary route and an alternative route proposed for Illinois.
 

The CEJA law states if a “qualifying direct current project” going across Pike, Scott, Greene, Macoupin, Montgomery, Christian, Shelby, Cumberland and Clark counties can show it is “designed to deliver electricity,” then it can be taken “for public use.”

Later after the IFB forum, Pritzker was asked to clarify. He said he was “broadly” talking about eminent domain.

Asked Friday at the DuQuion State Fair if he regrets calling Bailey a liar, Pritzker doubled down.

“Darren Bailey did not tell the truth about eminent domain,” Pritzker said. “Darren Bailey said that there is a massive change in statewide ability of the state to declare eminent domain, that’s just false.”

Last week, Bailey said in a statement Pritzker is being dishonest.

“If J.B. is comfortable walking into a room and lying to the faces of working people about this, how can he be trusted to tell the truth about anything? I'm focused on honest leadership that identifies problems, brings people to the table, and finds solutions to make Illinois safer and more affordable for everyone," Bailey said.

Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning Newsfeed out of Springfield.