NEW: Trump Administration Shuts Down ‘Green Scam’

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) delivered news of another victory for President Donald Trump and the American people as he announced on Thursday that the Department of Energy would be canceling the Grain Belt Express project.

Hawley made the announcement in a post published on X where he also revealed that the decision was made after a discussion between Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. The senator then referred to the Grain Belt Express as a “green scam” that’s “costing taxpayers BILLIONS.”

The Grain Belt Express project was an $11 billion transmission line that was designed to take electricity produced on wind farms in the state of Kansas and move it to Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.

A website for the project says, “Energy demand is growing — our grid needs an upgrade. No other project saves consumers more.”

In the early part of July, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office launched an investigation into the Grain Belt Express, citing “widespread concerns over misleading claims and a track record of dishonesty” as the reason for the probe.

“We will not allow a private corporation to trample property rights and mislead regulators for a bait and switch that serves out-of-state interests instead of Missourians,” Bailey went on to say in the July 2 press release.

Daisy Roser of The Daily Caller wrote, “The investigation, a Civil Investigative Demand (CID), pointed out the dependence of the Grain Belt Express upon ‘speculative and possibly fraudulent assumptions,’ including a made-up carbon tax that ‘was never enacted by Missouri or federal law and does not exist.'”

“The use of this fictitious ‘carbon tax’ in projecting supposed benefits of the project ‘more than likely’ inflated the value predicted for Missouri consumers, according to Bailey’s formal letter to the Chair of the Missouri Public Service Commission. The predicted benefits included $52 billion in energy cost savings over 15 years, according to the Grain Belt Express Website,” she added.

The Grain Belt Express issued a statement in response to the announcement, saying, “Senator Hawley is trying to deprive Americans of billions of dollars in energy cost savings, thousands of jobs, grid reliability, and national security, all in an era of exponentially growing demand. The project is the critical infrastructure needed to achieve America’s energy future and has support from the White House and House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans.”

“The project has also secured approvals from all four route states,” it said.

Along with the projected $52 billion in energy savings, the statement claims the line will also create 5,500 jobs.