Energy. I’m not referring to your morning coffee or my occasional caffeine-laden drink. I’m talking about the electricity each of us needs to power our homes, run our farms and businesses, and care for our families. Electricity underpins agriculture and every sector of the U.S. economy, and its importance cannot be overstated.

But here’s the deal. Affordable, reliable power as we know it is in jeopardy as the Biden administration continues to implement its far-reaching climate agenda. Recently, the Department of Energy (DOE) proposed 10 National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETCs) to allegedly modernize the nation’s electrical grids. NIETCs are designated geographic routes that are targeted for additional electrical transmission buildout. If this proposal moves forward, it will allow the federal government to fast-track permitting for mega-transmission projects, superseding regulatory authorities of states and giving more power to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Washington, D.C. It also opens the door to federal financing.

Included on the NIETC list is Invenergy’s Grain Belt Express (GBE). For several years, we’ve shared the Missouri Farm Bureau’s (MOFB) efforts to protect landowner rights against this private, for-profit high-voltage transmission line that will carry power from wind farms in Kansas as far east as the Indiana border. Despite the objections of MOFB and the threat posed to private landowners, GBE received the stamp of approval from Missouri’s Public Service Commission, allowing this project to proceed.

Now, the DOE has proposed making GBE’s transmission line the “Midwest-Plains” NIETC. This designation would expand the footprint of the transmission corridor five miles wide across Missouri. Other NIETCs have a designated footprint ranging up to 100 miles wide.

The NIETC proposal is one piece of a grander plan by the Biden administration to fundamentally change power generation and transmission as we know it. Rapidly taking reliable energy sources offline, like coal-fired generation and natural gas, through heavy-handed environmental regulations and replacing those sources with intermittent wind and solar power, is destabilizing the grid — hence the need for more mega-transmission lines.

Federal incentives authorized by Congress in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act make it financially lucrative for companies, whether investment firms or investor-owned utilities, to jump on the green energy bandwagon. Their interest in solar and wind is sky-high because that’s where the money is, resulting in some of the most fertile farmland in our country being taken out of production for decades to house this green energy expansion. Designating huge swaths of agricultural land as NIETCs will undoubtedly lead to more solar farms and lines to hook up to the new mega-transmission lines.

Farm Bureau has always supported an “all of the above” approach to energy production, including renewables. Let’s be realistic, though. Our baseline reliable energy sources like coal, natural gas, and nuclear can be powered up or down as needed. Wind and solar remain at Mother Nature’s mercy. Together, these sources have made for affordable, reliable electricity — and now that’s at risk.

Let me be clear. The Biden administration is racing to implement the Green New Deal, and our private property rights are in the way. We’re calling on DOE to hold hearings on the proposed NIETC corridors across the country so the agency can hear directly from impacted landowners.

Our nation’s energy security is at risk, along with our private property rights. Join us in pushing back against this massive land grab and failing energy policies. You can take action and send a comment to DOE via the MOFB Action Center before June 24 (mofb.org/action-center). Together, we can stop Missouri from becoming the transmission superhighway for the Biden administration’s green energy dreams.

Garrett Hawkins is a farmer from Appleton City and serves as the president of Missouri Farm Bureau.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: MO Farm Bureau: President Biden ‘green’ lights another land grab