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Sept. 12, 2024 |  By: Mark Richardson - Public News Service

Midwestern group opposes plans for carbon-capture pipeline system

pipeline

By Mark Richardson - Public News Service

Landowners in several Midwestern states, including Nebraska, have organized in opposition to a plan to use eminent domain to construct a carbon-capture pipeline.

Summit Carbon Solutions wants to build a 2,500-mile system to carry CO2 emissions from ethanol plants to a storage site in North Dakota.

A group called Bold Alliance recently surveyed registered voters in six states, and found 81% oppose corporations utilizing eminent domain for private projects.

Shelli Meyer, landowner organizer for the Nebraska Easement Action Team, said they will take the poll results to elected officials.

"In Nebraska, 85% are opposed to eminent domain for private use," Meyer reported. "That's an important number that we're going to be talking to our legislators about as well since we do not have any state legislation that helps the landowners with eminent domain at all."

The poll found 90% of voters are concerned carbon capture and storage pose a risk of CO2 leaks at potentially lethal levels. In a statement, Summit said it plans to secure voluntary easement agreements "through collaboration and open dialogue" but did not address safety concerns.

Iowa regulators have tentatively approved the $5.5 billion project but other states, including Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota and the two Dakotas, have yet to OK the plan.

Emma Schmit, pipeline organizer for the coalition Bold Alliance, said despite Summit's claims the opposition is a "small minority," polling showed the majority of Midwesterners are skeptical about the plan.

"People that are living in rural areas, the rural voters that carbon capture projects most adversely affect, they have the strongest levels of opposition," Schmit pointed out. "Urban and suburban voters really did not lag far behind in their overwhelming opposition to carbon capture schemes."

Corn producers and the ethanol industry see the pipeline as a way to qualify for federal tax breaks as they enter the market for cleaner-burning aviation fuel.

The Associated Press reported two other companies have recently canceled CO2 pipeline projects, citing local regulatory obstacles.