carbon pipelines Archives | Energy News Network https://energynews.us/tag/carbon-pipelines/ Covering the transition to a clean energy economy Mon, 08 Jul 2024 14:36:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://energynews.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cropped-favicon-large-32x32.png carbon pipelines Archives | Energy News Network https://energynews.us/tag/carbon-pipelines/ 32 32 153895404 Illinois passed ‘strongest standards in the nation’ on carbon sequestration, but advocates say more work is needed https://energynews.us/2024/06/11/illinois-passed-strongest-standards-in-the-nation-on-carbon-sequestration-but-advocates-say-more-work-is-needed/ Tue, 11 Jun 2024 09:55:00 +0000 https://energynews.us/?p=2312239

The bill, which Gov. Pritzker is expected to sign, did not fully address concerns about eminent domain and aquifer protection.

Illinois passed ‘strongest standards in the nation’ on carbon sequestration, but advocates say more work is needed is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

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Illinois’s carbon dioxide pipeline and sequestration law passed May 26 is being described as among the nation’s strictest. It is only the second carbon dioxide pipeline moratorium in the U.S., after California, and it creates a significant permitting process once the moratorium is lifted.

But landowners and advocates are still unhappy with several key provisions left out of the law, and said they are exploring options to end the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines and protect landowners from carbon being sequestered in their underground pore space against their will.

“There’s a lot of good in there, but it definitely is a work in progress in terms of guard rails,” said Jennifer Cassel, a senior attorney for Earthjustice who worked with the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition that endorsed the new law after members previously worked with lawmakers on a stronger bill. “The federal uncertainty was part of the push, and there’s so much of a gold rush already happening,” with applications for 22 carbon dioxide injection wells pending in the state, plus various pipeline proposals.

SB 1289, or the SAFE Act, allows a company seeking to sequester carbon to move forward if the owners of 75% of the affected land agree to the plan, which provides them compensation. That means, critics note, that owners of 25% of the land cannot stop a project, even if they are opposed. Owners of small several-acre parcels would have few rights compared to large landowners, noted Pam Richart, co-founder of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines.

The coalition had worked with lawmakers on a much more stringent bill, which would have limited the use of eminent domain to acquire land for pipelines and sequestration. It would also have banned the injection of carbon dioxide through the Mahomet Aquifer. The Farm Bureau opposed the SAFE Act in part because it didn’t address eminent domain, though the new law includes some protections regarding compensation for land damage.  

“Landowners are profoundly disappointed that the act was approved without eminent domain [limits],” Richart said.  “The landowner protections weren’t as strong as we hoped.”

The coalition’s preferred bill would not have allowed forced integration of pore space against landowners’ will. Richart said they expected some compromise on that front, but not to the extent enshrined in the SAFE Act.  

“That’s not how this is supposed to work,” she said. “If a project is in the public interest, you wouldn’t expect landowners of 25% of the land to hold out.”

The SAFE Act stands for Safety and Aid for the Environment in Carbon Capture and Sequestration. It still awaits signature by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has indicated he will sign it, and bills become law after 60 days in Illinois if the governor takes no action. 

Future options

Richart said advocates don’t plan to “reopen the whole process” around legislation, but hope to work with legislators on a trailer bill that could increase protections for landowners.

“A lot of legislators expressed serious concern about the aquifer, I wouldn’t be surprised if those issues and potentially others come back up in some form,” Cassel said.

The new law places a moratorium on new carbon dioxide pipelines for two years or until the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issues regulations for carbon dioxide pipelines, which are in the works. The previous bill advocates backed included a moratorium of four years or until the federal regulations are adopted. Cassel said labor unions felt that moratorium was too long.   

Richart said the Illinois law is only a “quasi-moratorium” since companies can begin the application process for new pipelines even before the PHMSA regulations come out.

Meanwhile the SAFE Act does not include setbacks from properties for carbon dioxide pipelines. If the PHMSA regulations do not include setbacks, which is likely, Illinois advocates could push for setbacks under the permitting process created by the SAFE Act, since it allows for additional safety measures to be developed provided they are not in conflict with federal regulations.

Advocates say county governments, which have in multiple cases refused to approve sequestration sites connected to pipelines, could work together to push for setback policy.

Benefits of new law

Advocates are grateful for a robust public engagement process created by the new law.

“Before there was no requirement to notify anybody about a carbon dioxide pipeline except when the Illinois Commerce Commission was ready to begin its application process,” said Richart, citing two recent controversial proposals. “Wolf never notified anybody, One Earth never notified anybody. The commerce commission just said, ‘You better come to this hearing, it might be subject to eminent domain.’”

The Illinois Commerce Commission decides whether a given proposal is in the public interest and able to invoke eminent domain, but previously the commission had no authority over carbon sequestration sites and its consideration of pipelines was largely limited to property values.  

The SAFE Act creates a permitting process that requires companies hold two public meetings in each affected county and post materials about the proposal and public comment process. Under the new law, the Illinois Commerce Commission can consider safety and other information in deciding whether to grant eminent domain powers.

Under the new law, companies must also pay into an emergency response fund and create an emergency plan, which entails modeling about possible risks and the expected distribution of carbon dioxide plumes in case of a leak.

“They have to do computational fluid dynamics modeling, and they have to make it public, at a time when there is a definite movement by pipeline developers to make their modeling proprietary, confidential,” said Richart. “So this is huge.”

Companies doing carbon injection and sequestration must also put up money for future environmental mitigation, so future costs don’t fall on the state. The law does not allow self-bonding, a controversial financing mechanism used by coal companies in the past that ultimately forced the state to foot the bill for mine cleanup.

The SAFE Act also enshrines safeguards to make sure that carbon capture and sequestration doesn’t ultimately lead to an increase in air pollution by allowing coal plants to keep operating, and it prohibits the use of carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery.

These protections gained approval from environmental justice organizations like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, a member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition.

The Illinois Corn Growers Association and Illinois Renewable Fuels Association also backed the new law. Their members stand to benefit from the expansion of the ethanol industry, which depends on carbon sequestration to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. While carbon capture and sequestration was launched in Illinois in relation to coal plants, recent pipeline proposals have focused primarily on connecting ethanol plants to sequestration sites.

State Rep. Ann Williams, a sponsor of the law, said in a statement that:

“Illinois is a national leader on climate and energy policy, and SB 1289 ensures that if companies are going to use CCS as a climate mitigation strategy, they will need to meet some of the strongest standards in the nation. The CCS protections bill ensures critical guardrails are in place to protect Illinois taxpayers, landowners and our environment.”

Illinois passed ‘strongest standards in the nation’ on carbon sequestration, but advocates say more work is needed is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

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Pipeline developer says Illinois carbon sequestration sites could be just the beginning https://energynews.us/2023/03/02/pipeline-developer-says-illinois-carbon-sequestration-sites-could-be-just-the-beginning/ Thu, 02 Mar 2023 10:59:00 +0000 https://energynews.us/?p=2298129 Residents opposed to a multi-state carbon pipeline gathered in Linn County, Iowa, to paint signs protesting the project in December 2021.

Navigator CO2 Ventures’ revised application offers more details about its plans for a multi-state carbon dioxide pipeline. Meanwhile, landowners say they are feeling pressured to sign easements.

Pipeline developer says Illinois carbon sequestration sites could be just the beginning is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

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Residents opposed to a multi-state carbon pipeline gathered in Linn County, Iowa, to paint signs protesting the project in December 2021.

After filing a new application for a multi-state carbon dioxide pipeline, Navigator CO2 Ventures says its two proposed sequestration sites in Illinois will not be the last word on the project.

“We want to build out something that’s dynamic in nature, which means a variety of on-ramps [and] a variety of off-ramps,” said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, Navigator’s vice president of government and public affairs. 

“The geology in Central Illinois is ripe for sequestration, and the ability to do this safely in a number of counties has great potential. We want to go out and map landowner interest and appetite with where the geology makes sense.”

Navigator has refiled its petition with the Illinois Commerce Commission for an expanded carbon dioxide pipeline route, adding a 42-mile spur to a proposed carbon sequestration site that was not listed in an earlier proposal. That petition was withdrawn in January at the urging of regulatory staff, who said it lacked sufficient detail, and in the face of intense local opposition.

The new application, filed Feb. 24, says the Heartland Greenway pipeline will still connect to a “permanent underground sequestration site” in Christian County plus a “termination and delivery point in Montgomery County for sequestration areas being developed” by the company. 

The 42-mile lateral pipeline added to the latest application would connect Sangamon and Montgomery counties to the main pipeline, which would collect carbon dioxide from ethanol and fertilizer plants across five states. 

Navigator’s Illinois application notes that carbon dioxide carried in the pipeline may be stored in “terminal facilities” that would make it available for industrial users as “an efficient source of carbon dioxide.” The application says these hubs would be located in Iowa, not Illinois, but Burns-Thompson said that carbon dioxide could also be sold to industrial users in Illinois in the future. 

“We have always looked at this as a dynamic piece of infrastructure that continues to grow and evolve based on the market demands of our shippers,” she said. “There are manufacturers that can take carbon dioxide and break that molecule down into something that’s a valuable product.”

As of December, the company had only secured 6% of the easements it would need from Illinois landowners, according to filings with the Illinois Commerce Commission. And Christian County, where it proposed to sequester carbon, passed a moratorium on carbon dioxide pipelines. 

Navigator has offered lucrative fees to both counties targeted for sequestration in exchange for local officials agreeing to facilitate pipeline development, and the company plans to offer such payments to all counties on the pipeline’s path, Burns-Thompson said.

She said Navigator was surprised to learn that, unlike in other states, pipeline operators don’t pay property taxes in Illinois, so Navigator is offering payments of similar amounts in an effort to be “a good steward.” 

Critics see it differently, and they note that the offers were made despite Christian and McDonough counties passing moratoria on such pipelines. Residents have pushed for Montgomery County to pass a moratorium or use zoning to block a pipeline or sequestration site. Two Montgomery County townships have passed resolutions opposing the pipeline.  

“They’ve been hitting counties along the route and trying to buy them out,” said Pam Richart, leader of an Illinois coalition against carbon dioxide pipelines, during a Feb. 27 webinar. “They’ve been offering some pretty hefty dollars. The counties are holding fast, holding firm and saying no.”

Opposition and eminent domain

Burns-Thompson said the company is not discouraged by the moratoria — which she described as “short-term pauses” — or the slow rate of acquiring easements. 

“It’s important to spend time with the local governments and walk them through the robust oversight that exists,” she said. “This is something that’s largely relationship-focused; people want to get to know who we are, what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it long before we can get into the nitty-gritty of an easement contract.” 

Along with at least five counties that have formally stated their opposition, the Illinois Farm Bureau has signed on to a motion to dismiss Navigator’s permit application. Opponents worry about the seizure of land through eminent domain, safety risks, and impacts on land value and farming. 

Navigator counters that the pipeline would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, help the regional ethanol industry and create jobs. 

On Feb. 15 and 16, the company held virtual town halls for the public touting benefits of the pipeline. The application says the company will be sending out letters about the new permit proposal to landowners within a half-mile corridor of the proposed route and will publish notices in a newspaper in each county.

The application says the company will use eminent domain to seize land “in the event it is necessary to avoid unreasonable delay or economic hardship” for the project.

Burns-Thompson said the company will use eminent domain only as a “tool of last resort.”

“Eminent domain does not save us time, it does not save us money and it does not make us any friends,” she said. “If you look at any business, be it a pipeline company or corner coffeeshop, they are looking to maximize their time and financial resources and they want folks they do business with to like them in return. We are incentivized to do this in a voluntary process.” 

State legislation proposed 

Opponents have worked with state legislators to introduce bills this month limiting carbon dioxide pipelines, which if passed could apply to Navigator’s proposal. 

One, SB 1916/HB 3803, would create a moratorium on carbon dioxide pipeline construction for two years or until the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has adopted revised federal safety standards for the transportation of carbon dioxide. The safety administration announced new rulemaking around carbon dioxide pipelines in the wake of a 2020 pipeline rupture in Sartartia, Mississippi, that sickened many. 

The other Illinois state bill, HB 3119/ SB2421, includes multiple curbs and safeguards including a ban on the use of eminent domain and the creation of a fund — paid into by companies — for problems with pipelines and sequestration and for training first responders.

That bill also holds pipeline companies fully liable for any carbon dioxide leaks from pipelines or sequestration sites, and it requires pipelines to be approved by 100% of surface landowners along the route. It also requires a life-cycle carbon emissions analysis of proposed pipelines, and requires that the Illinois Commerce Commission consider alternative project proposals that would result in similar greenhouse gas emissions reductions to what the pipeline companies promise.

Both bills were introduced in the state House on Feb. 16 and 17 and then referred to the rules committee.

During the Feb. 27 webinar, Richart said the more comprehensive bill would create “lots and lots and lots of public participation, that is so important when you’re talking about such risky endeavors.”

“We need this legislation and we need it like yesterday,” Richart said.

Interstate organizing

Navigator’s Heartland Greenway pipeline crosses Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota, and is among a number of controversial carbon dioxide pipelines proposed by various companies in those states.

During regular webinars and meetings, an interstate coalition of pipeline opponents shares their progress raising awareness, encouraging landowners not to sign easements, drafting legal action, and pushing counties and states to pass legislation and moratoria.

During the Feb. 27 webinar where Richart discussed Navigator’s revised application, organizers in Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota discussed other pipeline proposals and their efforts to block them.  

Iowa Sierra Club conservation program director Jess Mazour said Navigator and other companies proposing three different pipelines through the state are “using fear-mongering tactics, saying the ethanol industry is going to die.”

She said 44 of 56 affected counties have intervened in proceedings or logged opposition, mostly over pipeline companies using eminent domain.

“Landowners are remaining united, holding out and not signing easements,” Mazour said. “I have every reason to think we’ll stop all three of these pipelines.” 

Shelli Meyer, whose family has owned a Nebraska farm for a century, said landowners feel they are facing “harassment” as agents contact them repeatedly asking them to sign easements. “We’re telling people, ‘Don’t sign, don’t sign, don’t sign,’” she said.

‘Landowners don’t really have a chance to speak up’ 

More than a decade ago, a pipeline was proposed in Illinois to take carbon dioxide from coal gasification plants in the state to Texas oilfields for enhanced oil recovery, an option Burns-Thompson said is not part of Navigator’s plans. Critics saw it as an ill-fated way to bolster the state’s coal industry.

In 2011, Illinois passed a law regulating carbon dioxide pipelines, to facilitate proposed “clean coal plants” that never came to fruition. Now advocates lament that the law enshrines the idea that carbon dioxide pipelines benefit the public and increase energy security, and makes it hard for residents to challenge this premise.

Illinois leaders argue that the process created by the state law, including an 11-month review period before the Illinois Commerce Commission, allows for less public input than in other states.

The state law “gives conditional approval to the developer, and automatically grants limited authority for eminent domain,” Richart said in the webinar. “Landowners don’t really have a chance to speak up.”

Richart urged local landowners and activists to organize around the clock, and not let a weekend go by without working against pipelines. Illinois pipeline opponents formed a nonprofit organization, Citizens Against Heartland Greenway Pipeline, that charges members $500 a year and has 200 members, allowing them to hire an attorney and participate in the costly intervention process before the Illinois Commerce Commission. An affiliated coalition also provides information and organizing opportunities to landowners, elected officials, business leaders and others at no charge.   

The citizens group had formally intervened before the commerce commission on Navigator’s previous proposal, but since that proposal was withdrawn and resubmitted, they must go through the process again.

“Navigator Heartland Greenway may be persistent in its attempts to endanger Illinoisans through the construction of this pipeline, but they are up against farmers like me who will not let a greedy corporation take our land through eminent domain without a fight,” said Steve Hess, a McDonough County farmer and board member of Citizens Against Heartland Greenway Pipeline, in a statement issued by the group. 

“We will not allow Navigator to permanently damage land, adversely impact farmers’ livelihoods and Illinois agriculture, and endanger our lives. [The citizens group] will again file a petition to intervene with the [Illinois Commerce Commission] and continue to fight this project.”

Pipeline developer says Illinois carbon sequestration sites could be just the beginning is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

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Iowa carbon pipeline opponents see lessons from Dakota Access fight https://energynews.us/2022/05/06/iowa-carbon-pipeline-opponents-see-lessons-from-dakota-access-fight/ Fri, 06 May 2022 09:59:00 +0000 https://energynews.us/?p=2271859 Supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe rally in opposition of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in front of the White House in September 2016.

A coalition similar to the one that took a stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline is emerging in Iowa to fight a proposed interstate carbon dioxide pipeline, and opponents say they’re better prepared this time.

Iowa carbon pipeline opponents see lessons from Dakota Access fight is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

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Supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe rally in opposition of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in front of the White House in September 2016.

We’re a long way from another Standing Rock.

In Iowa, though, a coalition similar to the one that took a stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 is emerging to fight a proposed interstate carbon dioxide pipeline network, and opponents say they’re more organized and energized at this stage thanks to lessons learned last decade.

“People forget the fight against DAPL” — the Dakota Access Pipeline — “started in Iowa,” said Sikowis Nobiss, founder and executive director of Great Plains Action Society, a regional organization of Indigenous activists formed in part to help galvanize resistance to Dakota Access. “Here we are again starting a fight against a pipeline in Iowa.”

The organization’s latest target is a project by Summit Carbon Solutions that would carry carbon dioxide captured at more than 30 Midwest ethanol plants to underground storage sites in North Dakota. The proposed route would not cross tribal land, but the same was true of the early Dakota Access route before it was rerouted through the Standing Rock Reservation.

Nobiss, a citizen of the George Gordon First Nation, sees parallels with the Dakota Access movement, specifically in the unlikely alliances forming among environmental and Indigenous activists and White landowners who see pipeline construction as a threat to their farmland. Concerns about eminent domain have drawn local governments and groups such as the Farm Bureau into the fray, too. 

“They’re in the fight for their reasons, and we’re in it for ours,” Nobiss said. 

Early outreach

The biggest difference from Dakota Access is the level of organization this early in the process. By the time Great Plains Action Society mobilized against DAPL, many tribal governments along the route had already heard presentations and promises from the pipeline’s developer. Today, their outreach efforts are often outpacing the company’s, she said, giving them a chance to reach local leaders before they have already formed positions.

“Back during the DAPL days, I don’t think that tribal folks were hearing the other side of the conversation at this time,” Nobiss said.

The Iowa Sierra Club was similarly quick to organize after Summit’s project was announced last year, putting much of its effort so far into educating and organizing property owners in the project’s path. Its lead organizer has been in contact with more than 1,000 landowners, and more than 100 have signed with an Omaha law firm to represent them as a group.

“We didn’t do enough with Dakota Access, and we didn’t get in soon enough,” said Wally Taylor, an attorney representing the Iowa Sierra Club who advised the environmental group early on to prioritize creating a unified voice for landowners instead of having them intervene individually as they did for Dakota Access. 

Jessica Mazour, the Sierra Club’s lead organizer on the project, said the type of conversations she’s having today are different from the ones she had around Dakota Access. While many people have strong political opinions about oil pipelines, they’re often less familiar with carbon capture pipelines. 

“I think because people don’t know a lot about carbon pipelines, it gave us an opportunity to teach people about something they don’t have a preconceived notion about,” Mazour said. She credits two organizations, the Center for International Environmental Law and the Science and Environmental Health Network, for helping the Sierra Club put together education materials.

The argument against the pipeline

The developer is pitching the project as a way to address climate change, but the Sierra Club and other environmental critics say it’s a risky and unnecessary distraction from more proven solutions such as investments in renewable energy, electrification, and energy efficiency.

“We think that, number one, it destroys farmland,” Taylor said. “Number two, there is a very real prospect of injury and damage both to humans and the environment if there is a rupture, and we don’t believe it’s a solution to the climate crisis. … It’s strictly for the benefit of the ethanol industry and the promoter.”

The project’s economics are largely driven by the low-carbon fuel standards adopted by West Coast states, which offer financial incentives for emission-reducing transportation fuels. Summit Carbon Solutions says its project will put 31 Midwest ethanol plants on track to be able to market net-zero fuel by 2030, in addition to creating thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of long-term positions. The project will have capacity to capture and permanently store up to 12 million tons of CO2 per year, it says.

But first, it needs to be built. Taylor says there are signs that early organizing by the Sierra Club and its allies is having an effect. The company said last month that it had only secured about 20% of the nearly 3,000 voluntary easements it is seeking for its route across Iowa, and more than two dozen counties have now objected to the project or the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines.

While opponents feel ahead of the curve compared to where they were with Dakota Access, they also recognize that they are in uncharted territory. 

“Because this is the first and largest interstate carbon pipeline, there’s not a playbook to follow,” Mazour said. “We’re writing the playbook.”

Iowa carbon pipeline opponents see lessons from Dakota Access fight is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

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Advocates urge Illinois landowners to prepare for risks from CO2 pipelines https://energynews.us/2022/03/15/advocates-urge-illinois-landowners-to-prepare-for-risks-from-co2-pipelines/ Tue, 15 Mar 2022 09:59:00 +0000 https://energynews.us/?p=2268992 Grassy Illinois farmland.

With geology considered ideal for carbon storage, residents worry about increasing proposals to transport and sequester carbon dioxide below farmland.

Advocates urge Illinois landowners to prepare for risks from CO2 pipelines is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

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Grassy Illinois farmland.

A coalition of downstate Illinois environmental groups is warning rural landowners about potential safety and financial hazards from a planned carbon sequestration project in the region.

Illinois’ sandstone geology is considered ideal for below-ground carbon sequestration. Several such projects in the state have been proposed and researched in the past without coming to completion, as carbon capture and sequestration at scale remains an expensive and largely untested technology. 

That could change with a Texas company’s proposed Heartland Greenway project, a 1,300-mile pipeline network that would carry carbon dioxide from ethanol plants in five Midwest states to central Illinois, where up to 15 million metric tons would be stored in “pore space” located under thousands of acres of farmland and other rural property.

The risk of damage from the project’s construction and operation has already raised significant opposition in Iowa. At a March 7 webinar, experts and local advocates in downstate Illinois urged landowners there to prepare a similar defense ahead of potential easement or eminent domain disputes.

Illinois is poised to become a “superhighway for CO2 pipelines gathering [carbon dioxide] all over the Midwest,” energy attorney Paul Blackburn said at the webinar, presented by the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines. “Some folks believe these pipelines will stop climate change, but there are arguments about whether that is actually true.” 

Groundwork laid in Illinois 

So far Illinois’ only carbon dioxide pipeline is a short one connecting an ADM ethanol plant with a sequestration site mostly on the company’s land in Decatur, experts say. 

In 2011 Illinois passed a law related to carbon dioxide shipping and sequestration, to facilitate the proposed FutureGen project, a multibillion-dollar proposal to store carbon dioxide underground at the site of a Meredosia, Illinois, coal plant. The federal government pulled funding and the project died in 2015

Under that law, the Illinois Commerce Commission must approve the route and overall plan for carbon dioxide pipelines. Pipelines must obtain federal permits from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They must also obtain state permits promising to remedy damage to agriculture, including disruption of drainage tiles or soil. 

Texas-based Navigator CO2 Ventures proposes to sequester carbon dioxide across 30,000 acres about a mile underground in the Mount Simon Sandstone. Navigator proposes to pay Illinois farmers for reduced crop yield for three years after pipeline construction, paying 100%, 80% and 60% each year. 

Once pipelines obtain state commission approval, former Illinois Commerce Commission administrative law judge John Albers explained at the webinar, companies have the right to invoke eminent domain if needed to avoid unnecessary delay or financial hardship. Residents and advocates at the meeting worried these terms are too broad and could allow widespread use of eminent domain. They also expressed doubts as to whether farmland would be adequately protected. 

In 2020 a bill was introduced in Illinois, but failed to advance, that would have allowed companies to move forward with sequestration if 50% of affected pore space owners approved. 

Safety risks 

Blackburn, who has represented the Sierra Club and residents in opposition to the Keystone XL and other pipelines, outlined what he described as significant safety concerns from carbon dioxide transport and storage. 

He said that since carbon dioxide is transported in pipelines in a “supercritical” state between a gas and liquid, it behaves differently than either liquid oil or natural gas in case of a spill. It decompresses as it goes from a gas to liquid state, a process that can damage pipelines and even lead to the formation of dry ice, which can cause serious damage and risk. Meanwhile, a pressure increase as it goes from liquid to gas can “unzip” pipelines, ripping them open, Blackburn said. And since supercritical carbon dioxide can dissolve hydrocarbons, it could corrode the sealings and coatings on pipes.

“Oil is a liquid and it stays liquid, and natural gas is gas; it stays gas,” said Blackburn. “But supercritical carbon dioxide is a funny hybrid and if it’s not controlled carefully it can switch back and forth between gas and liquid, and that can be very dangerous.”

Oil and gas versus carbon dioxide pipelines “are different creatures,” added Albers, who explained state law and processes during the webinar. He worried that the state Commerce Commission’s experts don’t have adequate experience with carbon dioxide pipelines.

“If staff is not going to have the expertise to evaluate these pipeline projects, I sure recommend you have it,” he said, suggesting citizen groups hire engineers, public health experts and first responders to weigh in on commission proceedings. “It’s your right as citizens, and you’ll definitely be affected by this if it’s on your property or near your property.” 

Since the Commerce Commission has not yet approved the project, the company behind the pipeline is not yet allowed to approach landowners seeking access to their land and subsurface. Speakers at the webinar said they’d heard rumors about company representatives approaching locals and advised residents to report any such contacts to state authorities. 

“We are in the initial phases of this work and we’ve been at it for less than two months,” said Pam Richart, co-founder of the Eco-Justice Collaborative, which advocates for a just clean energy transition in the state. The coalition also plans to organize landowners, elected officials, emergency responders and other stakeholders “to do what we can to form the groups so we can be prepared to intervene” before the commission. 

Learning from Iowa and Indiana 

In Indiana, the state legislature on March 2 approved HB 1209, which creates a process for companies to get landowner approval and compensate landowners for storing carbon dioxide in the pore space below-ground. The bill — pushed by BP — mandates compensating landowners for pore space but also allows them to operate below one’s land if at least 70% of affected landowners approve it. 

Another Indiana bill, pushed for years by the company Wabash Valley Resources, failed in the legislature, to the relief of farmers and citizen watchdogs. It did not compensate landowners and stipulated that the company could only be held liable if concrete damage was proven. 

The Indiana Farm Bureau opposed Wabash Valley Resources’ bill since it put the onus on farmers to prove any damage, and did little to compensate them for use of their subsurface property, said Jeff Cummins, associate director for policy engagement for the bureau. The farm bureau was neutral on the bill that did pass. 

“If the company is going to sequester carbon dioxide in the pore space below ground, the farmer and landowner should have the right to monetize pore space, because the company sure will,” Cummins said. “We’re certainly talking with our members a lot about surface carbon sequestration opportunities out there,” like incentives for no-till farming. “These contracts [for subsurface sequestration] should operate somewhat similarly.” 

During the Illinois webinar, rural Iowa blogger and landowner Jessica Wiskus described her and her neighbors’ outrage at the proposed use of eminent domain for the Navigator pipeline, which would pass about a mile from her land. 

Wiskus said the pipeline would go within a few hundred feet of “where my ancestors are buried,” and also put “ballfields, historic buildings, Native American mounds, even schools” at risk. 

She noted widespread reports that the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline has harmed soils as it was constructed in Iowa, and worried the carbon pipeline would do the same.

“The soil we have here is irreplaceable — Mother Nature took thousands of years to make it, but the pipeline would undo all of that,” she said. 

Richart cited Iowa residents’ organizing around the pipeline in urging Illinois residents to learn more about the proposal and get involved in Commerce Commission proceedings. The Eco-Justice Collaborative, Sierra Club and other partners are urging Illinois residents to visit a website they created opposing carbon dioxide pipelines, and refuse to allow pipelines under their land. 

“Don’t sign that volunteer easement,” Richart said during the webinar. “There will be time for you to sign when you decide what’s right for you, but we’re not there yet. … We’re not alone here in Illinois, there’s been a lot of work going on [in other states] before we even noticed this.”

Advocates urge Illinois landowners to prepare for risks from CO2 pipelines is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

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