Iowa's carbon pipeline race meets growing opposition

Resistance is growing to proposals for multi-billion-dollar networks of underground pipelines that would cross Iowa and capture carbon dioxide from ethanol or fertilizer plants.

Why it matters: While the proposals claim the projects would greatly reduce greenhouse emissions, they're raising controversy among environmentalists and community leaders.

• Groups like the Sierra Club claim the Iowa proposals are “false climate solutions” that “take us farther away from climate goals.”
• And others argue the projects don’t benefit their communities.

What's happening: At least four counties have announced opposition to the use of eminent domain to seize property for the proposed pipeline projects.

• Meanwhile, a "pro-landowner" Republican lawmaker is drafting legislation to limit when the companies could use eminent domain.

State of play: Last week, Wolf Carbon Solutions became the third company to announce an Iowa pipeline proposal. It would connect facilities in Cedar Rapids and Clinton to a sequestration site in Decatur, Illinois.

• Summit Carbon Solutions' proposal includes portions of Story County, while Navigator CO2 Ventures' would cross Polk's northeast corner.

Context: In 2018, Congress expanded a federal tax credit to incentivize investments in carbon capture.

• President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill has proposed billions of dollars to expand the credit even further, though talks over the plan have recently stalled.

What they're saying: Eminent domain should be limited to projects that serve the entire public rather than to the exclusive benefit of private companies, Linn County supervisors said in a letter to the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) last week.

• Long-term land value losses are also a worry, the supervisors said.

• Ethanol plants and the pipelines could soon become obsolete as electric vehicles replace gasoline engines, a former member of the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission recently warned in a Des Moines Register op-ed.

The other side: Gasoline or flex-fuel vehicles are projected to retain the majority of the market through at least 2050, Navigator spokesperson Elizabeth Burns-Thompson told Axios last week, citing a 2021 projection from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

• Landowners will be fully compensated for easements and all future expenses. That includes a 240% reimbursement for yield losses, said Burns-Thompson, who's also an Altoona City Council member.

What's next: The IUB is holding a virtual information meeting about Navigator's project tonight at 6pm. Registration is required.

• The project has months of permitting and negotiations ahead, but construction could potentially begin in early 2024.