A New Nimbyism Blocks Carbon Pipelines

By Benoît Morenne and Joe Barrett (Wall Street Journal) Projects for burying carbon emissions are under pressure in the Midwest, spelling challenges ahead for massive infrastructure buildup -- Oil and gas pipelines have been stymied for years by environmentalists and landowners. Now those groups are blocking CO₂ pipelines too.

In the Midwest, a coalition of environmental groups and farmers have teamed up to stop plans to erect thousands of miles of pipelines that would carry climate-warming carbon emissions to underground storage locations.

The projects are vital to President Biden’s plans to drastically curtail emissions, but the groups question their green credentials, safety and use of eminent domain to seize private property.

Regulators in North and South Dakota recently rejected permit applications by developers after fierce local opposition, injecting uncertainty into the companies’ multibillion-dollar plans to shuttle and store CO₂ deep under the surface.

If the U.S. is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, it will have to build about 60,000 miles of conduits to connect industrial sites where CO2 is emitted and captured to burial spots, according to a 2021 Princeton University study. About 5,300 miles of CO2 pipelines operate today.

Environmental groups fighting the projects acknowledge that piping carbon for underground storage sounds good in theory, but argue the process is energy- and water-intensive and would only delay conversion to green energy sources such as wind and solar.

Tax subsidies included in Biden’s signature climate bill allow companies to receive $85 per metric ton of CO₂ captured directly from emitters and stored—an appealing proposition in the Corn Belt, where ethanol plants spit out a concentrated carbon stream that can be collected at a low cost.

But developers of CO₂ pipelines have run into hurdles familiar to the oil-and-gas industry—from having to negotiate easements with landowners to navigating complex regulations. States and counties currently decide whether to approve or deny the projects, and the White House earlier this year urged Congress to give the federal government authority to green light CO₂ pipelines. READ MORE

Excerpt from News from the States South Dakota: A statewide coalition has formed to pursue restrictions on the use of eminent domain for projects such as carbon dioxide pipelines.

The group introduced itself during a press conference Thursday at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.

The politically diverse coalition, named South Dakotans First, consists of the South Dakota Farmers Union, Dakota Rural Action, Landowners for Eminent Domain Reform, and various landowners.

Farmers Union President Doug Sombke told South Dakota Searchlight the coalition will advocate for property rights generally. But its creation is a response to Summit Carbon Solutions’ filing of eminent domain proceedings against more than 150 landowners for a proposed multi-state carbon dioxide pipeline. Summit has said the eminent domain actions have since been withdrawn.

“Eminent domain” refers to the power to access private property for public use, provided the owner is given just compensation.

Summit seeks to capture carbon dioxide emitted from 31 ethanol plants in multiple states and transport it in liquid form to an underground sequestration site in North Dakota. The multi-billion-dollar project is eligible for billions in tax credits from the federal government, as incentives for removing heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Sombke said mitigating climate change is arguably a “public use,” but carbon is not a commodity when it’s being buried underground.

“If people want to do stuff about carbon in the atmosphere, they need to do it in a way that works with the landowners,” Sombke said. “The majority of people, people in the middle, they are with us on that.”

Last legislative session, proponents of the pipeline said some of the CO2 would be used to carbonate soft drinks and make products including dry ice, which are commodities the public uses.

Rep. Karla Lems, R-Canton – who owns land the pipeline would cross – was in attendance at Thursday’s press conference. She sponsored a failed bill last winter that would have barred eminent domain for carbon pipelines. This winter, she plans to support a bill that would ban pipelines from using eminent domain until they have a permit from the Public Utilities Commission. Lems and Sombke said a number of other bills are in the works but are not ready to be shared. READ MORE