Ag Policy Blog: Despite Ethanol Industry Concerns, Iowa House Votes to Restrict Carbon Pipelines

March 27, 2023

Print This Article Share it With Friends

by Chris Clayton (DTN Progressive Farmer) In one of the most heated political battles in the state, the Iowa House of Representatives on March 22 voted against the interests of the state's biofuels industry in a 71-20 vote to tighten rules for carbon pipeline projects across the state.

The bill passed despite a study released by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) that Iowa farmer income could decline $1.1 billion annually if ethanol plants in the state can't capture and sequester carbon in the future. IRFA, citing a study by economist David Miller, estimates that ethanol plants could leave the state if they aren't able to tap into pipelines.

See, "Iowa Study: Blocking Carbon Pipelines Would Devastate Ethanol Production," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

IRFA held a second press call earlier this week with corn growers looking to curb support for the House bill.

"I hope that it does not become law the way it is because it will kill these projects and have a very scarily large detrimental impact on our industry," said Monte Shaw, the association's executive director, according to the Iowa Capitol Dispatch.

Carbon sequestration pipelines would be a boon for ethanol plants looking to lower their carbon scores both for states with low-carbon fuel standards as well as the potential Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) market. Two companies, Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator CO2 each have more than 30 ethanol plans and other agricultural industries signed up to take their carbon emissions.

The U.S. Department of Energy projects that commercial carbon storage could hit 250 million metric tons in 2025, but grow to 2 billion metric tons by 2035.

The three carbon pipeline projects looking to develop in Iowa have struggled to gain the support of residents, however. The Des Moines Register released a poll March 14 showed 78% of Iowans oppose companies using eminent domain to build carbon pipelines with 15% of those polled in favor and 7% unsure.

The Register reported, "A strong majority of Iowans oppose eminent domain for the pipelines, regardless of their political party, gender, age, religion, income or where they live."

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/…

The bill, HF 565, which now goes to the Iowa Senate, would require a carbon pipeline company to "acquire at least 90% of the affected route miles through voluntary easements" with landowners before the Iowa Utilities Board could grant the right of eminent domain for the other 10% of pipeline miles.

The bill would also limit claims on crop loss damages to no more than five years after reaching a settlement. Landowners or tenant farmers would be able to file a claim in court for damages, "including, but not limited to crop yield loss damages."

During debate on the bill, Iowa state Rep. Steven Holt, a western Iowa Republican, pushed back on claims that legislation would change the rules in the middle of the game for pipeline companies.

"Let's talk about the landowners who were there first," he said.

...

"What is playing out is a very different kind of environmental battle, a huge test not just for farmers and landowners but for emerging technologies promoted as ways to safely store planet-warming carbon," the NYT wrote. https://www.nytimes.com/…

In North Dakota, the Burleigh County Commission also voted 4-0 on Monday to require special permits for companies to build carbon pipelines, citing them as carrying hazardous liquids. READ MORE

House passes bill to restrict eminent domain for pipelines (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Will GOP senators defy Iowa voters to protect unpopular pipelines? (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Senate won't curb eminent domain for carbon pipelines; most Iowans say they want limits (Des Moines Register)

Bill to block carbon capture pipelines stalls in Iowa Senate (Agri-Pulse)

Wolf proceeds with voluntary pipeline approach despite neighbors’ growing blockade (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Wake up and smell the ethanol, Iowa (The Gazette)

Excerpt from Des Moines Register: A House bill that would restrict the use of eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines — an idea favored by a strong majority of Iowans — won't receive a Senate hearing ahead of a key legislative deadline, meaning the bill is effectively dead for the session.

The bill represented the most serious legislative effort this year to address the concerns of farmers and other landowners who fear they could be forced to sell access to their land to companies seeking to build pipelines across the state.

To survive Friday's second legislative "funnel" deadline, bills must pass out of either the House or the Senate and advance through a full committee in the opposite chamber.

...

The bill was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee, and Sen. Mike Bousselot, R-Ankeny, was assigned to chair a three-member subcommittee on the bill.

...

Bousselot said in a statement Wednesday he decided not to schedule the subcommittee this week given that the full Senate Commerce Committee wouldn't meet in time to take up the bill before the funnel deadline.

The committee was scheduled to meet on Monday, but the meeting was canceled.

"The bill came over late last week from the House. It arrived so late in the process, I chose not to move the bill to subcommittee without a committee meeting scheduled late in the week," Bousselot said in a statement. "Senators have a wide variety of opinions on this issue and a consensus has not been found."

...

Senate Republican leadership could choose to reassign the bill to another committee, but they are unlikely to do so. READ MORE

Excerpt from Iowa Capital Dispatch: There is, however, a significant number of landowners who have publicly said they will not sign voluntary easements for the pipeline. An early March filing with the Iowa Utilities Board — submitted by affected landowner Jessica Wiskus — listed about 200 of those landowners in opposition.

In a new filing by Wiskus this week, that number has grown to more than 250.

“Everyone on the list has already decided where they stand in terms of this issue,” Wiskus said, “and we’re looking for a way just to be able to say, ‘No means no … don’t come back. We’re not interested.’”

Steve Pisarik’s farmland near Ely is at the center of Wolf’s pipeline corridor in Linn County. That corridor of potential construction is two miles wide, Noppinger said, to allow the company to avoid landowners who oppose the project. But Pisarik said he and his neighbors — many of who have farmland that’s been owned by their families for several generations — are in solidarity against the project.

A tentative map compiled by Wiskus of that area shows a corridor of opposition that is nearly three miles wide in places — larger than Wolf’s current corridor.

“I grew up in a neighborhood of multigenerational farmers who all feel the same way,” Pisarik said. “It would be betraying our families. … I’ll go to jail before I let them put it on my ground.”

Pisarik said he has stopped answering his home telephone to avoid any contact with Wolf representatives.

Wiskus said she, too, is avoiding the company and that the pipeline proposal led to calls and emails among concerned neighbors that spawned meetings and, ultimately, the list of opposition. She doesn’t think it’s possible for the pipeline to come through the area without eminent domain.

“Nobody wants their other neighbors to be under the same kind of stress that they’re under at this moment,” Wiskus said. “And that’s why all of us are kind of holding together. It’s the only power we have.”

The pipelines would be a boon to the ethanol industry because they would allow ethanol producers to qualify for considerable federal tax credits. Those who oppose the projects are concerned about damage to land, the bigger issue of landowners’ rights and the safety risks associated with potential leaks.

A federal regulator recently noted that those risks are relatively small and can be reduced further by vigilant monitoring of the pipeline routes for shifting soil that causes pipeline breaks.

Wolf’s project is the third proposed carbon dioxide pipeline in Iowa, and Noppinger said some of the opposition to its project is rooted in the opposition to the others, which span considerably longer distances of about 680 and 810 miles in Iowa.

“There’s certainly some crossover of negativity to our project, which is really unfair,” Noppinger said. “But we’re doing all the right things to ensure that we can get this done without eminent domain.” READ MORE