Advanced BioFuels USA

by Chris Clayton (DTN Progressive Farmer) … An Iowa state senator’s bill would take away the companies’ ability to use eminent domain. The bill introduced by state Sen. Jeff Taylor, a Republican from northwest Iowa, would limit the use of eminent domain to public utilities and double the annual fee paid to the state for pipelines carrying hazardous liquids.

“I’ve heard from lots of farmers back home, in northwest Iowa, who are upset about the pipelines and about the likely use of eminent domain to seize part of their land — or, to put it another way, to coerce an easement,” Taylor stated Monday in an email to DTN. “Some object to the pipelines for safety reasons, some because crop yields will decrease as a result of topsoil disturbance, and others just don’t want to have a hazardous liquid pipeline forced upon them. Three of the four county boards of supervisors in my district have registered opposition to the use of eminent domain for these pipelines with the Iowa Utilities Board.”

PROPOSED PROJECTS

Iowa is the center of three separate carbon pipeline projects that collectively would cross about 1,600 miles of property just in the Hawkeye state alone.

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Summit Carbon Solutions is led by Bruce Rastetter, an Iowa agribusiness leader who has owned and operated pork and ethanol companies in the state. Summit’s Midwest Carbon Express pipeline, estimated to cost $4.5 billion, plans to run through Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota and sink carbon dioxide into a geological formation in North Dakota about a mile into the ground.

In Iowa, Summit Carbon Solutions filed an application with the Iowa Utilities Board in late January to use eminent domain for its pipeline across 30 counties.

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Summit, though, has stated the company already has signed up hundreds of landowners and cites strong support for its project.

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So far, Summit’s main competitor, Navigator CO2 Ventures, has not filed for eminent domain. Created by the Texas-based pipeline company Navigator Energy Services, Navigator’s Heartland Greenway pipeline, projected at $2 billion in costs, will stretch 1,200 miles across Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and sink its carbon dioxide at two sites in Illinois near where ADM is already sinking carbon into the ground near Decatur.

ADM also has announced plans with Wolf Carbon Solutions for another pipeline from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to where ADM is already sequestering carbon near Decatur, Illinois.

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Besides private citizens, at least 20 county boards of supervisors also have filed formal objections to the use of eminent domain for the project.

ACTIONS IN OTHER STATES

While Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota have specific permitting requirements for carbon pipelines, that isn’t the case in some other states. Nebraska has no state law governing carbon pipelines. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported last week that the Minnesota Public Service Commission has determined that carbon pipelines are essentially regulated by county zoning laws.

Nebraska, though, has a lot of recent history opposing pipelines. Earlier this month, the group Bold Nebraska held a couple of in-person events and an online informational meeting about landowner rights. Of Nebraska’s 24 ethanol plants, at least nine have committed to the Summit pipeline while three have signed on to Navigator.

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A key part of the focus for NEAT is to spread the costs of attorney representation because NEAT will negotiate on behalf of all the landowners with a pipeline company to force better easement terms.

“If you don’t stand up for yourself, you aren’t going to be protected,” Jorde said. He added, “Everyone I’ve ever represented, those who hold out the longest get the most money.”

For more information, see “Pipelines Seek to Hit Net-Zero Ethanol”

https://www.dtnpf.com/…     READ MORE

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