Iowa Carbon Pipeline Opponents See Lessons in Dakota Access Fight

May 11, 2022

Print This Article Share it With Friends

by Dan Haugen (Energy News Network/The Gazette) Coalition organizing earlier than those opposing oil pipeline six years ago -- 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 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, 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.

Despite the protests, culminating in a monthslong sit-in at Standing Rock N.D., the pipeline was completed in April 2017 and began carrying oil in May 2017.

...

By the time Great Plains Action Society mobilized against the Dakota Access pipeline, many tribal governments along the route had already heard presentations and promises from the pipeline’s developer.

...

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.

...

She (Jessica Mazour, the Sierra Club’s lead organizer on the project) 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 pipeline 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, No. 1, it destroys farmland,” Taylor said. “No. 2, 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.” READ MORE

How Biden's climate policy set off a Corn Belt brawl: White House support for an "interstate CO2 highway system" is scrambling alliances in Iowa. (E&E News)

Across the Midwest, an ‘unlikely alliance’ forms to stop carbon pipelines (Grist)

'The risk is not worth it': Iowans ask regulators to reject proposed carbon capture pipelines (Des Moines Register)

Letter: Summit Carbon Solutions responds to letter writer; explains responsibility for drain tile repairs: Summit Carbon Solutions proposes pipeline to transport carbon from Jackson County ethanol plant. (The Globe)

Ethanol Industry Wants to Bury Its Carbon, but Some Farmers Stand in the Way -- Pipeline projects aimed at sequestering heat-trapping gases are meeting opposition similar to that faced by fossil-fuel pipelines (Wall Street Journal)

Farmers fight against proposed 'Midwest carbon express' pipeline (Fox News; includes VIDEO)

Corn Ethanol Investors Poised to Profit From Inflation Reduction Act -- The ethanol industry will be first in line for carbon capture tax credits, even though that’s not really who the program was designed for. (The American Prospect)

EMINENT DOMAIN CONCERNS CLOUD PIPELINE PROPOSALS -- PROJECTS BOOST CARBON SEQUESTRATION FOR THE ETHANOL INDUSTRY. (Successful Farming)