US carbon pipeline opponents draw lessons from previous pipeline battles

Oct 24 (Reuters) – Landowners wanting to block a proposed carbon pipeline project in the U.S. Midwest have battled the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines It has received help from some of America’s most prominent anti-pipeline campaigners, including groups.

The Sierra Club, an environmental nonprofit, and the Bold Alliance, a progressive group, are working with local organizations to help property owners in five Midwest states, applying lessons learned from past campaigns. He told Reuters he does.

Their involvement puts a big battle awaiting Summit Carbon Solutions’ Midwest Carbon Express pipeline and two other proposed projects aimed at transporting carbon dioxide thousands of miles from ethanol plants to underground storage sites. suggests that there are Root easements.

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Although the new project will not carry oil, anti-pipeline groups say the captured carbon could be used to extend the life of oilfields, and long-term underground storage of carbon has not been proven, so environmental They claim it poses a risk.

On the other hand, many landowners oppose the project for a variety of reasons, from concerns about damage to farmland during construction to potential leaks in pipes that could pose a health threat.

Summit said it has secured 48% of the easement needed to run the world’s largest carbon capture pipeline, which will stretch about 2,000 miles (3,220 km) across Iowa and four other states. But in order to start construction on time in 2023, some of the remaining may need to be seized through the Land Acquisition Act (the power of the government to acquire private property for public use). .

“Eventually, when the end of the project is reached, landowners may have a path to eminent domain,” said Lee Blank, CEO of Summit. “That’s not what we want.”

Groups such as the Dakota Resource Council of North Dakota, Dakota Rural Action of South Dakota, and Bold Nebraska, part of the Bold Alliance, help landowners fight land claims. To that end, we are preparing by organizing a collective legal representative.

This strategy was used in Nebraska in its fight against Keystone XL, said Jane Cleve, executive director of Bold Nebraska and founder of Bold Alliance.

Cleave led a decade-long campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline, which carries Canadian oil to US refineries, and has become a symbol of the US climate movement. U.S. President Joe Biden revoked his XL’s federal authorization shortly after he took office.

Nebraska Attorney Brian Jorde of Domina Law Group, who also represents landowners opposing Keystone XL, said hundreds of people living along the Summit route and that the route proposed by Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf Carbon Solutions was his. He said he registered with the company. .

“They are so angry”

The issue united the unlikely allies. Environmentalists who oppose carbon capture and conservative rural landowners who are angry that private companies may have their land seized.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) proponents say the technology can keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and is essential for the US to meet its climate goals, a position the Biden administration supports. . The ethanol industry in particular wants CCS to help reduce or eliminate its net carbon footprint.

But most CCS projects in the U.S. have so far injected captured carbon into oil fields to boost oil production, and permanent underground storage of carbon has not been proven.Sierra Club of Iowa State organizer Jess Mazur said this undermines the pipeline companies’ environmental claims.

“These should not be disconnected from oil and gas pipelines,” she said.

According to Dakota Rural Action organizer Chase Jensen, not all landowners opposed to the pipeline are swayed by the environmental controversy, but they get involved when their property rights are involved. did.

“The group that fought (Keystone XL) is considered one of these radical environmental groups,” he said. “But[landowners]understand when they hit their pipeline.”

Some landowners along the Summit Route in North Dakota are particularly concerned because they own sections of the Keystone 1 and Dakota Access oil pipelines, said Scott, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council. Skokos said.

“That’s part of why they’re so angry,” he said.

For example, Dan Wall, an Iowa farmer who lives along the Summit Route and is opposed to the pipeline, had an incentive to run for local office to represent many of his neighbors who were angry about the project. said.

“The absolute goal is to stop the pipeline,” he said.

Lawsuits have already sprung up over the company’s ability to survey properties along the proposed route.

An Iowa landowner recently won a lawsuit against Navigator and blocked its investigation. Jorde represents dozens more landowners in similar cases, he said.

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Reporting by Leah Douglas Editing by Margherita Choi

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Leah Douglas

thomson Reuters

Washington-based award-winning journalist covering agriculture and energy, including competition, regulation, federal agency, corporate consolidation, environment and climate, racism and labor, and formerly with the Food and Environment Reporting Network. was

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