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Monday meeting in Floyd will explore carbon capture pipeline proposal

Monday meeting in Floyd will explore carbon capture pipeline proposal
Midwest Carbon Express proposed pipeline route through Floyd County.
Monday meeting in Floyd will explore carbon capture pipeline proposal
Midwest Carbon Express proposed pipeline route through Chickasaw County.
Monday meeting in Floyd will explore carbon capture pipeline proposal
Midwest Carbon Express proposed pipeline route through Iowa.
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A public information meeting to be held Monday evening in Floyd will be an opportunity for potentially affected landowners and others to learn more about a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would cross much of the state, including through Floyd County.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Monday, at the Floyd Community Center, 706 Fairfield St., in Floyd.

The project, Midwest Carbon Express, being proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions, would capture carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants and other CO2-producing industries in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, compress it into a liquid and transport it through buried pipelines to North Dakota, where it would be stored deep underground.

The pipelines are projected to go through 30 Iowa counties in the north, northwestern and western parts of the state, including Floyd, Chickasaw, Cerro Gordo and Franklin counties locally.

The meeting Monday evening is being held by the Iowa Utility Board, which must grant a permit for the pipeline before it can be built.

Summit Carbon Solutions will be seeking permanent easements for the buried pipeline, as well as temporary construction easements and access easements on nearby property.

The meeting Monday will explain additional details of the project and the legal rights of the affected landowners. People will be able to ask questions,

Under Iowa law, the meetings must be held in each county where the pipeline would go through, and each affected landowner had to be notified by letter of the upcoming meetings.

Summit Carbon Solutions can’t begin negotiating for easements in a county until after a meeting has been held in that county, and it can’t apply for a permit until 30 days after the last meeting is held.

Other area meetings are scheduled for:

  • Cerro Gordo County – Monday, Sept. 20, 1:30 p.m., NIACC – Beem Center, 500 College Drive, Mason City.
  • Chickasaw County – Wednesday, Sept. 29, 1 p.m., Chickasaw Event Center, 301 N. Water Ave., New Hampton.
  • Franklin County – Wednesday, Oct. 13, 5 p.m., Maynes Grove Lodge, 946 US Hwy 65, Hampton.

There will also be an online virtual meeting allowing individuals to attend and participate remotely. The Webex meeting will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 12, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Information for registering and attending the webinar is available on the Iowa Utilities Board website, iub.iowa.gov, on the Hearing and Meeting Calendar webpage.

People can submit comments about or objections to the pipeline proposal electronically by using the IUB’s open docket form, by email to mcustomer@iub.iowa.gov, or by mail to the Iowa Utilities Board, Attn: Docket No. HLP-2021-0001, 1375 E. Court Ave. Des Moines, IA 50319.

Summit Carbon Solutions, which is a part of Iowan Bruce Rastetter’s Summit Agricultural Group, estimates the project will cost about $4.5 billion, would be ready to begin pumping CO2 by 2024, and would sequester 12 million metric tons of CO2 per year.

Thirty ethanol companies including 10 in Iowa have signed on to be part of the project.

The pipeline would make money largely through a federal tax credit that will eventually pay up to $50 for every ton of carbon a company captures and stores underground. At an estimated 12 million tons per year, that would be $600 million per year in potential income from that source alone.

Ethanol companies could use their participation in carbon capture and storage to increase their ability to sell ethanol in states and countries with stringent CO2 regulations.

Another carbon capture pipeline has also been proposed to go through Iowa, including through Floyd County.

Heartland Greenway System is a proposal by Navigator Energy Services of Dallas, Texas. It would include carbon-dioxide-emitting industries in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Illinois, and pipe the liquid carbon dioxide to underground rock storage in central Illinois.

No public meetings have been set yet on the Heartland Greenway project.

Valero Energy Corp. has signed on as an anchor company for the Navigator project, with eight ethanol plants in the five states.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement has come out against the pipeline proposals, calling them a false solution that only serves to prop up carbon-producing industries while taking money away from investing in renewable energy sources.

“Carbon capture and sequestration is just the latest money-making scheme to greenwash fossil fuel pollution and allow dirty industries to continue business as usual, Iowa CCI said.

On the other side, Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and the Iowa Finance Authority, said, “It has the potential to revolutionize not only the ag business, but certainly related industry as well.”

Former Iowa governor and former ambassador to China Terry Branstad, who is a senior policy advisor for Midwest Carbon Express, calls carbon capture and storage “​​one of the most meaningful steps we can take today” to fight the threat posed by greenhouse gases.

“This technology, which has been proven over decades, captures carbon dioxide produced from power generation or other industrial processes and prevents it from being released into the atmosphere,” Branstad said.

“These types of projects can generate thousands of good-paying jobs and help the United States and the broader global community meet ambitious environmental goals that are more urgent with each passing year,” he said.

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