News

Ag industry split on carbon pipeline project

Iowa farmer Dan Keitzer says the Summit Carbon Solutions Pipeline would help biofuels lower their carbon score to help qualify for Sustainable Aviation Fuel, a new market for a large U.S. corn crop.

“It’s not going to be in my local ethanol plant, but if corn gets used for jet fuel elsewhere, it will help all farmers.”

Ketizer farms in southeast Iowa, where the Navigator CO2 pipeline was expected to go through, but the project was cancelled last year.

South Dakota rancher Amanda Radke says the use of eminent domain for a private pipeline project is a red flag for some landowners.

“We should be able to say no thank you to a Green New Deal project and a deadly carbon pipeline that relies on taxpayer dollars under the Green New Deal. Our politicians, unfortunately, haven’t been willing to stand up for landowners and make eminent domain reform.”

She says the proposed route for the carbon pipeline runs northeast of Mitchell, South Dakota, the community where Radke and her family raise cattle. Radke says there are also efforts underway to override local decisions about land use in South Dakota. And in November, the state’s voters will consider state legislation that, if passed, would uphold statutory requirements for regulating carbon pipelines.

“If the pipeline and those willing to carry the water for this company have their way, it will completely strip away the voices of the 300+ county commissions in South Dakota and consolidate the decision making power to just a few in the state government.”

She says there’s a promise of economic prosperity for ethanol with the project, but that might not always be the case. 

Keitzer says he understands the landowner rights issue, because a natural gas pipeline already moves through his farm, along with an abandoned railroad and power lines. He says it’s going to be difficult to get 100% approval on the project from all landowners and the likelihood of this project getting done…

“In my mind right now, there’s a 50/50 chance,” he says.

Summit Carbon Solutions CEO Lee Blank tells Brownfield the company is trying to work well with landowners and “the power of the marketplace to drive an industry could give you the ability to say we have to do things to get this accomplished, even if there are tough decisions to be made.”

The Summit Carbon Solutions Pipeline is expected to span five states across the Midwest. Permit approvals are needed in several states before the pipeline project can move forward. 

Map graphic credit: Summit Carbon Solutions