The federal agency that monitors pipeline safety needs to update its rules for carbon dioxide pipelines given plans for 3,000 miles of new CO2 pipelines across Iowa and other Midwestern states, according to a new report.
More than 100 people attended a Sierra Club sponsored public hearing Tuesday in the Capitol rotunda on the use of eminent domain for pipeline construction.
Concerned by what they see as a lack of action by lawmakers, landowners and others who oppose the use of eminent domain to construct pipelines across Iowa will have a public hearing at the Statehouse on Tuesday.
Jessica Wiskus, who has also been organizing against the Navigator CO2 Ventures carbon pipeline after learning her property was in the corridor, is running as a Democratic in Senate 42. The district covers rural Linn County, wrapping around the Cedar Rapids metro area, and eastern Benton County.
A white oak on track to be Iowa’s largest of its species is in the area where Navigator CO2 Ventures wants to lay an underground CO2 pipeline. The 175-year-old tree is in Lee County, 50 yards from the Mississippi River.
The proposed moratorium, which now goes to the state Senate, would not change the rules regarding the use of eminent domain or stop the construction of the three carbon pipelines proposed in Iowa. But it would provide 11 months of a level playing field for negotiations between landowners and companies hoping to construct pipelines, according to its sponsor.
The Iowa Utilities Board will have oral arguments April 12 over where to hold a hearing to consider whether to grant Summit Carbon Solutions a permit for a carbon dioxide pipeline.
Concerns about the possible use of eminent domain have increased over the past year as three companies have proposed building underground pipelines across Iowa. At informational meetings around the state since November, many landowners have raised concerns about eminent domain, safety of the pipelines and whether the companies should get tax credits for projects that may make money for the owners but not help Iowans or the environment.
Ten Iowa middle- and high-school girls — two of them transgender — spoke Thursday at a legislative hearing on legislation that would ban transgender girls from competing in girls athletics in Iowa. Also, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed her first bill of the session: a $3.6 billion K-12 public education package.
Summit Carbon Solutions wants to use eminent domain to build a carbon dioxide pipeline through 30 Iowa counties in northern and western Iowa, according to a permit application filed last week with the Iowa Utilities Board.
The Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club hosted an online panel of first responders and victims of a 2020 CO2 pipeline explosion in western Mississippi.
Three proposed pipelines in Iowa would gather carbon dioxide from ethanol plants and sequester it underground. Two engineers weigh in on the impact the projects would have on climate change goals and whether ethanol is the right industry to target for carbon capture.
One of the proposed pipelines would run through Linn County
ADM announced Tuesday it wants to build a carbon dioxide pipeline from its plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton to a sequestration site in Illinois.
Scientists with the Iowa Geological Survey say Iowa has the underground infrastructure for carbon dioxide sequestration, which would allow Iowa to keep more of the federal tax credits for CO2 storage and have fewer miles of new pipelines.
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