Iowa won’t require environmental study for Navigator’s proposed pipeline

The Iowa Utilities Board will not require Navigator Heartland Greenway to do an environmental impact study as part of its application for a state permit to build a carbon dioxide pipeline through Iowa.

“There is no explicit legal requirement, in statute or in rule, for an independent environmental impact report as a part of this proceeding,” the board wrote in an order issued Friday.

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska in June asked the state board to require Navigator and Summit Carbon Solutions — another company that wants to build a CO2 pipeline through Iowa — to do environmental impact studies of these pipelines, slated to cross on or near Winnebago land.

The Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club joined this request, saying only the board would have the authority to address the environmental impact across the whole state.

But Navigator, which wants to build a 1,300-mile CO2 pipeline across five states, including Iowa, said doing an environmental impact study now will duplicate an environmental impact statement they will have to complete later for the federal government.

Because carbon capture and sequestration is relatively new, there are questions about whether federal law for other pipelines applies to CO2 projects.

Most CO2 pipeline developers hope to get federal tax credits and Navigator’s project would cross the Mississippi River — a federally-controlled waterway. These factors may trigger a review through the National Environmental Policy Act.

Rather than requiring a state environmental impact study, the Iowa Utilities Board said it will “consider the specific environmental issues raised in this docket and whether Navigator has addressed the environmental concerns sufficiently as part of the Board’s consideration of whether to grant a permit to Navigator,” the order states.

Citing the same reasons, the board in October said Summit doesn’t have to do an environmental impact study.

Navigator, Summit and Wolf Carbon Solutions have proposed building pipelines to transport liquefied CO2 from Iowa ethanol plants to underground sequestration sites in North Dakota and Illinois. Companies that get permits stand to gain billions of dollars in federal tax credits granted because some scientists think carbon sequestration may help reduce the impact of climate change.

In October, Navigator applied for a permit to build its pipeline, which would have 800 miles in Iowa, asking the utilities board for permission to use eminent domain if landowners aren’t willing to sell easements.

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