Navigator pauses CO2 pipeline permit process in Iowa

Navigator Heartland Greenway — a company that has proposed building a 1,300-mile carbon dioxide pipeline through Iowa — has paused its state permit application, saying it may change the plan or route.

Navigator filed a motion with the Iowa Utilities Board Friday requesting to cancel an Oct. 9 scheduling conference and asking the board to “hold in abeyance” the company’s permit application until at least next spring.

“NHG is currently reviewing its Iowa route and technical specifications in light of decisions from regulatory authorities in neighboring states and individual landowner requests, which may lead to revisions in the route and technical specifications as currently proposed,” the motion states.

Navigator Motion by Gazetteonline on Scribd

Navigator needs approval of the Illinois Commerce Commission to sequester CO2 in underground rock formations in central Illinois. In June, a case manager for the group blasted the plan, saying it did not benefit Illinois residents or the public at large, the Illinois Times reported.

The commission is required to issue an order on Navigator’s application by Feb. 29, according to Friday’s motion.

“Given the review of its route and technical specifications as well as the regulatory uncertainty due to the pending decision from the ICC, NHG has elected to seek the requested relief in order to preserve the resources of the Board, the Office of Consumer Advocate, NHG, landowners, and interested stakeholders,” the motion states.

Navigator Spokesman Andy Bates said Friday the company anticipates filing an update on the project by March 29, “which allows for the completion of the Illinois pipeline permitting process and a comprehensive review of the Iowa route.”

Wally Taylor, a Marion-based attorney for Sierra Club of Iowa, said the company “is in real trouble.”

Earlier this month, South Dakota denied Navigator’s permit application to route part of the CO2 pipeline through the state, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported. South Dakota regulators also unanimously denied a permit request from Summit.

Navigator “then ceased any activity toward proceeding there (in South Dakota), and in fact, included some of the route in northwest Iowa in that pullback,” Taylor said. “I'm sure Navigator wanted to cancel the status conference on Oct. 9 so as not to have to make its problems public.”

Navigator proposed spending $3.4 billion on a pipeline to transport CO2 from ethanol and fertilizer plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Illinois to a sequestration site near Decatur, Illinois.

The proposed route would go diagonally, from northwest to southeast, through Iowa with a branch through northeast Iowa. Navigator once planned to go through Linn County, but changed the route in June 2022 when ADM signed on with Wolf Carbon Solutions, a third CO2 pipeline.

“The only reason we’re cutting up through Linn and Clinton counties was to access the ADM facility,” Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, vice president of government and public affairs, said at the time. “With them no longer part of our footprint, we no longer need to put them into that routing formula.”

Wolf’s pipeline would pick up CO2 at ADM’s plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton before going to a sequestration site in Illinois. The company has said it does not plan to seek eminent domain to force easements to build the pipeline.

Summit and Navigator have faced vocal opposition for their requests the Utilities Board grant eminent domain rights. The Utilities Board is in the midst of a multiweek hearing over Summit’s application.

Pipeline developers plan to cash in on tax credits offered by the federal government to encourage greenhouse gas reductions.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com