Wolf, leave us in peace

In Eastern Iowa, this is now the third Christmas season in which landowners face pressure from CO2 pipeline companies. On Dec. 8, lawyers for Wolf Carbon Solutions posted an update on the Iowa Utilities Board docket, claiming that, “Wolf is continuing to build relationships with stakeholders and communities,” and that “easement negotiations are continuing to progress positively.”

But where is the evidence? Their words do not reflect the experience of Eastern Iowa landowners. Just last week, we organized four meetings across Linn, Cedar, and Scott Counties in which, once again, we vowed as a community to resist their attempts to secure easements. Indeed, we are convinced that Wolf’s entire project is not viable.

Earlier this fall, staff at the Illinois Commerce Commission evaluated Wolf’s application in that state, writing, “The proposed pipeline is inconsistent with the public interest, public benefit, and legislative purpose” in Illinois. They concluded that Wolf’s application should be denied. The ICC’s objections were substantive and based upon evidence from multiple sources. For when they pulled back the curtain on Wolf’s claims, they found that Wolf had neither a contract for the CO2 they wished to transport nor easements to secure a route. Moreover, Wolf failed to provide “evidence of public safety,” and, incredibly, had requested the power of eminent domain in Illinois even though they had “not executed any voluntary easements with landowners.”

Thus exposed, Wolf withdrew their application from the ICC in November. Wolf’s December words on the Iowa docket, therefore, remain hollow since evidence demonstrates how ill-advised this project really is.

Landowners working together in Iowa already posted the names of over 250 families in the proposed pipeline corridor who vowed to refuse any easement offer from Wolf; that covers the route through Linn and Cedar Counties. And you can be sure that our word is true. We will protect our land. We will stand together with our neighbors for another three Christmases, if we must.

Every day that Wolf continues to send land agents to our homes is a day that someone’s parent or grandparent or friend must grapple with a real threat to the values upon which they built their lives. My neighbor across the road, who stood bravely at public informational meetings and spoke on behalf of his acres of oak savanna, recently passed away. He was forced to live the last years of his life in the dark shadow of condemnation — the threat of destroying what he had learned, over so many decades, to carefully steward.

Yet I notice that the sun still rises every morning upon the “No pipeline!” sign that, in 2021, I watched him erect at the entrance to his field. His love of the land gifted him with a fortitude that remains alive in each and every one of our hearts out here in rural Iowa.

It is time for Wolf’s imposition upon us to come to an end. Their project is not viable, and they should not be indefinitely granted the power to cast a shadow over all who live along the pipeline route. Now is the season to uphold our community’s desire to live in peace.

Jessica Wiskus lives in rural Lisbon.