Limited environmental impact does not justify pipelines

The Wolf carbon pipeline from Cedar Rapids to Decatur, Illinois (280-mile length) is designed to transport 6 million metric tons of CO2 annually and will make $510 million (6 million x $85 per Metric ton) in annual marketable U.S. tax credits for that effort. During the public Iowa Utilities Board/Wolf informational meetings in December, Wolf executive Nick Noppinger stated that Wolf has no interest in building the pipeline without the United States government’s 45Q tax credits. The Wolf pipeline will be funded at the expense of the United States taxpayers and paid out to a Canadian Pension Plan Investment Organization.

The pipeline’s insignificant environmental impact breakdown is:

Six Million/1.075 billion (total U.S. CO2 auto tailpipe CO2 emissions 2020) = 0.005581) or .5581 percent. The proposed Wolf pipeline is designed to capture approximately one half of 1 percent of the total U.S. auto tailpipe CO2 emissions.

The Iowa section of the pipeline (90 miles in length) that goes through my neighborhood is approximately 1/3 that amount (0.169%).

The new Inflation Reduction Act requires only 75 percent efficiency totaling only 0.126 percent.

You could safely say that just one-tenth of 1 percent of the U.S. auto tailpipe CO2 emissions will be transported over the 90 miles of the Iowa section of the Wolf pipeline annually.

The outrageous and misappropriated $510 million annual payout amount, the permanent disruption to the lives and safety of rural Iowans and the maleficent destruction of Iowa land for this insignificant fraction of CO2 capture are morally unjustifiable.

Michael Daly

Lisbon

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