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PIPELINES: Iowa regulators approve the controversial Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, and for developers to use eminent domain to acquire property, though the project still needs approval in the Dakotas. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
ALSO:
CLEAN ENERGY: District energy systems that heat and cool buildings in Minneapolis-St. Paul and beyond are facing increasing pressure to decarbonize and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. (Energy News Network)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Volkswagen will invest $5 billion in electric vehicle startup Rivian under a new joint venture to share EV architecture and software that could benefit Rivian’s roughly 8,000 workers in Illinois. (Reuters; Crain’s Chicago, subscription)
NUCLEAR:
SOLAR:
GRID: Indiana energy groups aren’t concerned about a new MISO outlook forecasting a potential future capacity shortfall, though they are urging more robust planning and avoiding plant retirements. (WTHR)
UTILITIES: A utility operating in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula withdraws a request for a permanent waiver in how it counts customer outage credits required under a new state law aiming to improve reliability. (Michigan Advance)
COMMENTARY:
Illinois’s carbon dioxide pipeline and sequestration law passed May 26 is being described as among the nation’s strictest. It is only the second carbon dioxide pipeline moratorium in the U.S., after California, and it creates a significant permitting process once the moratorium is lifted.
But landowners and advocates are still unhappy with several key provisions left out of the law, and said they are exploring options to end the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines and protect landowners from carbon being sequestered in their underground pore space against their will.
“There’s a lot of good in there, but it definitely is a work in progress in terms of guard rails,” said Jennifer Cassel, a senior attorney for Earthjustice who worked with the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition that endorsed the new law after members previously worked with lawmakers on a stronger bill. “The federal uncertainty was part of the push, and there’s so much of a gold rush already happening,” with applications for 22 carbon dioxide injection wells pending in the state, plus various pipeline proposals.
SB 1289, or the SAFE Act, allows a company seeking to sequester carbon to move forward if the owners of 75% of the affected land agree to the plan, which provides them compensation. That means, critics note, that owners of 25% of the land cannot stop a project, even if they are opposed. Owners of small several-acre parcels would have few rights compared to large landowners, noted Pam Richart, co-founder of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines.
The coalition had worked with lawmakers on a much more stringent bill, which would have limited the use of eminent domain to acquire land for pipelines and sequestration. It would also have banned the injection of carbon dioxide through the Mahomet Aquifer. The Farm Bureau opposed the SAFE Act in part because it didn’t address eminent domain, though the new law includes some protections regarding compensation for land damage.
“Landowners are profoundly disappointed that the act was approved without eminent domain [limits],” Richart said. “The landowner protections weren’t as strong as we hoped.”
The coalition’s preferred bill would not have allowed forced integration of pore space against landowners’ will. Richart said they expected some compromise on that front, but not to the extent enshrined in the SAFE Act.
“That’s not how this is supposed to work,” she said. “If a project is in the public interest, you wouldn’t expect landowners of 25% of the land to hold out.”
The SAFE Act stands for Safety and Aid for the Environment in Carbon Capture and Sequestration. It still awaits signature by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has indicated he will sign it, and bills become law after 60 days in Illinois if the governor takes no action.
Richart said advocates don’t plan to “reopen the whole process” around legislation, but hope to work with legislators on a trailer bill that could increase protections for landowners.
“A lot of legislators expressed serious concern about the aquifer, I wouldn’t be surprised if those issues and potentially others come back up in some form,” Cassel said.
The new law places a moratorium on new carbon dioxide pipelines for two years or until the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issues regulations for carbon dioxide pipelines, which are in the works. The previous bill advocates backed included a moratorium of four years or until the federal regulations are adopted. Cassel said labor unions felt that moratorium was too long.
Richart said the Illinois law is only a “quasi-moratorium” since companies can begin the application process for new pipelines even before the PHMSA regulations come out.
Meanwhile the SAFE Act does not include setbacks from properties for carbon dioxide pipelines. If the PHMSA regulations do not include setbacks, which is likely, Illinois advocates could push for setbacks under the permitting process created by the SAFE Act, since it allows for additional safety measures to be developed provided they are not in conflict with federal regulations.
Advocates say county governments, which have in multiple cases refused to approve sequestration sites connected to pipelines, could work together to push for setback policy.
Advocates are grateful for a robust public engagement process created by the new law.
“Before there was no requirement to notify anybody about a carbon dioxide pipeline except when the Illinois Commerce Commission was ready to begin its application process,” said Richart, citing two recent controversial proposals. “Wolf never notified anybody, One Earth never notified anybody. The commerce commission just said, ‘You better come to this hearing, it might be subject to eminent domain.’”
The Illinois Commerce Commission decides whether a given proposal is in the public interest and able to invoke eminent domain, but previously the commission had no authority over carbon sequestration sites and its consideration of pipelines was largely limited to property values.
The SAFE Act creates a permitting process that requires companies hold two public meetings in each affected county and post materials about the proposal and public comment process. Under the new law, the Illinois Commerce Commission can consider safety and other information in deciding whether to grant eminent domain powers.
Under the new law, companies must also pay into an emergency response fund and create an emergency plan, which entails modeling about possible risks and the expected distribution of carbon dioxide plumes in case of a leak.
“They have to do computational fluid dynamics modeling, and they have to make it public, at a time when there is a definite movement by pipeline developers to make their modeling proprietary, confidential,” said Richart. “So this is huge.”
Companies doing carbon injection and sequestration must also put up money for future environmental mitigation, so future costs don’t fall on the state. The law does not allow self-bonding, a controversial financing mechanism used by coal companies in the past that ultimately forced the state to foot the bill for mine cleanup.
The SAFE Act also enshrines safeguards to make sure that carbon capture and sequestration doesn’t ultimately lead to an increase in air pollution by allowing coal plants to keep operating, and it prohibits the use of carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery.
These protections gained approval from environmental justice organizations like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, a member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition.
The Illinois Corn Growers Association and Illinois Renewable Fuels Association also backed the new law. Their members stand to benefit from the expansion of the ethanol industry, which depends on carbon sequestration to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. While carbon capture and sequestration was launched in Illinois in relation to coal plants, recent pipeline proposals have focused primarily on connecting ethanol plants to sequestration sites.
State Rep. Ann Williams, a sponsor of the law, said in a statement that:
“Illinois is a national leader on climate and energy policy, and SB 1289 ensures that if companies are going to use CCS as a climate mitigation strategy, they will need to meet some of the strongest standards in the nation. The CCS protections bill ensures critical guardrails are in place to protect Illinois taxpayers, landowners and our environment.”
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CO2 CAPTURE: Capturing carbon emissions at ethanol plants along the route of a proposed carbon pipeline would increase water use by billions of gallons annually, according to a new Sierra Club report criticizing the pipeline. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
GRID:
UTILITIES: Xcel Energy is at odds with Minnesota officials over whether customers should pay at least $23 million in costs incurred last year after a maintenance worker error caused a nuclear plant to shut down for 100 days. (Star Tribune)
CLIMATE: Insurers are the “climate change canary in the coal mine,” one former state insurance commissioner says as billion-dollar disasters reach record highs, driving up policy costs and making homeownership less attainable. (Stateline)
SOLAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The engineering researchers behind a project electrifying a section of highway in Indiana hope the technology makes electric vehicles more palatable for drivers. (NPR)
EMISSIONS:
OIL & GAS: Louisiana is home to about a third of the nearly 200 carbon storage wells seeking permits in the U.S., but watchdog groups warn the presence of at least 186,000 abandoned oil and gas wells could complicate the process and cause safety issues. (Verite News)
ALSO: A San Antonio company files for reorganizational bankruptcy and moves to withdraw from a partnership to build a $10 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal on the Gulf Coast. (San Antonio Report)
INDUSTRY: The Biden administration is banking on “green steel” factories in Mississippi and Ohio that will run on clean hydrogen to provide a model to decarbonize one of the world’s dirtiest industries. (Canary Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Nissan delays changes at a Mississippi factory to produce more electric vehicles due to concerns about customer demand. (CNN)
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: Virginia regulators approve three Dominion Energy battery projects, and Appalachian Power issues requests for battery, wind and solar projects as the two utilities aim to meet state decarbonization mandates. (Virginia Mercury)
POLITICS: Democrats say Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s refusal to rejoin a regional carbon market will cost the state $150 million annually, despite additional funding for state flood control programs. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
PIPELINES: A pipeline safety advocate discusses concerns about the Mountain Valley Pipeline after a section ruptured during water pressure testing. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
CLIMATE:
COMMENTARY:
Carbon dioxide pipeline and sequestration projects would face significant new scrutiny and regulations under proposed legislation introduced this week in Illinois.
Advocates who helped draft the proposal (SB 3930, HB 5814) say it is crucial to institute standards and protections, as multiple companies seek to sequester carbon in Illinois’ Mt. Simon sandstone geology and reap lucrative federal tax credits. The legislation was formally introduced Monday.
State lawmakers held a hearing earlier this month on separate bills (HB 4835, SB 3441) that would place a moratorium on carbon dioxide pipelines for four years or until new federal safety regulations are adopted by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).
Many Illinois residents and pipeline opponents are hoping both bills pass, to stop pipeline construction while the state studies safety issues, appropriate setbacks and other factors.
Companies seeking to sequester carbon dioxide in Illinois have so far failed to secure county approvals for proposed sites, and two major carbon dioxide pipeline proposals — from the companies Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf Carbon Solutions — were withdrawn from consideration by the Illinois Commerce Commission last year.
But Wolf is expected to refile its application for a necessary certificate of authority. And the commerce commission is currently considering a proposal from One Earth Energy for a six-mile pipeline that — if built — is expected to spur proposals for longer pipelines that would connect to it and a proposed sequestration site.
The newly proposed legislation, as described in a summary, includes: “pipeline setbacks for safe evacuation, limits on eminent domain, expanded monitoring at carbon sequestration sites, provisions for long-term liability in the event of disaster, a ban on the use of captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery.”
It would also mandate that when sequestration sites are proposed, regulatory agencies review life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions and consider alternatives to carbon sequestration. The legislation bans injecting carbon dioxide through the Mahomet Aquifer, labeled by the U.S. EPA as the area’s only sole-source aquifer. And it would mandate halts in sequestration if certain magnitudes of seismic activity are detected.
The bill would require the state to study appropriate setbacks from residences, businesses and infrastructure to protect from harm if a pipeline ruptures or leaks. Little or no government guidance or regulation currently exists on carbon dioxide pipeline setbacks, advocates note.
“There is not any federal law, any state law, nothing right now that says you cannot be located ‘x’ distance from people’s homes, schools, daycares,” said Jenny Cassel, an Earthjustice senior attorney involved in drafting the bill. “The problem is the federal government is never going to do it, because local zoning is not part of their purview.”
Pam Richart, a central Illinois resident and co-founder of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines, added that, “The proposed legislation would demand the state study setbacks based on how carbon dioxide behaves. If it were to rupture, where would it go?”
Cassel explained that once the study is done, the Illinois EPA would be tasked with developing routing standards and modeling criteria that a company must follow when applying for a pipeline route permit. Currently, no such requirement for a permit exists. Pipelines must receive a certificate of authority from the Illinois Commerce Commission, but the commission focuses largely on whether the pipeline would be in the public benefit.
“As long as we have this tax incentive that is dangling money in front of these companies, until they have a clear set of protections that makes them think twice about whether it really is worth it, or until the state of Illinois says ‘We’re not willing to take this risk,’” proposals will continue, Cassel said.
The legislation goes beyond similar bills introduced last year and would mandate extensive research and state permitting be done before a company can apply to the Illinois Commerce Commission for a certificate.
Currently there are no requirements that companies create or release models showing how a carbon dioxide plume would likely spread in case of a rupture. The new bill would require such modeling for a necessary Illinois EPA permit. And it would mandate companies put up funds for future cleanup and maintenance of sequestration sites.
“Industry is trying to hand the keys to the state as soon as they’re done and say, ‘Good luck with that,’” Cassel said. “We think Illinois already has enough Superfund sites, mines, wells, all sorts of other environmental hazards that need to be reclaimed. We need to set aside real cash to address if something goes wrong.”
She stressed that unlike in other geologies, carbon dioxide will likely remain gaseous and unstable in the state’s sandstone formation. This could especially be a concern if new injection wells are added for expanded sequestration, she said.
“The more you mess with an underground formation, the more you’re creating the possibility the plume is going to be shifted underground,” Cassel said. “If you change pressure over here, there’s a decrease in pressure in the same underground formation. It’s not like you can count on the pressure remaining the same over time.”
In recent years, companies including One Earth and Navigator have applied for pipeline permits without having secured rights for a place to sequester the carbon dioxide.
Obtaining necessary permission from landowners and local county boards has proved difficult. Navigator offered to pay county boards for help facilitating their sequestration applications, but multiple boards turned them down.
The state’s Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group representing ethanol producers, did not respond to requests for comment. One Earth Energy also did not respond.
“Industry needs legislation,” said Richart. “They can’t move forward without addressing the regulatory gaps that exist for ownership and utilization of pore space.”
In 2011, Illinois passed a law to facilitate the construction of carbon dioxide pipelines and sequestration, and specifically to facilitate the proposed FutureGen project, a multibillion-dollar effort to store carbon dioxide underground at the site of a Meredosia, Illinois, coal plant.
That law says in part: “carbon dioxide pipelines are critical to the promotion and use of Illinois coal,” and are “a benefit to the welfare of Illinois.”
The FutureGen project died in 2015, but the law continues to be the only specific state guidance on carbon dioxide sequestration and transport.
The pipelines recently proposed in the state are primarily linked to ethanol plants. But carbon dioxide pipelines are also increasingly likely to be proposed to sequester carbon dioxide from the production of “blue hydrogen” — made from natural gas — since the federal government is offering lucrative tax incentives for hydrogen and $1 billion for a Midwestern hydrogen hub.
Kathy Campbell, an audiologist and professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University, testified before the commerce commission regarding the proposed Wolf, Navigator and One Earth pipelines.
The Navigator pipeline would have passed right through Campbell’s land in central Illinois. Though that proposal was canceled in the wake of massive public opposition and skepticism from the commerce commission, Campbell feels this is only the beginning of a carbon dioxide rush.
“I won’t feel real comfortable until we get some legislation passed,” Campbell said. “We need our moratorium bill, and we need more study.”
Yet another Illinois bill (SB 2860), backed by the Illinois Farm Bureau, would prohibit the use of eminent domain to secure carbon dioxide pipeline rights of way. Illinois farmers are worried about their land being seized through eminent domain for pipelines.Industry players with interests in carbon dioxide transport and sequestration meanwhile are backing a bill (HB 0569) that would allow sequestration operators to use underground pore space even if landowners are opposed, while setting procedures for land access and compensation for damage to land.
OVERSIGHT: Hydrogen industry leaders and environmentalists expect the U.S. EPA to exclude hydrogen from its final power plant emissions rule, leaving carbon capture as the only option for gas plants looking to reduce emissions to meet the regulation. (E&E News)
FOSSIL FUELS:
PIPELINES: A major CO2 pipeline leak this month in Louisiana that took more than two hours to fix should raise “alarm bells” about the country’s readiness to expand the carbon capture industry, advocates say. (Guardian)
CLIMATE:
GRID:
WIND:
OIL & GAS:
OHIO: The death of Ohio’s former top utility regulator stokes a growing sense of urgency among plaintiffs and prosecutors to gather evidence and testimony in HB6 corruption cases before it’s lost to time. (Energy News Network)
EMISSIONS: U.S. EPA officials are reportedly mulling changes to a landmark power plant emissions rule first proposed a year ago and will likely give utilities more time to add carbon capture equipment to gas facilities. (E&E News)
ALSO: The U.S. Senate passes a bill that would invalidate a Transportation Department rule aimed at cutting highway emissions, though President Biden would veto the measure if it passes the House. (Politico)
CLIMATE:
GRID:
PIPELINES: The U.S. Justice Department weighs in on the Line 5 dispute for the first time, arguing that Enbridge has been trespassing on tribal land in Wisconsin but that a previous court order failed to consider all of the implications of shutting down the pipeline. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
OHIO: FirstEnergy made a previously unreported $1 million dark money gift to benefit the campaign of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s eventual running mate, who later worked to win support for the state’s power plant bailout legislation, according to newly revealed company emails. (Energy News Network/Floodlight)
HYDROGEN:
NUCLEAR:
COAL: Federal energy analysts believe April coal exports will be slashed by about a third because of the Port of Baltimore closure. (The Hill)
SOLAR: Residents in a rural Illinois village west of Chicago hope to overturn local restrictions on rooftop solar that were previously enacted because of aesthetic concerns. (Energy News Network)
Safety concerns are at the heart of opposition to a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline in central Illinois, which would connect an ethanol plant to a proposed sequestration site about six miles away.
The pipeline proposed by One Earth Energy is much shorter than carbon dioxide pipelines that were previously proposed in Illinois and then tabled by Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf Carbon Solutions. Those pipelines would have stretched through hundreds of miles of farmland.
But One Earth’s proposed pipeline starts just west of downtown Gibson City, at the company’s ethanol plant. Local leaders say county and city emergency responders, relying largely on volunteer firefighters, are ill-equipped to prepare for possible leaks or ruptures.
Ford County Emergency Management Agency and Local Emergency Planning Committee coordinator Terry Whitebird says the county cannot afford to do the necessary training and planning for a potential disaster and evacuation, as noted in testimony filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission, which will hold public hearings in May on the company’s request for a necessary certificate of authority.
It also cannot afford to buy electric municipal vehicles that could be necessary during a carbon dioxide leak, since gas and diesel vehicles can fail when the heavy gas displaces oxygen needed for combustion. That means ambulances and other emergency vehicles could be stalled just when they are needed to help rescue or evacuate residents.
Whitebird also noted that the local hospital has only eight patient rooms and one emergency physician on call, meaning it could be overwhelmed in case of a carbon dioxide leak. The next closest hospitals, in Bloomington and Champaign, are each 40 minutes away.
Opponents of carbon dioxide pipelines often point to a 2020 disaster in the tiny village of Satartia, Mississippi, where a Denbury Resources pipeline rupture and explosion left people sickened and struggling to breathe. At least 45 people were hospitalized, and some report lasting health impacts.
Whitebird envisioned a similar disaster unfolding in Gibson City, which has a much larger population of 3,400.
“The wind in this area is generally from west to east, and any leak or rupture will likely result in the CO2 gas drifting into Gibson City — a potential exposure of 25% of the population of the County,” says Whitebird’s testimony before the commerce commission.
Sally Lasser moved from Joliet, near Chicago, to cultivate forest and native prairie on land near Gibson City she named R Wildflower Farm & Fields, to honor her late father, Richard Lasser, who planted 5,000 trees on the land and put much of it in conservation easements.
One Earth’s proposed sequestration site is near Lasser’s land, and her name is on a list of affected landowners filed by the company. When Lasser first heard about the proposal, she was open to understanding the benefits to the local ethanol industry, and allowed the company to host a meeting on her porch last summer.
At first, “I was given no reason to be concerned about the danger of this project,” she said. She asked questions about truck traffic and lights during construction. Later on, other residents and advocates explained the risks of a carbon dioxide pipeline rupture.
“If I were to try to start my truck, it’s not going to start, so I’m going to take off on foot unless I have an electric car,” she said. “How do I know which direction to go in, because I can’t see (the carbon dioxide gas). Say the emergency responders have electric vehicles. Are they going to come to my farm and scour all 160 acres to find me? Are they going to look up in the loft of my barn because that’s where I was when I passed out from this?”
Local leaders and advocates have demanded that One Earth produce models of how a carbon dioxide plume would spread in case of a rupture, but pipeline developers are not required to do so. The company filed plume modeling with the commerce commission in late March, but it is considered confidential and can only be viewed by official stakeholders in the process.
Kathy Campbell, an audiologist and Southern Illinois University professor emeritus who has reviewed proposals for the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies, said she “had reservations” about the quality of the modeling.
Local leaders previously obtained modeling done by Navigator for its proposal, though the company never officially released that information. Campbell analyzed Navigator’s plume modeling to predict how a plume from One Earth’s pipeline might behave.
She concluded that residents closest to One Earth’s proposed pipeline would have no way to evacuate before being overcome by dangerous levels of carbon dioxide if the pipeline ruptured. Based on Navigator’s modeling, residents within 1,971 feet of the One Earth pipeline would be in the highest hazard zone, Campbell testified. One Earth’s proposal shows multiple residences and businesses within 1,200 feet of the pipeline, and at least two residences less than 700 feet away, based on GIS analysis by pipeline opponents.
While carbon dioxide at low concentrations is harmless to humans, at higher concentrations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Agriculture consider it a serious health hazard, both because of its toxicity and the fact that it displaces oxygen at ground level.
In a March 27 filing, One Earth promised that it would provide carbon dioxide monitors and emergency oxygen supplies to landowners along the route.
“Imagine if everyone along a pipeline corridor had to have oxygen, and know how to use it,” said Jenny Cassel, a senior attorney for Earthjustice who has worked on proposed state legislation to regulate such pipelines. “That’s pretty terrifying. What if a kid is home alone?”
Carbon dioxide is gaseous under normal atmospheric conditions, but can be turned to liquid at high pressure, for transport in pipelines. If that pressure is suddenly released, carbon dioxide converts to its solid state and takes on a frigid temperature, then evaporates or “melts” into gas.
“If there’s a rupture, it immediately turns into dry ice crystals — it comes out at negative 109 degrees,” explained Campbell, who lived in the path of the Navigator pipeline proposal. “If you breathe those or those hit your eyes, you get frostbite of the eyes, mouth, ears.”
The toxicity of carbon dioxide at high concentrations can also immediately damage the body, Campbell continued.
“And somehow you’re supposed to try to escape while your vision is going, your hearing is going.”
The frigid temperature of released high-pressure carbon dioxide also affects the steel pipelines, experts say, making them brittle and allowing a small rupture to quickly “unzip” into a major fissure.
At concentrations of 40,000 ppm, carbon dioxide is designated by the CDC as “immediately dangerous to life or health,” and lower concentrations are considered perilous for certain lengths of exposure, Campbell wrote in testimony before the commission. She cites academic studies predicting that dangerous levels could be reached within five minutes of a rupture.
“This pipeline does not provide any benefit to those whose lives are placed at risk along the pipeline,” Campbell’s testimony continued. “For them, the risk/benefit assessment is all risk and no benefit.”
Mark Maple, senior gas engineer for the Illinois Commerce Commission, emphasized safety risks in his testimony recommending the commission deny One Earth’s proposal.
“In my opinion the current safety regulations, as they pertain to carbon dioxide pipelines, are not sufficient to guarantee the public’s safety in all possible scenarios,” he testified. “Therefore, I cannot say with certainty that all citizens along the route will be safe if a rupture were to occur.”
While residents are concerned about the One Earth pipeline in its own right, they also fear its construction would mean more carbon dioxide pipeline proposals, to connect to One Earth’s pipeline and sequestration site.
One Earth’s original proposal called for a pipeline that could handle about 10 times the amount of carbon dioxide produced annually by the ethanol plant, and noted that the pipeline would serve third-party customers. In late March, the company revised its proposal to reduce the pipeline’s capacity, from a 16-inch to 12.75-inch diameter, though it said the pipeline still offers some capacity for additional users.
“Reducing the total potential capacity of the OES pipeline will reduce the volumes that could be released in the event of a pipeline leak or rupture and therefore the CO2 concentrations at various distances from the pipeline in the event of a break,” Mark Ditsworth, One Earth vice president of technology and special projects, said in testimony filed March 27.
REX American Resources, One Earth’s parent company, also owns ethanol plants in Iowa, Wisconsin, South Dakota and another town in Illinois. Residents worry that the company would seek to connect these plants to the sequestration site, to collect tax credits for carbon capture and sequestration.
The Navigator and Wolf pipelines were both proposed to connect multiple ethanol plants to sequestration sites in Illinois’ Mt. Simon sandstone geology. Both companies withdrew their proposals from commerce commission consideration last fall in the face of opposition from landowners. The commission invited Wolf to reapply if it addressed concerns and requests for more information.
Safety concerns are not the only area where critics say One Earth’s proposal is lacking. The company has not yet secured needed permits and approvals for the sequestration site it has proposed in neighboring McLean County. The Illinois Commerce Commission does not need to approve sequestration sites, but the county in December denied a necessary special use permit, and the company hasn’t obtained other state and federal permits.
The company has also not secured leases or easements from the approximately 20 landowners along the proposed pipeline route. Pipeline developers can invoke eminent domain to secure rights of way if the project is determined by the commission to be in the public interest.
In testimony, Maple said eminent domain is intended to make sure a minority of landowners can’t block a project that a majority supports. He testified that eminent domain might not be considered appropriate if the company has obtained few or no voluntary easements.
One Earth “has yet to acquire any of the necessary easements” for the pipeline, Maple’s testimony states. “This demonstrates that the Company has failed to show that it has negotiated, or even begun to negotiate, in good faith with landowners…The lack of progress with landowner negotiations at this stage of the proceeding is highly concerning.”
On March 27, the company filed testimony regarding a revised plan that shortened the planned route by a mile and reduced the number of injection wells planned at the sequestration site, from three to two. Ditsworth told the commission this was to address landowner “preferences.”
In testimony, Ditsworth said the company “has had significant success negotiating with landowners for necessary land rights” to build two injection wells for sequestration. He said the company had acquired the rights to almost all the pore space needed around one of the injection wells and almost half the pore space needed around another.
Lasser was glad to hear of the removal of one injection well and reduction in the size of the pipeline, but she is still deeply concerned about safety.
“I’m no longer sandwiched between two (injection) wells, but I’m still in too close a proximity, I would still be in great danger,” she said. “People need to realize how terribly unsafe it is. We need leaders that put people and their safety before private business.”
EMISSIONS: The U.S. Energy Department announces $6 billion for 33 industrial decarbonization projects, including electrification at Kraft Heinz facilities and a carbon capture and storage system at a cement plant. (Associated Press)
OVERSIGHT: Senators question President Biden’s three Federal Energy Regulatory Commission nominees about the body’s authority, their past stances on natural gas, and other issues in a confirmation hearing. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Detroit automakers face a “very big balancing act” in the coming months and years as they attempt to match electric vehicle investments with anticipated consumer demand. (Bridge)
GRID:
OIL & GAS:
OFFSHORE WIND:
EFFICIENCY:
HYDROGEN: The U.S. Treasury Department today will hold the first public hearing on its proposed hydrogen tax credit. (E&E News, subscription)
COMMENTARY:
CARBON CAPTURE: A North Dakota electric cooperative is betting a $2 billion carbon capture project will allow a coal-fired power plant to comply with Minnesota’s law requiring carbon-free electricity by 2040, but critics say the plan is absurdly complicated and expensive compared to alternatives. (MPR News)
CLEAN ENERGY:
MATERIALS: The closure of three U.S. aluminum manufacturing plants, including one in Missouri, could threaten the transition to clean energy and electrification, experts say. (E&E News)
SOLAR: South Dakota’s largest solar project, a 128 MW installation near Rapid City, is scheduled to come online ahead of schedule. (South Dakota Searchlight)
CLIMATE: Nebraska’s 76-page climate action plan includes incentives for a host of energy efficiency, solar and regenerative agriculture projects. (Nebraska Examiner)
EMISSIONS: A new report calls on Chicago to set limits on emissions from certain commercial buildings that could grow stricter over time. (Chicago Tribune)
PIPELINES: Indigenous author and advocate Winona LaDuke says both North Dakota and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are to blame for the policing costs and handling of Dakota Access pipeline protests in late 2016. (North Dakota Monitor)
BIOENERGY: An Irish company plans to invest $400 million at a Wisconsin ethanol plant to include a new large plant-based renewable natural gas production facility. (Journal Sentinel)
NUCLEAR: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signs a bill into law that updates legal language and allows the state to potentially enter into agreements for nuclear power projects. (SDPB)
COAL:
UTILITIES: WEC Energy Group taps Indiana utility NIPSCO’s president and COO to lead We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. (Journal Sentinel)
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