Dear Friends,
LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM:
(00:36) CO2 pipeline hearing reveals much;
(19:51) What happens when the water is gone?
(36:22) The criminalization of nonviolent protest;
(53:17) September garden Q & A, with Kathy Byrnes.
(Most of the first thirty minutes of this week’s program is about Summit’s CO2 pipeline proposal. I hope you’ll listen and share your feedback.)
Three corporations want to build CO2 pipelines across the Upper Midwest. Summit is the first to have a hearing before the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB), and that hearing is now in its third week. The way it’s going, the hearing is unlikely to end anytime soon.
During the first two weeks of Summit’s hearing, landowner after landowner offered powerful reasons why the IUB should refuse to grant Summit a permit for eminent domain. (In Iowa alone, the owners of 950 parcels of land would be subject to eminent domain!)
That’s potentially a historic and unconscionable amount of land taken forcibly from landowners by a private company!
I’ve been following the hearing online, and much of the testimony landowners have shared is disturbing. Cherokee County farmer, Richard Davis, told the IUB that a Summit agent pressured him with the threat of eminent domain. He also said he was told that he’d receive “a fraction” of what Summit was willing to pay him if the process went to eminent domain.
Another landowner, Wright County resident Verle Tate, told the IUB that agents said to him, “If you don’t take this, then we’ll probably go to eminent domain, and you probably won’t get much for your land.”
These threatening, strong-arm tactics are similar to what landowners encountered from Dakota Access Pipeline agents in 2016 and 2017. I share some of those conversations on this week’s program.
During this week’s hearing, Brian Jorde, an attorney representing several landowners, asked James Powell, Summit’s Chief Operating Officer, whether the CO2 piped to North Dakota could be used for enhanced oil extraction (EOR). Powell responded that it was unlikely. Jorde then cited a recent memo from the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources that “warns more CO2 needed to sustain oil production long-term.”
Powell deflected, insisting that EOR was an unlikely use of the CO2 since the sequestration site is 70 miles from where it could potentially be used.
Jorde’s quick response: “That doesn’t seem too tricky given that you’re proposing to build 2,000 miles of pipeline.”
Powell’s vagueness is consistent with the response I received when I questioned him and other Summit officials along the same lines two years ago in Ames (click on the image to watch the short video):
Note the key responses from Summit in the video:
“As we stand here today,” and
“We can’t make the promise long term,” and
“Commercial options might be available that are different than storing it underground.”
Nothing has changed. Two years ago, Summit wouldn’t promise that its CO2 wouldn’t be used for EOR. Under Jorde’s questioning, Powell made it clear that Summit is still unwilling to make such a promise.
Clearly, EOR is on the table. Any claim by Summit — or the politicians behind the 45Q tax credits that subsidize these pipelines — that this type of carbon sequestration is a climate change solution is a flat-out lie.
Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action!
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Ed Fallon