{"id":697652,"date":"2022-06-13T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=572985"},"modified":"2022-06-13T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T10:30:00","slug":"across-the-midwest-an-unlikely-alliance-forms-to-stop-carbon-pipelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/06\/13\/across-the-midwest-an-unlikely-alliance-forms-to-stop-carbon-pipelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Across the Midwest, an \u2018unlikely alliance\u2019 forms to stop carbon pipelines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Last fall, a company called Summit Carbon Solutions started holding meetings in towns around the Midwest. Its goal was to introduce residents to a 2,000-mile, $4.5 billion pipeline called the Midwest Carbon Express<\/a>, which would carry carbon dioxide from ethanol refineries in Iowa to North Dakota, where the gas would be injected underground rather than released into the atmosphere. Ultimately, Summit hoped landowners would sign contracts called \u201cvoluntary easements,\u201d allowing the company to bury its pipeline on their property.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While hundreds signed up immediately, others were more cautious, hoping for more information or a better price. Now, those holdouts are facing another prospect: the use of eminent domain, the legal tool that allows the seizure of private land for public good. It\u2019s a tactic that\u2019s long been tapped for other pipeline projects in the Midwest, and Summit has filed preliminary permits<\/a> that could allow the company to request permission to use eminent domain in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That doesn\u2019t sit well with many landowners along the pipeline\u2019s route. In town hall meetings<\/a> and public hearings<\/a> over the past few months, a growing number of people have come out against the proposal and potential legal tactic, complicating Summit\u2019s plans to build the largest carbon dioxide pipeline network in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Opposition to the project \u2013 and other recently proposed carbon pipelines \u2013 is nothing new. Residents and activists have raised concerns about safety hazards<\/a>, a sentiment echoed in May<\/a> by the Biden administration. Environmental groups, meanwhile, have pointed out the dubious climate benefits<\/a> of carbon pipelines and resulting carbon capture and storage, or CCS, saying it will lock in additional fossil fuel use and divert resources from the transition to renewable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n