(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Foes of CO2 pipelines mount billboard, magazine protest at ethanol conference [1]
['Paul Hammel', 'More From Author', '- June']
Date: 2023-07
LINCOLN, Nebraska — Attendees at an ethanol conference this week in Omaha were greeted by an electronic billboard and a sarcastic magazine panning plans for carbon dioxide pipelines to criss-cross the Midwest to carry the greenhouse gas to sequester sites.
Carbon pipelines are risky and largely unregulated, according to Bold Alliance founder and director Jane Kleeb, and will allow “Big Oil” to “keep their grip on our energy portfolio.”
“In the end, ethanol plants and landowners will be left holding the bag with this latest tax scam, because we all know when the (federal) tax credit goes away, the pipelines and capture equipment will be left for us to clean up,” she said in a statement.
Faux magazine distributed
A truck featuring an electronic billboard circled the Fuel Ethanol Workshop on Monday outside Omaha’s CHI Health Center. It displayed images of Iowa landowners holding signs saying “No Eminent Domain” and “Our Land is Not For Sale.”
Protesters also distributed a faux magazine entitled “Ethical? Carbon Pipelines” to counter one published by event media sponsor Ethanol Producer Magazine.
Dawn Caldwell of Renewable Fuels Nebraska pushed back on the criticism, pointing out that the ethanol industry has a strong partnership with farmers who not only sell their corn to ethanol plants, but in many cases, are investors in them.
“Already, an overwhelming majority of farmers have voluntarily signed easements for carbon projects across our state,” Caldwell said. “That’s because they recognize that pipelines for transporting carbon dioxide are necessary … and safe and reliable.”
At least three companies are planning CO2 pipelines in Nebraska that would carry carbon dioxide produced by ethanol plants to sites where it would be injected, and sequestered, deep underground.
Proponents say it’s a way to reduce ethanol’s carbon footprint, and the Biden administration has provided billions in incentives for construction of the pipelines as part of its effort to reduce greenhouse gases.
Opponents say it’s an unproven technology and only puts off the nation’s necessary transition to cleaner forms of energy.
No regulation in Nebraska
Nebraska — unlike neighboring Iowa and South Dakota — does not regulate such pipelines. Some Nebraska landowners have resisted offers, so far, to sell right of way for the projects.
Ethanol production is a huge business in Nebraska, which is second only to Iowa among the largest producers of the corn-based fuel. The Nebraska Legislature just passed a law to help encourage use of higher blends of the fuel.
Bold Alliance was launched to help organize farmers and ranchers opposed to the defunct Keystone XL pipeline. The group maintains that the ethanol industry, which has been an ally to landowners in the past, has now partnered with the oil industry.
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