John Phipps: Are Farmers For or Against Carbon Pipelines in the U.S.?
U.S. Farm Report 08/26/23 - Customer Support
From Kathy Rosenbohm in Glasford, IL:
“What is your feeling about the Wolf CO2 Pipeline being planned. It is to capture carbon dioxide from ADM's Iowa ethanol production, compress it and send it by pipeline from Iowa to Decatur Illinois. It is to be stored underground in Mt. Simon geologic formation in the Illinois Basin. Many are concerned about the safety of the pipeline and underground storage of the CO2. Also is this project really necessary?”
It's hard to answer this without being perceived as insensitive, but like most Americans and farmers, I am largely indifferent.
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For projects involving voluntary or involuntary use of private land, the public has three basic attitudes: NIMBY – not in my backyard, where landowners directly affected oppose vehemently; YIMBY – yes in my backyard. This is a new and small attitude in areas where either economic development needs like a factory or high-density housing such as apartments are desperately needed to ensure any future; and YIOBY – yes in other backyards. This is the largest group.
Projects like pipelines, transmission line or solar arrays are bitterly and usually unsuccessfully opposed, but only by those affected.
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My experience is you don’t see any citizens who live out of eyesight of a project at public meetings when such projects are proposed. And no neighbor in his right mind would speak up in support.
In this case, the CO2 pipeline is strongly but discretely supported by farmers especially in Iowa so that ethanol plants can lower emissions and stay open. However, if you think ethanol is not truly green, then carbon capture simply prolongs a harmful technology. We’ve had about 7000 miles of CO2 pipelines in use safely for years. CO2 is transported at higher pressures than natural gas but doesn’t explode. The largest danger with pipelines are their natural enemies – farmers with excavators.
We’ve farmed ground when a pipeline was installed, and my experience is it takes over a decade or more for the strip to not be noticed on the yield map. Subterranean storage of CO2 has a long history of minimal risks.
Summing up, pipelines affect less than one percent but affect them 100 percent. The reality is the rest of us are YIOBYs.
