Foes of CO2 pipelines mount billboard, magazine protest at ethanol conference


LINCOLN, Nebraska — Attendees at this week’s ethanol conference in Omaha saw an electronic billboard and a satirical magazine featuring plans for a carbon dioxide pipeline across the Midwest, transporting the greenhouse gas to to the storage location.

Bold Alliance founder and director Jane Kleeb said the risky and largely unregulated carbon pipeline would allow “big oil” to “continue to control our energy mix”.

“Ultimately, ethanol plants and landowners will be saddled with this latest tax scam, because we all know that when the (federal) tax credit disappears, the pipeline and capture equipment will be left for us to clean up,” she said in a statement.

imitation magazine distribution

A truck with an electronic billboard circled the ethanol plant outside the CHI Health Center in Omaha on Monday. It showed images of Iowa landowners holding signs that read “No Eminent Domain” and “Our land is not for sale.”

Protesters also distributed a book titled “Ethics? Carbon Pipelines” against an article published by the event’s media sponsor, Ethanol Producer Magazine.

The sprawling Cargill biotechnology campus near Blair, Nebraska, converts corn into a variety of products, including ethanol and sweeteners. (Photo courtesy of Cargill)

Dawn Caldwell of Renewable Fuels Nebraska pushed back on the criticism, noting that the ethanol industry has strong partnerships with farmers who not only sell corn to ethanol plants but are, in many cases, investors in those plants.

“There has been an overwhelming majority of farmers who have voluntarily signed up to easements for statewide carbon projects,” Caldwell said. “That’s because they recognize that pipelines to transport CO2 are necessary … and are safe and secure.”

At least three companies are planning to build carbon dioxide pipelines in Nebraska to transport carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to injection sites and store it deep underground.

Supporters say it’s a way to reduce ethanol’s carbon footprint, and the Biden administration has offered billions of dollars in incentives for pipeline construction as part of its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Opponents say it is an unproven technology that will only delay the country’s necessary transition to cleaner forms of energy.

Nebraska has no regulations

Nebraska — unlike neighboring Iowa and South Dakota — Such plumbing is not regulated. So far, some Nebraska landowners have rejected the proposal, Sale of right-of-way for the project.

Ethanol production is huge business in Nebraska, the second-largest producer of corn fuel after Iowa.The Nebraska Legislature Just Passed a Law Help encourage the use of higher mixes fuel.

The Bold Alliance was formed to help organize farmers and ranchers against the abandoned Keystone XL pipeline. The group insists that the ethanol industry, which has been an ally of landowners in the past, has partnered with the oil industry.

This story was originally published on nebraska examiner, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news organizations supported by a coalition of grants and donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. For questions, please contact editor Cate Folsom: [email protected]. Follow Nebraska Examiners Facebook and Twitter.





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