By: Brook D. Curtiss
Publisher
Summit Carbon Solutions has been hosting meetings in the Iowa area, some locals made the trek to testify at the safety meetings there in recent weeks, and the company has been releasing information about the percentage of landowners that have returned leases for the project.
The Solutions company has partnered with most of the ethanol plants in the quad-state area of Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota, and according to the Lincoln Journal-Star, the Carbon Solutions line is one of four of similar carbon capture pipelines and projects in Nebraska.
“Navigator Ventures, which relocated from Iowa to Omaha earlier this year, is planning the 1,300-mile Heartland Greenway to sequester carbon dioxide at an underground site in Illinois; the Trailblazer Pipeline proposes converting 392 miles of existing natural gas pipeline into a carrier of CO2 that connects to the Eastern Wyoming Sequestration Hub; and Carbon America has proposed a pipeline that would transport CO2 from a single biorefinery in the Panhandle to a storage site 10 miles away” – quoted the LJS story.
The route for the proposed pipeline can be viewed in a map nearby this story.
In the company’s most recent release from December of 2022 – SCS had announced a 50 percent threshold for complete Nebraska route easements and leases signed. “Solutions has partnered with 345 Nebraska landowners to sign 465 easement agreements,” said the December 2022 release.
From the release:
“Summit Carbon Solutions and our six ethanol plant partners in Nebraska are incredibly pleased that landowners continue to embrace our project and support our efforts to maintain a strong, competitive ethanol industry,” said Summit Carbon Solutions CEO Lee Blank. “Securing easement agreements for a majority of the proposed pipeline route in Nebraska represents a significant step in advancing our project and driving growth in our ag economy long-term.”
The Lincoln Journal-Star, interviewing some of the opposition to the pipeline, reported that safety issues, such as pressure and gas release during an “when, not if, situation” that was common during the Keystone XL pipeline discussion.
From the LJS report: “Similar legal co-ops set up to allow landowners to pool their resources have been formed in Iowa and South Dakota — where landowners have sued the carbon pipeline companies to stop them from surveying property — with hundreds of individuals having joined to date.”
A major incentive for the carbon pipeline companies are large tax credits offered by the federal government, which has, through unconfirmed reports, translate into long-term purchase agreements with the local ethanol plants for their carbon removal.
Currently, all of the ethanol plants in northeast Nebraska and central Nebraska have signed on with Summit Carbon Solutions – Green Plains, Inc. in Atkinson, Wood River, Central City and York; Husker Ag In Plainview and CIE Norfolk GNS LLC in Norfolk, as well as three listed on the map in northwestern Iowa and southeastern South Dakota.
“Companies that capture and sequester greenhouse gases can claim a tax credit known as 45Q created by Congress in 2008 that was expanded as part of a recent infrastructure package,” reported the Star, “The 45Q tax credit currently provides $32 per ton of carbon dioxide permanently stored underground. The incentive will increase to $50 per ton beginning in 2026.”
Information released from Summit Carbon Solutions can be found on the company’s website at www.summitcarbonsolutions.com; or by watching public agendas for counties and cities, as well as the minutes published in the newspaper from those meetings.