Nebraska county rejects allow for CO2 pipeline from Iowa

On a 3-0 vote Tuesday, the Stanton County Board of Commissioners denied Summit Carbon Options a conditional-use allow to put a bit greater than 8 miles of pipeline within the county.

Commissioner Dennis Kment stated too many questions remained unanswered concerning the security of the pipeline, which seeks to hold carbon dioxide from about 30 ethanol vegetation throughout the Midwest to a sequestration web site in North Dakota.

“I didn’t know sufficient about it to vote sure,” stated Kment, who’s in his twenty sixth 12 months on the board. “I’ve by no means handled carbon dioxide earlier than, and we didn’t have all the data we would have liked to reply the questions on security.”

The Midwest Carbon Specific, as initially proposed by Summit Carbon Options, included a community of two,000 miles of pipeline throughout Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota at a value of $4.5 billion.

When it was first proposed in Nebraska, the pipeline would have stretched 315 miles throughout two major traces, connecting biofuel refineries in Atkinson, Plainview, Norfolk, Wooden River, Central Metropolis and York.

These plans seem to have been scaled again after Summit introduced it was delaying the venture, nevertheless. A map dated August 2023 obtainable on Summit’s web site exhibits plans for 164 miles of carbon dioxide pipelines linking ethanol vegetation in Holt, Madison and Pierce counties.

Summit’s plan to run an 8-inch pipe throughout a sliver of northeast Stanton County bumped into opposition from residents of Woodland Park, a housing growth of roughly 1,400 simply to the northeast of Norfolk, who stated it got here too near their properties and an elementary college.

Commissioner Doug Huttmann stated the residents of the county who reached out to him had been all against the pipeline venture, with some even persevering with to textual content him their opposition because the assembly was going down Tuesday morning.

“The one individuals at this assembly in favor of the pipeline had been both on the board of an ethanol plant or an worker,” Huttmann stated. “All of my constituents within the county had been against it. I’m their voice, in order that’s the explanation why I voted in opposition to it.”

Huttmann stated opposition to the venture centered on security, with many pointing to the Feb. 22, 2020, rupture of a CO2 pipeline in Satartia, Mississippi, that pressured 200 individuals to evacuate and despatched 45 to the hospital.

On Wednesday morning, Summit Carbon Options posted on X, previously generally known as Twitter, that there are greater than 5,300 miles of CO2 pipelines in existence within the U.S. right now, with a “99.99% security score.”

Huttmann stated others had been turned off by an absence of engagement from Summit officers in Stanton County, whereas one one who lives alongside the proposed route however has not signed an easement stated they had been involved about overseas possession within the firm.

Summit didn’t reply to an e-mail on Wednesday searching for remark, however the firm instructed the Nebraska Examiner they deliberate to deal with issues raised by Stanton County residents.

Each commissioners stated they believed carbon dioxide pipelines would profit ethanol corporations, and by extension, native farmers, and that they weren’t against the venture in precept, however signaled they weren’t able to log off on the allow fairly but.

“Stanton County isn’t going to be the primary county to present them a allow,” Huttmann stated.