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Oct 6, 2023 | Other

Source: Tristate Neighbor. October 6, 2023

Warning of Poisonous Impacts, Omar and Garcia Lead Call for Moratorium on CO2 Pipelines

Warning of Poisonous Impacts, Omar and Garcia Lead Call for Moratorium on CO2 Pipelines

Oct 4, 2023 | Actions

“CO2 spewing from a ruptured pipeline can suffocate humans and animals without notice,” more than a dozen House Democrats wrote to President Joe Biden.

Reps. Ilhan Omar and Chuy Garcia led a group of House Democrats on Tuesday in urging President Joe Biden to put a moratorium on federal permitting for new CO2 pipelines—infrastructure at the center of unproven carbon capture efforts—until robust safety regulations are finalized, warning that the current regulatory vacuum is a serious threat to public health.

“As an invisible and odorless asphyxiant, CO2 spewing from a ruptured pipeline can suffocate humans and animals without notice,” Omar (D-Minn.), Garcia (D-Ill.), and 11 other lawmakers wrote in a letter to Biden. “Transporting CO2 under the extremely high pressure required to maintain a supercritical fluid state can cause ruptures that ‘unzip’ a pipeline over long distances, allowing CO2 to escape before the flow can be stopped.”

Summit will make new pipeline permit application in South Dakota

Summit will make new pipeline permit application in South Dakota

Oct 3, 2023 | Actions

Iowa board grants Navigator CO2’s request to pause its permit process.

It could take more than a year for Summit Carbon Solutions to get approval for its proposed carbon dioxide pipeline in South Dakota.

That’s because the company, which was denied a pipeline permit by utility regulators in that state last month, will reapply after it identifies a new route that complies with county ordinances.

“Moving forward, we are committed to working with the counties in South Dakota to find a mutually agreeable path through each county,” said Sabrina Zenor, a spokesperson for the company. “This means working within ordinances regarding applicability of waivers, etc. and more dynamic conversations around routing.”

Summit applied for a permit to construct a carbon dioxide transmission pipeline in that state in February 2022. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission denied the application about 19 months later in September, citing the route’s conflicts with ordinances in four counties.

Summit had asked the commission to overrule those ordinances but withdrew that request after the commission upheld the ordinances in regard to another pipeline proposal by Navigator CO2. That company has since suspended its negotiations for land easements in South Dakota and requested to suspend its permit process in Iowa.

Both companies have sought permission to build multistate pipeline systems to transport captured carbon dioxide from ethanol plants and other facilities. South Dakota is crucial for Summit’s proposal because it has eight of the 31 ethanol plants that would connect to Summit’s system and because it is a link between North Dakota and most of the remaining plants in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. The company plans to sequester the greenhouse gas underground in North Dakota.

South Dakota law allows counties to adopt restrictions on the pipelines, but state regulators can overrule them if they are “unreasonably restrictive.”

Democrats in Congress ask Biden for moratorium on carbon pipeline permits

Democrats in Congress ask Biden for moratorium on carbon pipeline permits

Oct 3, 2023 | Actions

WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) – The United States should not permit any new carbon dioxide pipelines until updated federal safety regulations are finished, a dozen Democratic members of Congress said in a letter sent to President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key element of Biden’s climate agenda, but landowners along the routes of major CCS pipeline projects proposed in the Midwest are refusing to sign over land to build the pipelines in part due to safety concerns.