Every real estate agent knows, when you purchase real property, you also receive certain rights. One of those rights is the Right of Possession which simply means you own the land on the surface as well as under the surface-including mineral rights. It stands to reason then that landowners in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, and the Dakotas are putting up stiff resistance to three companies that have proposed CCS (carbon capture and storage) pipeline projects that will run right through their backyards.
So, what is carbon capture and storage or CO2 sequestration? It’s a process by which carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere in order to help mitigate climate change. The CO2 is captured from ethanol plants, isolated and pressurized into a liquid state. It then travels through the proposed pipelines to injection sites where it is pumped deep underground into naturally occurring porous rock formations which will absorb and trap the carbon dioxide-presumably forever-more than a mile below the earth’s surface.
The commercial benefits to these pipelines and their capacity to eliminate CO2 from the Earth’s atmosphere are two-fold. One, the government is providing hefty tax credits-we’re talking billions of dollars-to companies who provide this service. Secondly, America’s low-carbon ethanol producers will make bank selling their product for a premium in certain markets as well as receiving tax credits if their ethanol is captured-particularly underground. But, whether or not these proposed pipelines have any benefit for the landowners under whos ground the pipes will run or for the environment is a hot debate.
Environmentalists say that capturing this CO2 and storing it underground is only a temporary solution and that it may impede a global transition to clean energy by allowing the fossil fuel industry to continue to thrive. People are also concerned over a pipeline that exploded in Satartia Mississippi in early 2020 that hospitalized at least 45 people. But, what about the landowners? They may fall victim to eminent domain and get no compensation at all. Living just above metric gigatons of carbon dioxide trapped in the rocks below, its no surprise they’re pushing back and refusing permits to the three companies who want to begin laying pipe. One company, Navigator, has already cancelled it’s project to lay 1,350 miles of pipe between as many as 30 ethanol plants due to the “unpredictable nature of the regulator and government processes involved (dtnpf.com).
The future of carbon capture and storage and its impact on landowners is still unclear, but property owners and Realtors across the mid-west should keep their eyes and ears open to see how the rest of the story unfolds and to stand up for the rights of property owners in these areas whilst being environmentally conscientious.
If you want to know more visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ9Xtw2w5Oo