State Regulators Deny Tribe’s Request for Environmental Impact Study of Carbon Capture Pipeline

By B.N. Frank

Carbon Capture is being promoted as a new form of “Green Energy”. Like other sources of “Green Energy”, it is not without controversy and opposition. According to 2021 study, Analytical Review of Life-Cycle Environmental Impacts of Carbon Capture and Utilization Technologies, “To guarantee that CCU processes have environmental advantages over conventional production processes, thorough and systematic environmental impact analyses must be performed.” Regardless, Iowa regulators are denying a Native American tribe’s request for that.

From Sioux City Journal:

Iowa Utilities Board denies Winnebago Tribe’s request for environmental study of CO2 pipelines

DES MOINES — The Iowa Utilities Board on Friday denied the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska’s request for an environmental impact study along the proposed route of a liquid carbon dioxide pipeline that would run near the tribe’s lands.

The IUB in its ruling said an independent environmental study is not legally required and is unnecessary because Navigator Heartland Greenway will need to meet several environmental requirements during the process of seeking a hazardous liquid pipeline permit.

“… meeting the requirements for permits and authorizations from other state and federal agencies are sufficient to address any environmental issues raised during the proceeding,” the IUB said.

Heartland will be required to show during the permitting process how it will address environmental permits and authorizations needed to build the pipelines. Other parties also will be able to file testimony and exhibits in response to the company’s evidence. The board will consider all that evidence when deciding whether to grant a permit for the pipeline.

The Winnebago Tribal Council in June asked the IUB, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors and Dakota County Board of Commissioners, to require an environmental study be done before permits for the pipeline are issued.

“The Winnebago Tribe has consistently opposed the issuance of pipeline permits that could negatively impact our lands or water. … An Environmental Impact Study would outline the effects of the proposed pipelines on the environment and should provide sufficient information to evaluate the relative merits of the proposed pipelines and alternatives. The permit-issuing bodies cannot make reasoned or informed decisions without this information. Nor can the general public,” the Tribal Council said in its resolution seeking the study.

If built, the 1,300-mile Heartland Greenway pipeline would collect carbon dioxide from ethanol plants and fertilizer processors in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Illinois, convert it to liquid form and transport it under high pressure to an Illinois site, where it would be pumped thousands of feet beneath the surface, keeping it from being released into the atmosphere. It would run through several Northwest Iowa counties, including Woodbury, and also Dakota, Dixon and Wayne counties in Nebraska.

The Winnebago Indian Reservation lies mostly in Thurston County, but portions extend into Dixon and Woodbury counties. Those locations are north of the reservation, but the pipeline would cross the Missouri River upstream of the reservation. The tribe is concerned about the pipeline route running under tribal ancestral lands and the possibly disturbing burial sites.