Council Members Approve Resolution to Oppose the Construction of Carbon Pipelines In or Near Their City

By B.N. Frank

American carbon pipeline opponents include environmentalists, lawmakers, regulators, and residents (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12). In fact, last month opposition stopped one company from pursuing development in five states including Iowa. More recently, the Sioux City Council decided to take action to prevent other development in or near its community.

From Sioux City Journal:

City Council approves resolution opposing construction of CO2 pipelines

Dolly Butz

SIOUX CITY — The Sioux City Council voted Monday to approve a resolution opposing the construction and operation of CO2 pipelines in or near the city.

The vote was 4 to 0 in favor of the resolution. Mayor Pro Tem Dan Moore abstained.

“The thing that gives me the greatest pause with a pipeline like this is the way that they’re going about it through eminent domain and becoming a utility and things like that,” Councilman Alex Watters said before the vote. “And it’s that erosion of local control that gives me greatest pause.”

The resolution the council approved identifies the two pipelines as:

Summit Carbon Solutions turning north on the east side of Sioux City continuing into Plymouth County

Navigator Heartland Greenway continuing in a northeasterly direction towards Lawton

The resolution states that “granting eminent domain for private companies sets a dangerous precedent” and that both routes are “dangerously close” to residences, business areas, Sioux Gateway Airport and the 185th Air Guard, as well as the sister cities of Sergeant Bluff and Lawton.

The resolution notes that “major highways will be affected by construction and operation of hazardous CO2” and “construction of hazardous CO2 pipelines would result in irreparable damage to land.”

The proposed Summit Carbon Pipeline would pipe carbon dioxide from ethanol and fertilizer plants to an underground sequestration site in North Dakota. The pipeline would run through 30 counties in Iowa, including several in Northwest Iowa — Woodbury,

Plymouth, Sioux, Lyon, O’Brien, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Ida and Crawford, and would extend into Dakota, Dixon and Wayne counties in Nebraska.

Navigator decided to cancel its Midwest pipeline last month, citing in a statement the “unpredictable nature of the regulatory and government processes involved, particularly in South Dakota and Iowa.”

Navigator’s pipeline would have run through 36 Iowa counties, including Woodbury and Clay counties. Other Siouxland counties in the route included Plymouth, Lyon, Osceola, O’Brien, Cherokee, Dickinson and Buena Vista in Iowa and Dakota, Dixon and Wayne counties in Nebraska.

Many Iowa landowners have refused to grant surveyors access to their land or sign easements.

The council was initially slated to vote on the resolution on Oct. 16, but, during that meeting, Watters motioned to defer a vote on the matter so that he could gather more information from larger industries.

During Monday’s meeting, Watters said he “believes in the capture of carbon,” however, he said the “erosion of local control” makes him hesitant.

“I firmly believe if this is a technology that’s needed for it to be good stewards of the environment to continue to help ethanol thrive, I think there are things that we should do to really encourage that,” he said. “But going about it this way really hampers communities’ abilities to be responsive to future development projects and the ability to control our land, to control future development, and that’s unfortunate.”