By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The carbon sequestration company behind one of two controversial CO2 pipelines proposed for Illinois has withdrawn their construction application with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). However, Navigator CO2 Ventures, LLC will likely soon reintroduce their bid to construct the Heartland Greenway pipeline and could utilize eminent domain powers granted by the ICC to complete the project, according to a citizens group opposed to it. 

This is according to Lan Richart, co-director of the Eco-Justice Collaborative, who said the project was scuttled in part because farmers and rural landowners in Christian County refused to grant voluntary easements and enter into lease contracts with Navigator.

“Navigator was having some difficulty getting local easements for their construction site in Christian County and decided to withdraw without prejudice, and we understand that they are re-submitting their proposal as we speak, or pretty soon,” Richart said on February 24. “We expected them to come back, and they are coming back with what is actually a more ambitious project.”

A group of landowners who formed the Citizens Against Heartland Greenway Pipeline hired an attorney to follow the status of the project from the ICC. According to the attorney’s discovery, just six percent of landowners along the proposed pipeline route agreed to sign voluntary leases with Navigator. After meeting opposition in Christian County, Navigator is now looking at a new route that would encompass parts of Montgomery County and other contiguous counties.

“This is a project that we have big concerns over,” said Richart. “The process has not been transparent and flies under the regulatory radar in many ways.”

In a prepared statement, Navigator made clear that plans for the pipeline project would resume after the new application was filed. “There continues to be a growing and diverse number of industrial emitters across the Corn Belt recognizing the value carbon capture technology provides for their businesses,” Navigator CEO Matt Vining stated. “With the increasing number of shippers participating in the Heartland Greenway and landowners’ collaborative and responsive feedback, refiling allows us to streamline the application process in Illinois for all parties.”

Once the company submits a new application the ICC will have 11 months to review it, according to Bill Bodine, Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) director of regulatory affairs. Though the IFB has not taken a position on the project, the farm bureau filed a “petition to intervene” in October 2022 in order to participate in the case and raise any issues or concerns with the regulatory approval process.

Richart said that because the bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act established tax credits for companies that prove their carbon sequestration outcomes, carbon capture efforts have become a multi-million dollar business for many large corporations. “It’s kind of created a monster,” he said. “By opening up the vault and with billions of dollars on the line for groups that can capture carbon for sequestration and enhanced oil recovery, it’s become much less about carbon capture and more about capturing money. It’s like the wild west out there, with everybody trying to gain leases and sequestration rights. There’s a lot at stake for these companies.”

CO2 pipelines are not subject to environmental impact reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, Richart explained, meaning no federal permitting is required for CO2 pipeline projects and no federal funding is applicable. “If you think about it this is a multi-generational commitment to a private company, and since no one has really ever done this before in the long term we don’t know what the impacts will be,” he said.

According to the company’s website,the Heartland Greenway is a proposed carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) system that will provide biofuel producers and other industrial customers in five Midwest states with a long-term and cost-effective means to reduce their carbon footprint. Heartland Greenway will reach industrial customers in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, with operations expected to begin in early 2025. 

Plans for another proposed Illinois CO2 pipeline project, the Wolf Carbon Solutions-ADM Mt. Simon Hub pipeline, are still on the table, Richart added. The proposed 280-mile pipeline would enter northwest Illinois near the Quad Cities and cut a southwest swath through the heart of the state, before terminating at Decatur’s ADM processing plant.  

With ICC construction approval, eminent domain could be exercised in order to seize rural land identified as being in either pipeline’s path, according to Richart. An informational website, www.NoCO2Pipelines.org, has been established for landowners and others who have questions about carbon sequestration pipelines in their communities, Richart added.