Editor's Note on Carbon Capture and Storage

In June, I opened the Des Moines Register to find an article about a new proposal for a pipeline that would be sited through Iowa to transport carbon captured from ethanol plants and ship it to North Dakota. I couldn’t figure out what this could be. Don’t we want to capture CO2? Where is the CO2 coming from? Who is proposing this?

Soon after that I saw an article about the State Bank of North Dakota rejecting a loan for another carbon capture project because it was too risky.

Here’s the thing, this is not our first pipeline rodeo. Remember Dakota Access and the Water Protectors? The Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN) sponsored the large coalition that tried to fend off Dakota Access in Iowa. We had been deeply engaged with our Indigenous allies at Standing Rock and in Illinois and South Dakota, coordinating efforts to stop that pipeline.

Within days of reading the North Dakota carbon capture story we convened a group of pipeline fighters and anti-fracking folks—aka climate and clean water fighters. We set out to learn everything we could about Carbon Capture and Storage.

The first thing we learned is that CO2 pipelines are actually hazardous liquid pipelines. These aren’t benign. They aren’t motherhood and apple pie structures. CO2 is an asphyxiant. It kills.

The second thing we learned is that Carbon Capture and Storage projects are in the works across the country. They are being proposed by the fossil fuel industry to extend the life of fossil fuels in many states, coast to coast and top to bottom.

Guess who is slated to pay for these fossil fuel boondoggles? Yep. Us. The public. The North Dakota legislature went around the Bank of North Dakota and agreed to use public money as a giveaway to the coal industry to fund a carbon capture project. The federal government is practically printing money for the purpose of funding the oil and gas industry’s Carbon Capture and Storage.

In this issue of the Networker we share with you the facts about Carbon Capture and Storage so you have the information you need to participate in the struggle for a livable future.