These companies say their carbon pipelines would curb climate change. Farmers object

These companies say their carbon pipelines² would curb³ climate change. Farmers object

Transcript⁴

Three companies want to build carbon capture pipelines through a large swatch of the Midwest they say will help curb climate change. Carbon capturing involves removing the carbon dioxide emissions⁵ from an industrial process and then piping to be stored elsewhere.

The construction of pipelines in the Midwest has been the topic of climate and landowner controversy⁶ for more than a decade. Both the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access pipelines made for years of debate over whether the U.S. should still be using crude oil with a warming climate.

These carbon-capture pipelines are much different.

Iowa is the country's top corn producer and almost 60% of that grain goes to produce ethanol, according to the Iowa Corn Growers Association. Archer-Daniel-Midlands (ADM), Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator CO2 Ventures want to capture the carbon these plants emit into the air while making that fuel and then pipe it to be stored deep underground.

Chad Hart is an agricultural economist⁷ at Iowa State University and says the carbon would go deep underground in North Dakota or southern Illinois.

"Where there are deep mines that have open voids that can be filled with carbon dioxide as a way to reduce the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere and sequester⁸ more of it underground," Hart says.

Hart says as American ethanol consumption levels off the industry wants to develop a carbon market especially with federal incentives⁹ to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"COVID was a big shock to the system, not only for the ethanol industry, but the liquid fuel markets as a whole," Hart says, so the ethanol industry is "looking for what are these co-product opportunities that possibly create more stability in the financial return to an ethanol plant."

"We've got to start thinking about what we're doing to farmland. That's our lifeblood of this state"

Emma Schmit chairs the local Democratic Party in Calhoun County and she's working to drum up opposition¹⁰ to the pipelines in her reliably Republican rural part of northwest Iowa. She's an organizer with the environmental advocacy organization Food and Water Watch and says landowners rights are what's uniting rural residents.

"Everybody across the political spectrum¹¹ believes in the fact that a private corporation shouldn't be able to take your property for their own benefit without giving anything back," Schmit says.

Landowners have gathered in the rotunda¹² of the Iowa Capitol and are taking turns speaking out against proposed carbon pipelines in the state. They’re asking lawmakers for additional amendments¹³ to make the ban on eminent¹⁴ domain¹⁵ takings permanent. #ialegis @IowaPublicRadio pic.twitter.com/Shstw86Muc

— Clay Masters (@Clay_Masters) March 29, 2022

More than 100 landowners and environmentalists turned out at the Iowa capitol to speak out against the pipelines on March 29. That included Kim Junker who farms with her husband near New Hartford, Iowa. She says farmers in her county can't get a meeting with Iowa's Republican Governor Kim Reynolds.

"We just want to be heard," Junker says. She's resisting Navigator CO2's pipeline¹ on her land. "We've got to start thinking about what we're doing to farmland. That's our lifeblood of this state."

It's not a question of ethanol Vs. gasoline but if to use either when there are more efficient vehicles — electric vehicles

Farmers are mainly fighting the potential use of eminent domain. That's where the government can acquire land deeming it in the public interest. The Republican-lead Iowa legislature recently advanced a proposal that would delay the use of eminent domain for these pipeline projects until early 2023.

Mark Jacobson, who teaches Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, argues that the bigger issue is American energy production. He says studies show carbon capture systems failing to significantly reduce emissions.

Jacobson says vehicles that run on ethanol are not very efficient on their own and the amount of land required for growing corn to produce the fuel is enormous when compared to electric-powered vehicles.

"The real issue is it's not a question of whether we should use ethanol versus¹⁶ gasoline," Jacobson says. "It's really a question of whether we should use gasoline or ethanol when we have much more efficient vehicles, namely, electric vehicles."

Of course, you don't see a lot of electric cars on highways yet here in the corn belt and lawmakers like Congresswoman Cindy Axne (D-IA) are continuing to push for increased ethanol production.

"Why the heck are we not expanding ethanol year round across this country right now? There's a war with Russia and Ukraine, we are seeing, you know, prices go up at the gas pumps. So let's put our own product out there across the country."

But that product faces a new test with these pipelines as the ethanol industry seeks both a new revenue stream and a way to boost its green credentials¹⁷. The fight over the ground under all that corn used to make ethanol is not going away anytime soon.

1 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

2 pipelines   

管道( pipeline的名词复数 )； 输油管道； 在考虑（或规划、准备） 中； 在酿中

参考例句：

• The oil is carried to the oil refinery by pipelines. 石油通过输油管输送到炼油厂。
• The oil carried in pipelines. 石油用管道输送。

3 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

4 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

5 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

6 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

7 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

8 sequester   

vt.使退隐，使隔绝

参考例句：

• Everything he owned was sequestered.他的所有财产都被扣押了。
• This jury is expected to be sequestered for at least two months.预计这个陪审团将至少被隔离两个月。

9 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

10 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

11 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

12 rotunda   

n.圆形建筑物；圆厅

参考例句：

• The Capitol at Washington has a large rotunda.华盛顿的国会大厦有一圆形大厅。
• The rotunda was almost deserted today,dotted with just a few tourists.圆形大厅今天几乎没有多少人，只零星散布着几个游客。

13 amendments   

（法律、文件的）改动( amendment的名词复数 )； 修正案； 修改； （美国宪法的）修正案

参考例句：

• The committee does not adequately consult others when drafting amendments. 委员会在起草修正案时没有充分征求他人的意见。
• Please propose amendments and addenda to the first draft of the document. 请对这个文件的初稿提出修改和补充意见。

14 eminent   

adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的

参考例句：

• We are expecting the arrival of an eminent scientist.我们正期待一位著名科学家的来访。
• He is an eminent citizen of China.他是一个杰出的中国公民。

15 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

16 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

17 credentials   

n.证明，资格，证明书，证件

参考例句：

• He has long credentials of diplomatic service.他的外交工作资历很深。
• Both candidates for the job have excellent credentials.此项工作的两个求职者都非常符合资格。