American farmland is being seized in order to advance the globalist green agenda of the Biden-Harris administration.
Five states in the Midwest are currently battling the construction of controversial carbon dioxide pipelines.
The pipelines are putting farms in jeopardy as land is being confiscated from owners.
A carbon dioxide pipeline captures carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from facilities like ethanol plants.
The CO2 is then compressed and transported via a pipeline to a site where it can be stored underground indefinitely.
This proceeded reduces the carbon intensity of ethanol.
According to globalist green agenda advocates, CO2 causes “global warming,” despite scientific evidence proving otherwise.
In late June, the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) approved a petition by Summit Carbon Solutions for the construction of a carbon dioxide pipeline across the state of Iowa.
According to the IUB, because the pipeline is considered for “public use,” Summit can seize land from landowners via eminent domain.
Eminent domain has historically been used to seize private land for government projects that seek to serve a public good.
It is normally used for private businesses.
The company says it has already reached agreements with more than 2,700 landowners to build its pipeline.
It’s all part of a broader plan by Summit to build pipelines across Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota.
The project has an estimated cost of $5.5 billion and the pipeline will span around 2,500 miles.
The captured carbon dioxide will be piped to deep underground storage sites in North Dakota.
The company is also seeking billions of dollars in taxpayer money from the federal government.
Should the pipeline become operational, Summit Carbon Solutions could receive as much as $85 per metric ton in tax credits.
The company plans to sequester as much as 18 million tons of carbon dioxide every year.
If Summit meets this target, it could receive up to $1.5 billion in tax credits each year.
The project has reportedly already attracted interest from ethanol producers in the five states involved.
57 ethanol plants are already hoping to sell captured carbon dioxide to Summit.
In addition to the payments from Summit, the plants may be eligible for billions of dollars in federal funds that are given to ethanol plants that capture CO2.
In addition, by reducing their CO2 emissions, these ethanol producers could qualify their ethanol as a sustainable aviation fuel for use by commercial airlines.
However, this solution comes at the expense of farmers and landowners who are losing land and crop yields.
There are several other drawbacks as well.
Past efforts involving carbon dioxide capture have not yielded good results.
In fact, there are already 47 significant CO2 capture and storage plants in the world.
Yet, most of them have been sustaining financial losses despite receiving heavy government subsidies.
Not only do the ethanol plants that use the pipeline stand to lose money, but the taxpayers who are funding these subsidies will also lose out.
One example of their poor track record is the Quest CCS project in Alberta, Canada.
The Canadian project is operated by oil giant Shell.
It captures just over a third of the carbon dioxide emitted in the process of upgrading bitumen from oil sands.
The $811 million project was fully paid for by taxpayer-funded grants from the government.
It will cost $41 million to run per year.
However, just $27 million of this is offset by the payments provided by carbon credit subsidies.
All of the existing CCS facilities are only capturing 0.1% of the world’s industrial emissions.
Yet, none of these efforts are having any effect on global temperatures.
Even the Sierra Club considers these measures to be “false climate solutions.”
There is also the risk of rupturing these pipelines.
A CO2 pipeline in Mississippi in 2020, created a disaster for the local community.
When it ruptured, the pipeline emitted CO2 for roughly four hours in an invisible cloud.
The leak forced the evacuations of hundreds of people in the surrounding rural community.
At least 45 people were hospitalized with problems such as shaking, unconsciousness, and an inability to breathe.
