Welcome - Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines

FREE Webinar! Thursday, Sept. 21st
Join the experts from the Coalition to Stop CO₂ Pipelines for a deep dive into why these pipelines are dangerous. Learn why setbacks planned by Navigator will not keep you safe. Hear about farmland impacts, the use of eminent domain, and discuss concerns related to carbon capture and sequestration.

Bring your questions! We want you to be able to be able to speak about CO₂ pipelines with confidence, whether it is in conversation with friends, colleagues, or family - OR with local officials.

This session will replace our regular Thursday night landowner organizing meeting. Click the image to the right or click here to register.

Highlights from the Farm Progress Show
The Coalition to Stop CO₂ Pipelines had a terrific experience tabling at this year's Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois. While we were tabling in the same tent as Navigator and Wolf, this banner flew high above the grounds, carrying our key message. Thank you to the anonymous donor who made that happen!!

We talked with over 1,000 farmers, and obtained postcards asking the Illinois Farm Bureau to oppose the use of eminent domain for private, for-profit projects. Blogger / radio host Trent Loos conducted a fun interview. You can access the interview and photos here.

Videos from PHMSA meeting released
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) held a two-day CO₂ pipeline stakeholder meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, May 31st-June 1. The federal agency has undertaken a new rulemaking process to “implement new measures to strengthen its safety oversight of carbon dioxide (CO2) pipelines around the country and protect communities from dangerous pipeline failures.” PHMSA rarely holds such public meetings.

Click the video to the right to access video recordings of each day. Click here for an agenda.

Second CO₂ Pipeline on its way
On Friday, June 16, Wolf Carbon Solutions US LLC became the second private company to file a petition with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to construct a carbon dioxide (CO₂) pipeline across Illinois. Wolf’s petition comes despite a serious lack of state and federal regulations related to the capture, transportation, and storage of carbon dioxide. Landowners, farmers, county governments, environmental groups, and residents in Peoria’s urban environmental justice community oppose the project, which they say poses significant environmental justice, safety, and property concerns. Read the Coalition to Stop CO₂ Pipelines press release here. You can access Wolf's application on the ICC's website here.

Tell the Corps - No Expedited Permits for CO₂ Pipelines
The environmental impact of interstate CO₂ pipelines has never been documented. Yet, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is poised to ignore the cumulative impacts of thousands of crossings of rivers, streams, tributaries, and wetlands, via an expedited nationwide permit system.

District Engineers can and should exercise their discretion and consider each interstate pipeline as a single project. They should process them with Individual Permits and conduct an environmental assessment with opportunity for public input. Learn more and send your letter here.

Two CO₂ Pipelines Are Coming to Illinois
Two CO₂ pipelines are making their way from Iowa to Illinois. They are the first of several expected in what is becoming known as the "Midwest CO₂ Express". CO₂ pipelines are new to Illinois, and differ from oil and gas. In fact, in the U.S., CO2 pipelines have never been constructed at the lengths proposed, and raising concerns across the country because they are under-regulated and pose numerous safety hazards and land use concerns. If these pipelines rupture or leak (and they have), CO₂ could travel more than a mile and asphyxiate humans or livestock within a few minutes, depending on concentration and length of exposure. Read more ...

Navigator's Heartland "Greenway"
Navigator CO₂ Ventures, LLC, is a Texas midstream infrastructure company. Navigator plans to build a 1,300 mile pipeline that would transport high-pressure, liquified CO₂ from ethanol and fertilizer plants in South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, where they will store it deep underground in Christian County. In June, Navigator added POET, the world's largest ethanol producer, to their project. This will increase the number of clients from 20 to 32, further complicating the management and transport of CO₂. Read more.

ADM / Wolf Carbon Solutions
ADM / Wolf Carbon Solutions plans to build a CO₂ pipeline from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Decatur, Illinois, where they plan to store it underground in Macon County. The route of this 280-mile pipeline will be more precisely defined, once ADM / Wolf files its application with the Illinois Commerce Commission. This is proposal is Phase I of a project that would include expansion deeper into Midwest and Ohio Valley industrial area, and potentially capture and transport CO₂ from steel and cement plants, and other emitters. Read more .

Help Stop Navigator's CO₂ Pipeline!
On January 20, Navigator withdrew their application from the ICC because they didn't have a sequestration site, and intervening groups and staff couldn't fully evaluate their project. While that was good news, Navigator issued a press release saying that they would be back by the end of February, with an even larger project. By February 10, landowners began to receive letters announcing information meetings for Navigator's proposed 42-mile long lateral pipeline through Montgomery County. Their maps now show Navigator plans to sequester carbon in both Christian and Montgomery Counties.

Citizens Against Heartland Greenway Pipeline (CAHGP) was formed to provide landowners, residents, organizations, and local units of government an opportunity to have group representation in the ICC proceedings by Attorney Joe Murphy, Meyer Capel. If you are a landowner, click here to join CAHGP. But we also need others to help fund the intervention process, which now will start over. Can we count on you to help out? Click GoFundMe to the right, learn more, and contribute whatever you can.

Send a Letter to Governor Pritzker and US and State Officials
We've been fighting CO₂ pipelines by educating and growing the base of support among those most affected by a CO₂ pipeline. That includes landowners, residents, township supervisors, villages, county boards, emergency service personnel, and more. In July we started a non-profit to intervene in Navigator's approval process, with the goal of stopping this dangerous pipeline. Now, it is time to expand our outreach to include Governor Pritzker, the Illinois General Assembly, and Congress.

Please take time to send a letter to the Governor and U.S. and state officials. You can use our advocacy form to create your own, or simply send the one that is there. This is important, as we move towards obtaining support for a moratorium on CO₂ pipelines that is tied to the competition of PHMSA's rulemaking process.

CLICK HERE