Mr. Ellis encourages central Illinois farmers to get their share of the carbon economy. While I agree that farmers should have an opportunity to diversify their businesses, there is much to consider – and still much unknown – about these CO₂ pipelines.

A Texas venture capital company, Navigator CO₂ Ventures LLC, has announced its plans to pipe captured and liquified CO₂ to a new Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) location in Christian County. It will pump the CO₂ deep into rock layers in the St. Simons sandstone geologic formation via injection wells. This CO₂ pipeline is a first in Illinois.

In February, 2020, a line break near Sartartia, Mississippi resulted in hundreds being evacuated and dozens of people needing emergency room assistance. CO₂ is an asphyxiant. In high quantities it can cause unconsciousness or death. Lesser amounts can cause convulsions, disorientation, foaming at the mouth, nausea, and vomiting. In the Sartartia incident some individuals could not escape the gas cloud because their vehicles would not start due to the displacement of oxygen by the leaking CO₂.

Hancock, Adams, McDonough, Henry, Knox, Fulton, Schuyler, Brown, Pike, Scott, Morgan, Sangamon, and Christian counties are in the proposed route of the Navigator Heartland liquified CO₂ pipeline.