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COAL: Wisconsin utilities are in the process of determining what’s next for the sites of the state’s large coal plants as just a few will still be producing power in the coming years. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
GEOTHERMAL: Minnesota lawmakers introduce legislation to support the development of networked geothermal systems, a technology that is already taking off in the state to reduce buildings’ emissions. (Energy News Network)
POWER PLANTS: Local officials in northern Wisconsin decline to set public hearings for a proposed 625 MW gas plant near Lake Superior, delaying the project that has divided local opponents and labor groups. (Forum News Service)
CLIMATE: A Chicago neighborhood group pushes for more affordable housing development near transit stops, an approach leaders say combats both climate change and gentrification. (Grist)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
OHIO: A federal judge denies a request to move former Public Utilities Commission Chairperson Sam Randazzo’s corruption trial to Columbus from Cincinnati, where it is likely to start this summer. (Statehouse News Bureau)
SOLAR: Energy experts broadly expect natural gas to replace most of the solar output, which could top 40 GWh total, lost during Monday’s eclipse. (Utility Dive)
OIL & GAS: Officials believe oil leaking from containers on private property and into a storm drainage system caused a spill into a river in Flint, Michigan. (WJRT)
COMMENTARY:
Ohio ratepayer advocates say proposed state legislation would “rein in utility greed,” reduce shutoffs and prioritize customers in the wake of a historic utility bribery scandal. (Columbus Dispatch)
CLIMATE: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pauses implementation of its rule requiring companies to disclose their climate-related risks, though it’ll keep defending the regulation from legal challenges. (The Hill)
ALSO:
SOLAR:
EFFICIENCY:
OIL & GAS:
COAL: The U.S. Interior Department moves to reverse a Trump administration policy, making it easier for coal communities to bring environmental claims about mining companies to the federal government. (E&E News)
WIND: Texas’ wind energy industry is having to develop its own workforce recruitment and training programs as political backing for wind wanes and state lawmakers focus instead on propping up the oil and gas industry. (Texas Tribune)
GEOTHERMAL: Minnesota lawmakers introduce legislation to support the development of networked geothermal systems, a technology that is already taking off in the state to reduce buildings’ emissions. (Energy News Network)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Minnesota logistics company is piloting a program to determine whether electric semi-trucks can be a viable alternative to diesel-powered trucks. (WCCO)
NUCLEAR: The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn’t adequately account for climate risks in its reactor licensing and oversight processes, a government watchdog finds. (Utility Dive)
COMMENTARY: Legal and energy scholars write that the biggest threat to U.S. grid reliability is not a growing portfolio of renewable energy, but rather an outdated and parochial oversight system. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California researchers find electric vehicle adoption in the Bay Area has led to a 2.6% annual decrease in automobile emissions. (Courthouse News)
ALSO:
TRANSPORTATION:
OIL & GAS:
WIND: Developers bring a 152 MW wind power facility online in southeastern Idaho. (Renewables Now)
SOLAR: The Biden administration awards $19 million to projects in California, Oregon and Utah to help install solar panels over irrigation canals. (Courthouse News)
HYDROPOWER: Northwest officials predict low winter and spring precipitation levels will diminish this summer’s hydropower output from the region. (S&P Global)
CLIMATE: A Colorado ski area says it has reached its goal of operating on a net-zero carbon footprint a year ahead of schedule. (KDVR)
GRID: The Bonneville Power Administration’s staff recommends the agency join the Southwest Power Pool’s day-ahead power market rather than the California grid operator’s. (RTO Insider, subscription)
COAL:
NUCLEAR: A federal study predicts that converting a coal plant to an advanced nuclear reactor would add about 30 to 100 full-time jobs, a figure in line with projections for a Wyoming conversion. (Utility Dive)
This article originally appeared on Planet Detroit
While being a stay-at-home mom, Deana Neely had an idea. She began researching federal contracts and saw that Black women-owned businesses could win contracts and subcontract to other firms.
She also noticed that properties were being purchased all over Detroit. She felt that Black Detroiters needed a bigger stake in the contract work being performed amid the city’s development boom.
So Neely studied to get her electrical contractor’s license and founded Detroit Voltage, a Detroit-based Black-owned company that provides electrical contracting services for residential, commercial and government projects.
“It took me months. But after I got that first contract, my phone literally never stopped ringing,” Neely said. “Within my first six months of operating, we generated over six figures in revenue [and] became like the go-to electrical contractor in the city.”
Initially, Neely said she was not forthcoming about being a Black woman-owned business.
“It is very much so a white male-dominated industry, and I didn’t want anyone to know that I owned the company. And so everything about it looked like a white male owned it,” Neely said.
But, when she participated in a Google small business accelerator, the leaders of Google’s program encouraged her to bring her face to the forefront, a move that paid dividends later.
The U.S. construction industry remains largely white and male-dominated. Only 10.6% of construction managers in the U.S. are women, and only 4.8% are Black, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as of January 2024.
Despite the sector’s homogeneity, Neely is inspiring other people of color to enter the skilled trades with a focus on sustainability.
Today, Detroit Voltage is installing electric vehicle charging stations for DTE Energy in Detroit. And she’s also helping others enter the field.
In the Spring of 2022, Elevate, a national nonprofit based in Chicago, tapped Neely to help shape the Detroit Clean Energy Contractor Accelerator Program. The program trains contractors from underrepresented backgrounds to bring their businesses into the clean energy economy. The following year, Neely participated in the program’s first Detroit cohort.
“What we’re trying to do is build up a network of contractors that are located in Detroit,,” said Tim Skrotzki, Associate Director of partnerships at Elevate. “We want these contractors to look like and be from the community we’re working in. With Detroit being predominantly Black, 78%, we want contractors to reflect that.” Editor’s note: Skrotzki is an Advisory Council member for Planet Detroit
Beyond training workers in the space, the nonprofit seeks to get general contractors to understand clean energy technologies so that they can oversee such projects, he added.
Neely said the clean energy accelerator program has helped build a connected local ecosystem for contractors like her.
“It also opened our eyes to partnering to get the work done. So if we didn’t have the capacity to do it directly, we can work within the group to make it happen,” she said.
Detroit Voltage was contracted to install EV charging stations across the city on behalf of DTE Energy. Neely said that the two began working together last April, and Detroit Voltage had installed about 100 EV charging stations on behalf of DTE. Neely first connected with the utility giant through its Bright Ideas for Neighborhoods Business pitch competition, during which small local businesses compete for a cash prize. Neely won $5,000 at the competition.
Detroit Voltage was installing EV chargers prior to participating in Elevate’s accelerator, but the program introduced Neely to other possible services beyond EVs. For example, Neely said she plans to implement battery backup preventative maintenance sometime in the near future, such as inspections, testing, and upkeep of battery backup systems.
“We have a very positive working relationship with Detroit Voltage. They are a DTE-certified electrician who takes part in our Home EV Charger Installation program,” Ryan R. Lowry, spokesperson for DTE told Planet Detroit.
Before launching Detroit Voltage in April 2016, Neely spent more than a decade working for the Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department. There, she met her now ex-husband and went on to have two children.
Similarly, Neely said she has tried to spread the word to young people in youth and professional organizations about opportunities in the industry.
“Everywhere you go there’s construction happening, ” Neely said. “Once you have this skill, you can go anywhere in the world and thrive with just the skill alone.”
Minnesota is home to a growing number of networked geothermal systems — essentially massive ground-source heat pumps providing low-emissions heating and cooling to a group of buildings.
Now, state legislators have introduced bills that aim to support further adoption of the technology, which advocates say is a key tool for cutting emissions in the building sector, especially in cold-weather states.
The legislation builds on what’s already happening in the state. Thermal energy networks have been installed in Rochester’s city hall and will be extended to a library and civic center to create a system serving more than one million square feet. Carleton College built a networked geothermal system and The Heights, a development on St. Paul’s East Side where more than 1,000 people will live and another 1,000 will work, will be heated and cooled by a networked thermal system.
“There’s a lot of excitement building around networked geothermal,” said Luke Gaalswyk, president and CEO of St. Paul-based Ever-Green Energy, a utility system operator and advisor with an expertise in district energy.
The state’s two major gas utilities, Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy, included networked geothermal pilots in plans submitted under the Natural Gas Innovation Act to the Public Utilities Commission. At least one legislative initiative calls for devoting 15% of the Innovation Act budget to networked geothermal. The federal government has several initiatives underway, too.
Joe Dammel, managing director for buildings at policy nonprofit Fresh Energy, said the state’s goal of becoming net zero by 2050 means shifting away from natural gas for heating.
“We think that there’s tremendous potential from network geothermal,” he said. “The studies being considered and the number of bills at the Legislature right now are only going to help us understand the technical and economic potential of geothermal.”
Fresh Energy also publishes the Energy News Network.
The proposed laws encourage geothermal in a variety of ways. One (HF 4759/SF 4849) offers planning grants to cities, counties and planning agencies to examine the feasibility of geothermal systems. A second (HF 4689/SF 4686) creates rebates related to geothermal. A third (HF 4688/SF 4687) requires the Public Utilities Commission to set up a workgroup. A fourth (HF 4423 / SF 4760) builds a framework for thermal energy network pilots and instructs the Commerce Department to study the potential for geothermal networks in Minnesota.
State Rep. Larry Kraft, a co-author on several of the bills, said buildings in Minnesota represent around 40% of carbon emissions and more than 60% in his suburban community of St. Louis Park. He believes municipalities that receive grants for geothermal and build systems will demonstrate, by example, the technology’s ability to decarbonize heating.
Kraft said ground-source systems, while expensive, are more efficient at heating than air source heat pumps. New developments may be easier to build with geothermal energy, or when streets are being reconstructed, neighborhoods could be retrofitted for it.
He imagines utilities that distribute natural gas will move to operating geothermal networks someday.
“How we decarbonize heating is going to be a big challenge for us here in a cold climate, but geothermal has great potential,” Kraft said.
Geothermal of any sort, however, remains expensive because the most common application, ground-source systems, requires drilling hundreds of boreholes and installing significant amounts of piping. There aren’t many contractors who can do this job, and financing institutions have little familiarity with it. Utilities may remain skittish because it threatens the natural gas business model.
Advocates believe more adoption will drop costs, create a robust contractor pool and enable more financing. Minnesota’s new Climate Innovation Finance Authority appears poised to be a potential financing source, having just provided $4.7 million for planning a networked geothermal for The Heights development in St. Paul.
Networked geothermal systems serve several buildings or homes with centralized heat or cooling using the same principle as district energy systems. A central heating and cooling source — typically borefields or aquifers — to serve many buildings while employing economies of scale to decrease costs through shared infrastructure.
Trade unions view networked geothermal as increasing employment opportunities for pipefitters and other contractors. Gas utilities could potentially transition toward geothermal as fossil fuel demand diminishes, Dammel said.
Clean energy advocates meanwhile like geothermal’s efficiency and ability to operate on electricity for heating instead of natural gas or propane. Lawmakers see thermal systems as providing a path to meeting the state’s goal of being net zero by 2050, Kraft added.
The Inflation Reduction Act incentivizes thermal networks by offering tax credits and direct reimbursements to government agencies and nonprofits.
“The [IRA] is contributing to an explosion in interest and adoption of geothermal,” said Ryan Dougherty, president of the Geothermal Exchange Organization.
Schools and other nonprofits can now receive 30% to 50% of the installed cost of a geothermal system, Doughtery said. The surge in commercial and institutional installations has grown so significantly that the industry has begun to face a labor shortage.
For the electric grid, networked thermal systems could bring relief because they use substantially less electricity than competitive solutions. Ground source heat pumps operate more efficiently than air source heat pumps, which now outsell fossil gas furnaces. And although ground source heat pumps use electricity, they consume less energy than heating alternatives, Gaalswyk said.
Such systems could even tap sources such as waste heat from wastewater facilities or data centers to warm buildings, he said. Another benefit is the ability to shift heat on a sunny day from a south-facing building, for example, to a north-facing one needing it.
Audrey Schulman, co-founder and co-executive director of the nonprofit climate solutions incubator HEET, said utilities with networked geothermal can begin heating water a week before an expected cold snap to avoid stressing the system — for instance, taking advantage of excess electricity from wind farms.
“There’s a lot of different options available,” Schulman said.
Massachusetts has required utilities to direct a growing percentage of funding allotted for replacing natural gas piping to networked geothermal, Schulman said. The fastest way to move away from natural gas and toward geothermal, she argues, will be by maintaining the financial health of natural gas utilities.
Utilities would socialize the cost of the capital expenditures to networked geothermal and then potentially pay it off by charging customers for the operations and maintenance, depending on the size of their homes or businesses.
“No one’s quite figured out how the charges will be structured,” she said.
Dammel said natural gas utilities have a long history of innovation and changing their business models. Initially, they provided natural gas for streetlighting before transitioning to a delivery service for natural gas.
“We certainly see that gas utilities could play a significant role in providing heat to customers and maintaining that longstanding customer relationship gas utilities have with their customers,” Dammel said.
Dammel and Schulman say regulators, utilities and others will face inevitable challenges in moving thermal systems into the mainstream. One is getting utilities onboard. Schulman said one Massachusetts utility, Eversource, fully embraces networked geothermal as the future, while others have taken a wait-and-see approach.
Dammel said utilities and clients must learn through pilots the upfront costs of the systems and how they could save money over time. Helping state residents and lawmakers understand the potential for networked geothermal and how it could benefit communities will be another task, he said.
Developing a geothermal workforce remains critical to growth. Minnesota has existing tradespeople capable of building geothermal systems, but the potential to create a much bigger workforce remains, Dammel said.
“There’s a huge opportunity,” he said, not only for installers but for companies developing new geothermal technology, financing, design and other aspects of the business.
Schulman agrees. Contractors drilling boreholes for geothermal in Massachusetts have become “overtaxed” with all the projects underway. The adoption speed will increase once regulators, utilities, and customers see the advantages.
“I can’t imagine any reason a customer would not want lower heating and cooling bills,” she said.
Legislative committees have heard several of the geothermal bills. Minnesota’s legislative session ends May 20.
CLEAN ENERGY: Wind and solar are booming in Texas, with the state ranking first in the U.S. for wind energy and just behind California for solar, and renewables now accounting for a third of all power produced in the state. (Axios)
ALSO: A new report finds nine clean energy projects announced in North Carolina between 2022 and 2023 will add $10.2 billion to the state’s gross state product during construction and $593.5 million annually while they’re operating. (Raleigh News & Observer)
CLIMATE:
COAL:
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS:
GRID: A Texas appeals court allows lawsuits against transmission and distribution utilities related to the 2021 winter storm and widespread outages. (The Hill)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Biden administration is largely looking to gas stations to install electric vehicle chargers, boosting companies that have long been some of the biggest sellers of fossil fuels. (E&E News)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Residents of a historic Black community in Alabama see an opportunity to restrict a polluting asphalt plant when its air permit comes up for renewal with state regulators. (Inside Climate News)
PIPELINES: Protesters gather outside the offices of Virginia’s environmental regulatory agency to call for greater enforcement of erosion rules against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (WHSV)
COMMENTARY:
NUCLEAR: The owner of New Jersey’s three nuclear plants says it will seek to extend the plants’ licenses for another 20 years, and says that new federal tax credits will enable the plants to run without state subsidies. (Associated Press, NJ Spotlight)
GRID: Executives from regional grid operators, including ISO-New England and the New York Independent System Operator, say they are “running like crazy” to keep up with rapid changes from decarbonization and electrification. (E&E News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
COAL:
WIND: Officials from eight coastal New Jersey towns urge regulators to reject any attempt by Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind to rebid its project to take advantage of higher renewable energy credit rates. (Asbury Park Press)
UTILITIES: The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office finds that customers of competitive energy suppliers collectively paid $51.8 million more for electricity over a year than they would have paid with basic utility service. (State House News Service)
PIPELINES: Two years after Energy Transfer agreed to provide free water testing for residents impacted by Mariner East II pipeline construction in Pennsylvania, neither the company nor the state has disclosed information about the number of tests done or the results. (Spotlight PA)
EFFICIENCY: A Maine lumber mill will receive a $300,000 Department of Energy grant to install energy-efficient equipment. (WABI)
CLIMATE: New York lawmakers urge passage of a bill that would require the state to incorporate climate change into curriculum standards. (WSKG)
COMMENTARY: Advocates say offshore wind will be critical for meeting climate goals in Delaware, a state that imports most of its power. (Delaware Online)
CLIMATE: The U.S. EPA selects eight nonprofits to administer $20 billion for climate resilience and emissions-reducing projects in low-income communities, creating what it calls a “first-of-its-kind national network” of green lenders. (E&E News, New York Times)
ALSO: The U.S. Federal Reserve reportedly thwarted a global effort to require lenders to share their climate plans and risks, saying a global banking oversight committee risked overstepping its authority. (Bloomberg, subscription)
SOLAR: Installing solar arrays on the roofs of strip malls, factories, schools and other large non-residential buildings could bring low-cost power to surrounding communities, researchers find. (Grist)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
NUCLEAR:
CARBON CAPTURE: Local leaders in central Illinois say they are ill-equipped to respond to a potential emergency should a proposed six-mile carbon dioxide pipeline be brought into operation. (Energy News Network)
OIL & GAS:
COAL: Experts say the collapse of a Baltimore bridge will likely funnel more coal exports to Virginia’s ports, but an operator says they’re already operating at full capacity. (S&P Global)
CLEAN ENERGY: Wind and solar are booming in Texas, with the state ranking first in the U.S. for wind energy and just behind California for solar, and renewables now accounting for a third of all power produced in the state. (Axios)
BATTERIES: Developers plan to bring a 680 MW battery energy storage system online this summer on the site of a shuttered natural gas plant in southern California. (Canary Media)
OIL & GAS: The Biden administration finalizes a 20-year ban on new oil and gas drilling and mining on 222,000 acres of federal land in the Thompson Divide area of western Colorado. (Colorado Sun)
ALSO:
BIOFUELS: Phillips 66 completes converting a California Bay Area oil refinery into a biodiesel production facility. (ESG Today)
UTILITIES:
SOLAR: Hawaiian Electric streamlines its rooftop solar and battery storage incentive program, resulting in reduced benefits for some customers. (Utility Dive)
BATTERIES:
NUCLEAR: California advocates sue the Biden administration for allocating $1 billion to the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to keep it operating, saying the award was based on a flawed analysis that doesn’t recognize some hazards. (Associated Press)
CLIMATE:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Washington state utility offers $50 credits to electric vehicle owners who agree not to charge when power demand peaks. (Center Square)
CARBON CAPTURE:
Safety concerns are at the heart of opposition to a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline in central Illinois, which would connect an ethanol plant to a proposed sequestration site about six miles away.
The pipeline proposed by One Earth Energy is much shorter than carbon dioxide pipelines that were previously proposed in Illinois and then tabled by Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf Carbon Solutions. Those pipelines would have stretched through hundreds of miles of farmland.
But One Earth’s proposed pipeline starts just west of downtown Gibson City, at the company’s ethanol plant. Local leaders say county and city emergency responders, relying largely on volunteer firefighters, are ill-equipped to prepare for possible leaks or ruptures.
Ford County Emergency Management Agency and Local Emergency Planning Committee coordinator Terry Whitebird says the county cannot afford to do the necessary training and planning for a potential disaster and evacuation, as noted in testimony filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission, which will hold public hearings in May on the company’s request for a necessary certificate of authority.
It also cannot afford to buy electric municipal vehicles that could be necessary during a carbon dioxide leak, since gas and diesel vehicles can fail when the heavy gas displaces oxygen needed for combustion. That means ambulances and other emergency vehicles could be stalled just when they are needed to help rescue or evacuate residents.
Whitebird also noted that the local hospital has only eight patient rooms and one emergency physician on call, meaning it could be overwhelmed in case of a carbon dioxide leak. The next closest hospitals, in Bloomington and Champaign, are each 40 minutes away.
Opponents of carbon dioxide pipelines often point to a 2020 disaster in the tiny village of Satartia, Mississippi, where a Denbury Resources pipeline rupture and explosion left people sickened and struggling to breathe. At least 45 people were hospitalized, and some report lasting health impacts.
Whitebird envisioned a similar disaster unfolding in Gibson City, which has a much larger population of 3,400.
“The wind in this area is generally from west to east, and any leak or rupture will likely result in the CO2 gas drifting into Gibson City — a potential exposure of 25% of the population of the County,” says Whitebird’s testimony before the commerce commission.
Sally Lasser moved from Joliet, near Chicago, to cultivate forest and native prairie on land near Gibson City she named R Wildflower Farm & Fields, to honor her late father, Richard Lasser, who planted 5,000 trees on the land and put much of it in conservation easements.
One Earth’s proposed sequestration site is near Lasser’s land, and her name is on a list of affected landowners filed by the company. When Lasser first heard about the proposal, she was open to understanding the benefits to the local ethanol industry, and allowed the company to host a meeting on her porch last summer.
At first, “I was given no reason to be concerned about the danger of this project,” she said. She asked questions about truck traffic and lights during construction. Later on, other residents and advocates explained the risks of a carbon dioxide pipeline rupture.
“If I were to try to start my truck, it’s not going to start, so I’m going to take off on foot unless I have an electric car,” she said. “How do I know which direction to go in, because I can’t see (the carbon dioxide gas). Say the emergency responders have electric vehicles. Are they going to come to my farm and scour all 160 acres to find me? Are they going to look up in the loft of my barn because that’s where I was when I passed out from this?”
Local leaders and advocates have demanded that One Earth produce models of how a carbon dioxide plume would spread in case of a rupture, but pipeline developers are not required to do so. The company filed plume modeling with the commerce commission in late March, but it is considered confidential and can only be viewed by official stakeholders in the process.
Kathy Campbell, an audiologist and Southern Illinois University professor emeritus who has reviewed proposals for the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies, said she “had reservations” about the quality of the modeling.
Local leaders previously obtained modeling done by Navigator for its proposal, though the company never officially released that information. Campbell analyzed Navigator’s plume modeling to predict how a plume from One Earth’s pipeline might behave.
She concluded that residents closest to One Earth’s proposed pipeline would have no way to evacuate before being overcome by dangerous levels of carbon dioxide if the pipeline ruptured. Based on Navigator’s modeling, residents within 1,971 feet of the One Earth pipeline would be in the highest hazard zone, Campbell testified. One Earth’s proposal shows multiple residences and businesses within 1,200 feet of the pipeline, and at least two residences less than 700 feet away, based on GIS analysis by pipeline opponents.
While carbon dioxide at low concentrations is harmless to humans, at higher concentrations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Agriculture consider it a serious health hazard, both because of its toxicity and the fact that it displaces oxygen at ground level.
In a March 27 filing, One Earth promised that it would provide carbon dioxide monitors and emergency oxygen supplies to landowners along the route.
“Imagine if everyone along a pipeline corridor had to have oxygen, and know how to use it,” said Jenny Cassel, a senior attorney for Earthjustice who has worked on proposed state legislation to regulate such pipelines. “That’s pretty terrifying. What if a kid is home alone?”
Carbon dioxide is gaseous under normal atmospheric conditions, but can be turned to liquid at high pressure, for transport in pipelines. If that pressure is suddenly released, carbon dioxide converts to its solid state and takes on a frigid temperature, then evaporates or “melts” into gas.
“If there’s a rupture, it immediately turns into dry ice crystals — it comes out at negative 109 degrees,” explained Campbell, who lived in the path of the Navigator pipeline proposal. “If you breathe those or those hit your eyes, you get frostbite of the eyes, mouth, ears.”
The toxicity of carbon dioxide at high concentrations can also immediately damage the body, Campbell continued.
“And somehow you’re supposed to try to escape while your vision is going, your hearing is going.”
The frigid temperature of released high-pressure carbon dioxide also affects the steel pipelines, experts say, making them brittle and allowing a small rupture to quickly “unzip” into a major fissure.
At concentrations of 40,000 ppm, carbon dioxide is designated by the CDC as “immediately dangerous to life or health,” and lower concentrations are considered perilous for certain lengths of exposure, Campbell wrote in testimony before the commission. She cites academic studies predicting that dangerous levels could be reached within five minutes of a rupture.
“This pipeline does not provide any benefit to those whose lives are placed at risk along the pipeline,” Campbell’s testimony continued. “For them, the risk/benefit assessment is all risk and no benefit.”
Mark Maple, senior gas engineer for the Illinois Commerce Commission, emphasized safety risks in his testimony recommending the commission deny One Earth’s proposal.
“In my opinion the current safety regulations, as they pertain to carbon dioxide pipelines, are not sufficient to guarantee the public’s safety in all possible scenarios,” he testified. “Therefore, I cannot say with certainty that all citizens along the route will be safe if a rupture were to occur.”
While residents are concerned about the One Earth pipeline in its own right, they also fear its construction would mean more carbon dioxide pipeline proposals, to connect to One Earth’s pipeline and sequestration site.
One Earth’s original proposal called for a pipeline that could handle about 10 times the amount of carbon dioxide produced annually by the ethanol plant, and noted that the pipeline would serve third-party customers. In late March, the company revised its proposal to reduce the pipeline’s capacity, from a 16-inch to 12.75-inch diameter, though it said the pipeline still offers some capacity for additional users.
“Reducing the total potential capacity of the OES pipeline will reduce the volumes that could be released in the event of a pipeline leak or rupture and therefore the CO2 concentrations at various distances from the pipeline in the event of a break,” Mark Ditsworth, One Earth vice president of technology and special projects, said in testimony filed March 27.
REX American Resources, One Earth’s parent company, also owns ethanol plants in Iowa, Wisconsin, South Dakota and another town in Illinois. Residents worry that the company would seek to connect these plants to the sequestration site, to collect tax credits for carbon capture and sequestration.
The Navigator and Wolf pipelines were both proposed to connect multiple ethanol plants to sequestration sites in Illinois’ Mt. Simon sandstone geology. Both companies withdrew their proposals from commerce commission consideration last fall in the face of opposition from landowners. The commission invited Wolf to reapply if it addressed concerns and requests for more information.
Safety concerns are not the only area where critics say One Earth’s proposal is lacking. The company has not yet secured needed permits and approvals for the sequestration site it has proposed in neighboring McLean County. The Illinois Commerce Commission does not need to approve sequestration sites, but the county in December denied a necessary special use permit, and the company hasn’t obtained other state and federal permits.
The company has also not secured leases or easements from the approximately 20 landowners along the proposed pipeline route. Pipeline developers can invoke eminent domain to secure rights of way if the project is determined by the commission to be in the public interest.
In testimony, Maple said eminent domain is intended to make sure a minority of landowners can’t block a project that a majority supports. He testified that eminent domain might not be considered appropriate if the company has obtained few or no voluntary easements.
One Earth “has yet to acquire any of the necessary easements” for the pipeline, Maple’s testimony states. “This demonstrates that the Company has failed to show that it has negotiated, or even begun to negotiate, in good faith with landowners…The lack of progress with landowner negotiations at this stage of the proceeding is highly concerning.”
On March 27, the company filed testimony regarding a revised plan that shortened the planned route by a mile and reduced the number of injection wells planned at the sequestration site, from three to two. Ditsworth told the commission this was to address landowner “preferences.”
In testimony, Ditsworth said the company “has had significant success negotiating with landowners for necessary land rights” to build two injection wells for sequestration. He said the company had acquired the rights to almost all the pore space needed around one of the injection wells and almost half the pore space needed around another.
Lasser was glad to hear of the removal of one injection well and reduction in the size of the pipeline, but she is still deeply concerned about safety.
“I’m no longer sandwiched between two (injection) wells, but I’m still in too close a proximity, I would still be in great danger,” she said. “People need to realize how terribly unsafe it is. We need leaders that put people and their safety before private business.”
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