Iowa Ag Secretary Naig talks about carbon pipeline issues

DES ,POMES — Iowa House members have voted to delay until next year any developers’ request to seize property along proposed carbon pipeline routes where landowners have not signed off on access.

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig says he can see the benefits of capturing the carbon from Iowa ethanol plants and shipping it to underground storage through pipelines.  “If you can capture the CO2, you can lower the carbon intensity of a gallon of ethanol and what that can do is, we hope, preserve the longevity and the ethanol and biodiesel and renewable energy in our energy portfolio as a country and that is good news, that is a positive thing that can happen,” Naig says. “On the flip side, there is the issue of building a pipeline and those can be very difficult decisions for a landowner. Imagine a pipeline coming across a century farm.”

Three companies have announced plans to build carbon pipelines through Iowa. Naig says he’d much rather see the companies strike voluntary deals with landowners and the Iowa Utilities Board should be careful in considering private property rights before granting eminent domain for land seizures.  “What I have encouraged each of the pipeline companies to do is negotiate in good faith, compensate landowners fairly, answer their questions, satisfy their concerns,” Naig says. “…If these projects are going to go, they should go because the landowners are willing to participate.”

Naig made his comments during a weekend appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.