Iowa, How About More of THIS?

 

Snowy Iowa Field
6" x 8" watercolor on Arches 100% cotton cold press paper

Despite objections by many landowners across Iowa, my home state may be poised to approve 1600+ miles of CO2 pipelines to ferry CO2 from Iowa ethanol and fertilizer companies to permanent sequestration—that is, if the CO2 isn’t sold to fossil fuel companies for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). One pipeline might lead to North Dakota and the other to southern Illinois. The proposed route for the one leading to Illinois would go right through this pasture I have painted.

In fact, it appears that a "massive buildout" of CO2 pipelines may be taking place, and not just in Iowa, according to a recent a recent HuffPost article by Dan Zegart. He writes that the fossil fuel industry has gotten behind this technology that they hope will allow continued production as long as the emissions are buried underground.

Yes, we need less CO2 in the atmosphere. Theoretically, carbon capture and sequestration makes sense, but there are so many unknowns to this new technology that it makes me really nervous to have CO2 pipelines crisscrossing the underbelly of Iowa. That’s why I’m doing my research, as I hope all Iowans are doing right now, because this project is moving fast.

Meanwhile, see this snowy field above? It’s a 40-acre grassy plot that together with other grasslands and forests in the U.S., helps offset about 12 to 19 percent of the U.S.’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2017 U.S.D.A. report, “Considering Forest and Carbon Grassland in Management.”

Iowa, how about more of this?