LETTERS: Don't drink ethanol's doomsday Kool-Aid

To the editor:

Things are not going as planned for three deep pocketed investment companies seeking permits from the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB). They expected to move into this state, throw billions of dollars around, scoop up the land they needed for hazardous liquid CO2 pipelines with the help of eminent domain, and start laying thousands of miles of pipe later this year. Instead, projects like the Midwest Carbon Express are going off the rails.

Unexpected glitches have delayed construction. The IUB postponed Summit’s hearing until more of the 1,500 remaining parcels are signed. Most of the unsigned landowners have dug in their heels and won’t talk to acquisition agents. Navigator was forced to withdraw its application in Illinois where pore space for the liquid CO2 is protected from eminent domain, landowners refuse to sign voluntary easements. Wolf/ADM is running into opposition in southwest Iowa where landowners are asking pointed questions, and boards of supervisors are discussing restrictive ordinances.

As if opposition landowners aren’t problem enough, several bills aimed at curbing eminent domain abuse have been introduced in the Iowa Legislature this session. They are gaining traction in the House and Senate as more legislators hear concerns about eminent domain for profit from their constituents.

What is an enterprise to do when it’s spent billions over the past two years, but the plan isn’t working? Obviously, there is only one thing to do – play the doomsday card. Find a middleman, conduct a study to get nebulous statistics, and start a media blitz of innuendo and alarm. Presto! They’re off and running with slick mailers, newspaper reports and radio interviews.

Immediately, ethanol plants across the state sent letters supporting Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) to their corn producers. Without CCS, they cautioned, the ethanol industry would face devastating profit losses and possible closures. Producers would need to pay shipping charges to sell elsewhere.

Next, newspaper and radio reports warned Iowans that ethanol producers will lose billions of dollars and be unable to compete in the global market without CCS. Even more alarming was the finding that 75 percent of ethanol plants would leave Iowa and move to neighboring states that use CCS.

The doomsday scenarios were based on a study commissioned by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. Not surprisingly, Archer Daniels Midland is a member of IRFA, and Summit Carbon Solutions, Navigator CO2, and Wolf Carbon Solutions are associate members. The findings are obviously questionable because of a conflict of interest.

While the study’s warnings sound dire, they’re not credible. The proposed CCS route crosses five states in addition to Iowa: Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Iowa is pivotal. It’s the pass-through state leading to the sequestration sites in ND and IL. Without Iowa’s vast network of ethanol plants that produce a huge percentage of the CO2 being captured, CCS in the remaining states will not be profitable as stand-alone projects. Furthermore, CCS is as unpopular with landowners in neighboring states as it is in Iowa. Pipeline companies are struggling to get landowner signatures in all of them. It’s highly unlikely any of our neighbors will pursue CCS without Iowa.

All the handwringing about ethanol’s demise without carbon capture is nothing more than a scare tactic to paint unsigned landowners as guilty of hindering ethanol’s future and Iowa’s progress. The very idea is absurd! We understand the ethanol industry’s need to produce a net-zero carbon fuel in order to stay competitive in today’s market.

However, CCS is an inefficient and expensive way to meet that goal. Alternative methods for lowering carbon emissions, such as bio-sequestration and eMethanol, are being developed. As a matter of fact, simply using no-till farming methods can reduce annual carbon emissions in the United States by 2 percent.

Recent publicity warning of the Iowa ethanol industry’s collapse without CCS is nothing more than a disingenuous plan to alarm legislators and force landowners into signing easements. Just last month, they boasted of record-breaking profits and predicted a bright future for ethanol. How can an industry be booming one minute and struggling to stay afloat the next? Don’t drink ethanol’s doomsday Kool-Aid.

Bonnie Ewoldt,

Milford