Last updated on 2024-01-15
“Well, I’m with the landowners and always have been,” said Governor Kristi Noem last summer in response to concerns about carbon dioxide pipeliners trying to seize land for their for-profit carbon sequestration project via eminent domain.
But a lot of the big-business Republicans she likes to stand with are behind the new lobbying effort to win support for CO2 pipelines. Ag-industrial lobbying group Protect South Dakota’s Ag Future doesn’t mention eminent domain or property rights on its new website. They acknowledge only glancingly that the pipeliners have erred in assaulting the property rights that Republicans allegedly hold dear, but they make clear that good Republicans still hold making money more dear:
It’s clear there have been some missteps with the CO2 pipeline project to this point. Summit Carbon Solutions, the company behind the project, has significantly changed their plans as a result of the opposition to the pipeline. They’ve also changed their approach in dealing with landowners.
It’s our hope that these changes will help our state to find a solution that allows us to move forward with the carbon pipeline and all the opportunities it makes possible. These projects are essential to the future of South Dakota and represent a clear choice for the people of our state – either find a way for our state to finish the pipeline project and move into the future, or refuse to budge and cling to the past, ignoring a marketplace that is already changing and will leave us behind if we don’t act with urgency. The choice is ours [Protect South Dakota’s Ag Future, “Moving Forward“, homepage content retrieved 2023.12.10].
So who are the good Republicans upholding South Dakota’s traditional business über alles mindset? Their board consists of these six businessmen, including a majority of Noem/SDGOP cronies:
- Walt Bones, Turner County factory-dairy operator, former ag secretary, employer of illegal immigrants, beneficiary of state CAFO bribes under the Noem regime, and Noem’s 2022 Ag Ambassador.
- Paul Casper, Lake Preston soybean farmer, national soybean industry lobbyist, and Noem’s 2019 Ag Ambassador.
- Ty Eschenbaum, CAFO consultant for A1 Development Solutions, the Republican “how to get government handouts” CAFO-consulting firm that also employs Noem’s son-in-law Kyle Peters.
- Kent Hartwig, the PR man for aspiring aviation biofueler Gevo Inc. that is promising to abandon a major industrial development in Lake Preston if the state doesn’t permit CO2 pipelines.
- Walt Wendland, president/CEO of the exploding ethanol producer Ringneck Energy, next to whom Noem happily stood for photos when the Onida plant fired up in 2019.
- Terry Schultz, Madison seed and hotel magnate, next to whom Noem happily stood to receive a vulgar bullying GOP t-shirt in 2021.
So, landowners, when Summit Carbon Solutions come a-callin’ again with their court orders for you to surrender your land to their profits, with whom do you think Governor Noem will stand: you or the crony-capitalist ag-industrial lobby with whom she has so many deep, heartfelt connections?
Two more cronies are Jason Glodt, former attorney for the cancelled Navigator CO2 pipeline, and Rob Skjonsberg, former advisor to Senator Rounds and employee of Poet Ethanol who was the company that made up Navigator. You are spot on, Corey. This is a sham group organized with Summit’s and Navigator’s secret investors in an attempt to take away counties local authority and give it to the state because of the protective ordinances some counties passed.
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2023/12/05/pipeline-company-prevails-over-two-county-ordinances/
Apparently counties have no control over pipeline placement and regs in iowa.
Burying CO2 in a hole in North Dakota will not solve climate problems.
Instead it is another mess for our children and grandchildren.
Just another con job from the blue-suited usual suspects in Pierre. Check out the first words you see on their website: “Over the past year, South Dakota’s carbon pipeline projects have been met with opposition from a small minority of landowners, county commissioners, the Public Utilities Commission and social media. This opposition has put these projects – and others – in jeopardy of shutting down or being relocated out of state.”
“Opposition from a small minority.”
“In jeopardy of shutting down or (gasp!) being relocated out of state.”
Minimize the relevancy of the opponent and punctuate liberally with fear talk.
That’s been the time-honored recipe for horrible ideas that fill the pockets of the few being promoted into law and public acceptance: Strip mining the Black Hills and cyanide heap leaching, national garbage dumps, sewage ash, nuclear waste dumps, hog factories that empty into the Missouri River and more — all in the name of economic development and protecting South Dakota’s pro-business image (an image that is sold to the state’s citizens because the corporate moguls don’t give a rip … all they want are suckers who can stay out of their way). Dumb or greedy legislators rely on sham groups like this to create the smokescreen for political cover. A ton of money will again get spent (mostly under the table) to tie up the legislature and fool the little people back home long enough to get their enabling legislation passed.
Only when construction starts will people in urban areas realize it’s not just a group of farmers around the Aberdeen area who will get screwed. The proposed line for Summit Carbon Solutions ran around the fastest growing neighborhoods in South Dakota, Harrisburg and south Sioux Falls. If you went door to door in these neighborhoods, you’ll probably find that less 10 percent were aware of plans to run a shallow pipeline containing a highly-pressurized asphyxiant that explodes when a leak occurs. The plume rolls out quickly and chokes everything in its path.
But what about the benefits to ethanol? A recent study showed “the carbon capture system would reduce the plant’s net emissions by only 10 to 11 percent, not the estimated 80 to 90 percent cited by proponents.” If you think this benefits the effort to control climate change, think again. It is certainly not worth the forced loss of property values and public endangerment this project brings.
The con artists in blue suits hope people will get confused or disinterested to pressure the legislature to come to its senses. That’s why they are running at ramming speed right now. They hope folks won’t wake up until it’s too late.
For the same money we could give every ethanol plant $100,000,000. It will not help with climate change but it will make some folks very rich.
CO2 pipelines are yet more evidence nobody really cares about global warming.
If they truly cared they’d stop ethonal and oil production, flying, and driving.
If these were true capitalists and not just govt handout hopefuls, and if they truly cared about CO2 capture, they’d figure out how to store it on sight, on their own dime. Not mine.
There’s hundreds of millions of dollars at stake here. The Summit people and their investors will fight to the death. They have their foot in the door. They won’t be evicted without a fight.It’s never over, until it’s over.
If you pump that CO2 into the ground, voila, old oil fields start producing again. “Earlier this year, Occidental Petroleum announced plans to draw half a million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere each year with Carbon Engineering’s “direct air capture” technology. Occidental will then pump that CO2 into its oil fields in Texas, where it will release trapped oil and increase production. The pumped CO2 will remain stored underground.” https://www.wri.org/insights/co2-direct-air-capture-plant-will-help-extract-oil-texas-could-actually-be-good-climate
It’s always about the oil. What the hell could go wrong? Anyone’s guess, but think of the money, who needs life when the rich are happy.
Terry Schultz, Madison seed and hotel magnate, next to whom Noem happily stood to receive a vulgar bullying GOP t-shirt in 2021.
Never seen seed and hotel magnate used in this configuration before. Is it a typo?
Mr. Trump is vulgar and a bully, Mr. Mike, but you are from Iowa so you probably don’t know that Brandon has a team called the Bobcats, and they often are cheered by the local fans.
Good ol Governor Kristi Noem
Bright and shiny like polished Chrome
It isn’t funny
She’ll go with the money
The rest of you can GO HOME!
“…..a way for our state to finish the pipeline project..” So – these fellas think the state is or should be building this?? And BTW guys – it hasn’t started, so what’s to “finish”??
Our Governor and many Legislators have sold out, to out of state crony capitalists that will strip the farmers and ranchers of control over their assets and equity. These people will do anything for money and a chance to go on a free trip to some swanky resort funded by their masters.
Ethanol to CO2 to Jet Fuel:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/12/11/044222/uks-first-carbon-capture-plant-turns-co2-into-jet-fuel
Like I said, good capitalists will figure out a way to use the CO2 on-site. Maybe the above link will help them out.