Beating Goliath: Area Landowners Continue Fight Against CO2 Pipelines & Eminent Domain
Next month, Senate Bill 2842 goes in front of the Illinois General Assembly to stop eminent domain for CO2 pipelines in the state, and one of the driving forces behind the bill is located in McDonough County.
Steve Hess, who is on the Board of Directors for Citizens Against Heartland Greenwashing Projects (CAHGP), a group representing area landowners, recently appeared before the McDonough County Board's Law & Legal Committee to ask for a formal resolution from the county to support the passage of SB2842. The full text of the bill can be found at tinyurl.com/ ILSB2842Draft. To date, there are currently 13 planned or proposed Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects throughout Illinois, making the Land of Lincoln the major hub throughout the U.S.
Hess and his group, along with others, were successful in their fight nearly three years ago to prevent the CO2 company, Navigator, from cutting across hundreds of acres of farmland in the region. The McDonough County Board joined the group and lent its support for a two-year moratorium. Now the private pipeline companies are coming back and trying to establish eminent domain to get what they want, so CAHGP has come out of the gate to garner support from over 20 Illinois organizations, including the Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Soybean Association and others to stop the threat of eminent domain.
'The law still allows for eminent domain. The first conversation I had with a company, they gave me a lowball offer, and when I told them no, they told me they'd just use eminent domain,' Hess recalled. 'They're not a public utility. These are private companies that will benefit from the pipelines.'
Sen. Mike Halpin, whose district covers parts of McDonough County, is the chief sponsor of SB 2842. In addition, Rep. Theresa Mah has agreed to carry the bill in the House of Representatives. Hess said that similar bills are being considered in Iowa and Indiana, and last March, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden signed a bill banning the use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines.
'Landowner rights should not be violated simply to pad the profits of private corporations. In the past, these companies have given us no reason to trust that they will build these projects in a safe manner,' Halpin told The Community News Brief. 'This bill will prevent the exploitation of our farmers and protect the environment.'
At Monday's Law & Legal Committee, the committee voted unanimously to support the resolution, which will go before the full County Board March 18. SB 2842 amends both the Carbon Dioxide and Transportation Act and the Public Utilities Act to remove provisions that currently allow the use of eminent domain for CO2 pipelines and to add language that expressly prohibits it. Currently, no eminent domain protections or voluntary easement threshold requirements exist for landowners along planned pipeline routes in any federal or state legislation. According to Hess, removing the use of eminent domain forces private companies to negotiate directly with landowners, which helps to protect a landowner's property rights, while also increasing CO2 pipeline safety.
'Neither the U.S. government, nor the State of Illinois imposes setbacks for these pipelines, even though these transport a hazardous waste that is a toxic asphyxiant and is dangerous,' Hess noted. 'Eliminating eminent domain could force these companies to consider safer routing in order to obtain voluntary right-of-way easements from landowners.
'We took on Goliath before,' Hess concluded. 'We hope this is our last battle to protect property rights in Illinois concerning CO2 pipelines, there is still work to do for safe routing and construction.”
