The multi-billion-dollar Summit Carbon Solutions CCS (carbon capture and sequestration) pipeline represents the future potential of agriculture, energy and ethanol in our state, along with prosperity of the businesses, communities and families that depend on them. This groundbreaking project will traverse 2,000 miles across Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.  (Read More)

Built among the farm fields of central Iowa between Ames and Nevada, sits Lincolnway Energy. This ethanol plant has a big plan for the future. Lincolnway Energy, which began operations in 2006 and produces upwards of 90 million gallons of ethanol a year, is one of more than two dozen producers who have partnered with Summit Carbon Solutions to capture and sequester their CO2 emissions, providing another financial touch-point for farmers. "We're excited to partner up with Summit," said Chris Cleveland, plant manager at Lincolnway Energy. "I think it's growth. I think it's job security because this is going to let us sequester CO2 into the pipeline. (It's) a future for ethanol producers, a future for our farmers and our markets." Click here to read the full article.

Kelly Nieuwenhuis, a long-time farmer in Iowa, participated in an interview to share his insight on the biofuels industry and how carbon capture pipelines are the future. He's been part of the biofuels industry for years and has watched it grow and evolve with a changing market. "I've been involved in the biofuels industry for 20 years," he told me on a visit to his farm. "And the last 10 years I've been involved in the industry and definitely focused on carbon in tax reductions or carbon intensity reductions." Farming in O'Brien County, Iowa, he's one of several landowners who have proposed carbon capture pipelines mapped for their property and he's already on board. Overall, Nieuwenhuis sees carbon capture as the next major step forward for the ag industry. "It just came [...]

Lance Lillibridge, a rural Vinton, Iowa farmer and chairman of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, wrote a powerful guest column for the N’West Iowa Review regarding the transformative nature of carbon capture projects for Iowa’s agricultural future. “Renewable energy from corn is loaded with benefits. Over 4,000 products come from corn. Now with the production of ethanol comes greenhouse gas (GHGs).The fermentation process creates this. The same thing happens naturally when plant material breaks down. As the world decides to decarbonize, one very efficient way to do that is through carbon-capture technology at ethanol plants. As purchasers around the globe and here domestically look at buying energy that has a low carbon index score, ethanol has the potential to be unbeatable with this technology and the farming practices that provide the feed [...]

Paul Rottinghaus, a board member of the Charles City Area Development Corporation, set the record straight in a recent (subscription only) letter to the editor in the Charles City Press. Rottinghaus wrote: I am writing as a Floyd County taxpayer and as an interested party representing the county as a board member of the Charles City Area Development Corporation, speaking personally. I think it is my responsibility to speak up and let my voice be heard relating to Floyd County’s opposition to the construction of the CO2 pipelines. I made some of these points at the supervisors meeting during which the decision to employ the Des Moines law firm was made. There is a vocal and organized opposition to the project by some landowners and I appreciate that this will impact their [...]

"Iowa farmers could lose about $1 billion in annual farm income if carbon capture pipelines aren't built to ensure the state's largely corn-based ethanol will remain viable as the country seeks to slow down climate change, says the second part of an industry-backed report," the Des Moines Register reported. "Iowa is the nation's largest producer of both corn and ethanol. A 75% estimated loss in ethanol production if the pipelines aren't built would force the state's growers to ship about 44% of their crop outside of the state, primarily to neighboring ethanol-producing states Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, says the report. … The association released the second report as lawmakers are expected to consider legislation that would make it harder for the three companies proposing pipelines, Summit Carbon Solutions, Navigator CO2 [...]

Friends of the Earth is no friend to America’s farmers and ethanol producers. The radical organization argues that ethanol is responsible for “increasing the cost of food, harming consumers, and wasting taxpayer money. Corn ethanol is neither environmentally nor socially sustainable and cannot be a part of any clean energy future.” Furthermore, the group opposes the Biden administration’s biofuels mandate, despite the mandate’s strong support of farmers and ethanol producers. FOE attacks the mandate as “a toxic plan directly at odds with the Biden Administration’s commitment to Environmental Justice.” Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that Energy Foundation China has provided $1,155,000 in grants to Friends of the Earth since 2003. Energy Foundation China has praised the communist Chinese government for its “efforts to achieve modernization by upgrading its economy and [...]