In a recent Des Moines Register op-ed, Summit Carbon Solutions CEO Lee Blank persuasively argued that carbon capture and sequestration projects are imperative for Iowa’s future.

He noted that the Register’s Iowa Poll found last year that “85% of Iowans, or what the pollster characterized as a ‘giant majority,’ believe that ethanol is critical or fairly important to the state’s economy.”

Blank underscored that “ethanol producers support 50,000 Iowa jobs, contribute $6.1 billion to the state’s GDP every year, and purchase nearly 60% of the corn grown in the state. As the largest purchaser of corn, the strength of the ethanol industry is directly and inextricably tied to the strength of land values and commodity prices that are absolutely essential to the livelihood of every single Iowa farmer.”

“Carbon capture projects are essential to the future of ethanol. Virtually every ethanol plant across the Midwest has joined a carbon capture project and, as the executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association recently said, sequestering carbon is ‘a matter of life and death’ for ethanol manufacturers. Reducing the carbon intensity of ethanol will allow producers to sell their product at a premium in the growing low carbon fuel marketplace. That extra revenue will allow ethanol manufacturers to reinvest in their operations, create new jobs, and continue to purchase the majority of corn grown in Iowa,” Blank wrote.

“Without carbon capture projects, Iowa’s ethanol industry will lose $10 billion annually and the loss of production will cut one billion bushels of demand for Iowa corn (source),” he added.

Click here to read the entire op-ed.