Landowners lose battle on carbon pipeline

Effort to brand carbon from ethanol plants as waste, and not a commodity, fails

A bill that represented the last, best hope for opponents of two carbon dioxide pipelines got buried in a 9-0 Senate committee vote Thursday, sending dozens of landowners home disappointed.

Several of those landowners testified that Summit Carbon Solutions, the main carbon protagonist so far, had bullied them during easement negotiations, or offered too little consideration. Some, as a matter of principle, said that landowners had a right to resist the pipeline company.

Navigator CO2 ventures is building a second line but is not as far along in the process.

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