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Oakland, CA — As the world’s largest proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) pipeline applies for permits amidst growing resistance from concerned citizens, a new report from the Oakland Institute, The Midwest Carbon Express: False Solution to Climate Crisis debunks the project and reveals the checkered history of the man behind it — Bruce Rastetter.
Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions is developing the Midwest Carbon Express — a new carbon capture and storage pipeline — that would run approximately 2,000 miles, across nearly a third of the counties in Iowa, before expanding to Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, and South Dakota. According to Summit, the US$4.5 billion project will capture, transport, and store 12 million metric tons of CO2 from its 31 partner biorefineries annually — the equivalent of taking 2.6 million cars off the road each year.
Despite these claims the Midwest Carbon Express faces strong resistance from diverse stakeholders including Indigenous communities, Iowa landowners and environmental groups. “Like the vast majority of other CCS projects, the Midwest Carbon Express will most likely be used for enhanced oil recovery — where instead of storing the captured CO2, it is injected into depleted underground oil reservoirs to boost oil production in currently depleted wells,” said Andy Currier, Researcher at the Oakland Institute and author of the report. “In effect, it will primarily support the ineffective and environmentally catastrophic fossil fuel energy system,” he concluded.
According to Great Plains Action Society (GPAS), a non-profit advocating for Indigenous communities throughout the Midwest, “CCS is greenwashing rather than a solution to the climate emergency that Iowans deserve and only serves the interests of the fossil fuel industry.” GPAS, instead, has called for an urgent “reduction and phasing out of fossil fuels as a wider part of a just transition.”
Landowners that will be affected by the pipeline’s construction have spoken out against it during consultation meetings. “Despite what Summit wants the public and our state legislators to believe, the opposition is widespread and diverse. We are Republicans, Democrats, farmers, environmentalists, young, old and everything in between,” said Jess Mazour, conservation program coordinator for the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter.
Midwest Carbon Express: A False Solution to the Climate Crisis also examines the credentials of Bruce Rastetter, the founder and CEO of Summit Climate Solutions’ parent company. Rastetter is a prolific political donor, who made his fortune in consolidating the livestock industry through agribusiness. He has spent millions of dollars on local, federal, and state politics over the last two decades, and has a great influence in Iowa.
In 2011, as CEO of AgriSol Energy, Rastetter acquired over 800,000 acres of land — supposedly three “abandoned refugee camps” — to set up an agriculture enterprise in Tanzania with plans for industrial-scale crop cultivation, livestock production, and agrofuel production. As shown by the Oakland Institute, the project, however, would have displaced over 162,000 smallholder farmers — Burundian refugees who had been living on this land for over 40 years. The Tanzanian government was promising citizenship to these refugees, contingent on them abandoning their homes and livelihoods so Rastetter could take over their lands — all for the unbelievable price of around 22-23 cents/acre. Sustained citizen action against AgriSol’s project in Tanzania prevented mass displacement, with the project officially abandoned in 2012.
“Rastetter’s past ventures make it obvious that personal profits take precedence over the common good,” said Oakland Institute’s Executive Director Anuradha Mittal. “As a wealthy, politically connected, agribusiness baron, the foundation of Rastetter’s success is built on marginalization of small farmers from Iowa to Tanzania,” she added.
Rastetter expects that the pipeline construction will begin in 2023, despite the opposition and required permits. The pipeline is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2024. Summit Carbon Solutions filed its initial permit application to Iowa Utilities Board, February 1, 2022. They requested permission for eminent domain to construct the pipeline. If eminent domain is granted, Summit will be able to force unwilling landowners to cede the land easements at “fair market value.” For eminent domain to be granted, the Board will need to determine if the pipeline serves “public purpose” — something the Iowa Supreme Court granted the state the right to do for the Dakota Access Pipeline construction in May 2019.
The fate of the Midwest Carbon Express carbon dioxide pipeline will be decided over the next year. “If built, residents across the Midwest will be taking the risks associated with pipelines — including potential leaks, decreased property and crop values and the likely allocation of public funds towards the project, while Summit Carbon Solutions and Bruce Rastetter will reap the profits,” said Andy Currier.
Already, climate change has irreversibly altered the world. The Midwest Carbon Express: A False Answer to Climate CrisisThe alarm sounds that there is no time for false solutions, which are promoted by the same interests that have brought us here.
