Map of main trunklines proposed by Navigator CO₂ Ventures. Map: Navigator CO₂ Ventures

Affected Property Owners and Concerned Citizens Can Take Action Now!

By Joyce Blumenshine

Watch this video for a rupture test of an 18-inch diameter CO2 pipeline and consider Navigator has stated publicly their pipeline will be 24-inches. 

Navigator Heartland Greenway has filed to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) for the required state permit to construct a high pressure, CO2 pipeline across all or parts of 13 Illinois counties: Hancock, McDonough, Schuyler, Henry, Knox, Fulton, Adams, Brown, Pike, Cass, Scott, Morgan, Sangamon and Christian counties. The Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines is connecting with property owners affected by the pipeline with information on how land owners can join in legal efforts to intervene in the filing and raise their concerns to the ICC.

Property values, crop productivity loss, disruption of tiling and erosion control, owner rights to future development and use of their land, land sale hazard disclosure, eminent domain, and other concerns are all issues for those impacted. For more information see the links at the Coalition website. Concerned citizens who wish to contribute can also help as donations are being accepted.

Above All: We urge property owners to NOT sign any lease agreement with Navigator. Landowners do not have to allow Navigator surveyors on your land. You are within your rights to tell them to leave and not return. They do not have any legal right to be on your land. Consider if you sign a lease it will stay with your property for any new owners and will likely need to be disclosed as a hazardous pipeline. Navigator will make huge profits for years ahead while you will only receive a specific capped amount in payment. The tax credits that make this pipeline so profitable are from billions of dollars in federal money that comes from regular tax payers across the nation. And remember that carbon capture and sequestration is a false solution to our climate problems now, as it will only enable CO2 producing corporations to continue to use energy produced by “natural” methane gas, oil or coal, prolonging the critically needed reduction in carbon fuels extraction and use.

The billions of federal dollars need to go to electric grid upgrades across the nation and a national emergency priority for build-out of solar and wind energy production, battery and other energy storage solutions, and huge increases in building and vehicle energy efficiency, including the transition to electric vehicles. The world cannot continue using fossil fuels with the excuse that the carbon will be captured. Rapid climate change is already causing extreme weather events, fires, droughts and floods. At some point when humans have made the full transition to clean energy, CO2 capture will likely be a next step, but it is the wrong way to go now when the future of the climate is clearly on course to even greater disasters, including sea level rises.