Illinois farmers and environmentalists celebrate the defeat of $3 billion CO2 pipeline: ‘We have thrown so many stones at Goliath’
When Steve Hess learned about a plan to send a $3.4 billion carbon dioxide pipeline through five states —and Hess’ own corn and soybean fields in western Illinois — the 68-year-old farmer knew two things:
He knew he would fight the project, which he viewed as a threat to his family’s health, safety and property rights.
And he knew it wouldn’t be easy.
Initially, Hess, who farms land that has been in his wife’s family since 1869, thought the odds of beating out Navigator CO2, an Omaha-based company backed by the international investment giant BlackRock, were “slim to none,” an assessment borne out when a local lawyer warned, “There’s no way you can fight this.”
But less than two years later, Hess and his allies — a coalition of farmers and environmentalists across the Midwest — are celebrating an Oct. 20 announcement that Navigator has abandoned its pipeline plan.
“We’re going to have a party,” said Hess, speaking by phone from his tractor during a 12-hour day in the cornfields. “There are so many people on that team that worked so hard, and we have thrown so many stones at Goliath. It’s really gratifying that our work paid off.”
Proposed as a way to combat climate change by capturing planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions at Midwestern ethanol plants, transporting the CO2 via pipeline, and burying it deep underground in central Illinois, the Navigator project was positioned to receive as much as $1.3
