The easement to allow a pipeline to run across the Lincoln County homestead, delivering natural gas from northern Colorado to a station near Beatrice 436 miles to the east, was signed more than four decades ago.
While the pipeline is buried underground and remains out of sight, it’s never far out of mind, said Stephanie Savely, whose family still owns and lives on the homestead claim made by her great-grandfather near Wellfleet a century ago.
“Every once in a while, the idea of this pipeline would come up,†said Savely, who lives in Tennessee, “and it’s always annoying.â€
While the feeling of imposition — gates left open, and a lack of control over the property, for example — was just part of inheriting the property, Savely said the family was caught off guard to learn the natural gas pipeline would be abandoned and converted into a carrier of carbon dioxide.
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Over the next two years, Tallgrass Energy plans to abandon 392 miles of the Trailblazer Pipeline between Fillmore County and its western terminus south of Cheyenne, Wyoming, to convert it into the latest carbon capture and sequestration project in development across the Cornhusker state.
As the main artery of the Eastern Wyoming Sequestration Hub, the Trailblazer Pipeline conversion is the first of its kind — and perhaps the largest in the U.S. to date — to repurpose existing infrastructure.
The project has the backing of Gov. Pete Ricketts and several Nebraska state senators, as well as elected leaders in Colorado and Wyoming, and has won support from business, labor, energy and ethanol groups who say the project will benefit both the environment and the economy.
The plan to convert Trailblazer from natural gas to carbon dioxide has also generated opposition from an assortment of strange bedfellows.
Environmentalists and pipeline safety organizations have pointed to a lack of regulations for CO2 pipelines, while the oil and gas industry has raised concerns about how the conversion could adversely impact natural gas supply as demand is expected to increase in the future.
And landowners like Savely and her sister, Ranae Calvert, say they are concerned not only about the safety of such a project, but that the agreement their grandfather signed more than 40 years ago never envisioned a natural gas pipeline being converted to a different use.
“Our grandfather signed the lease,†Savely said. “He passed and my grandmother ran the farm. She’s passed, and my father ran the farm. He passed, now my mother runs the farm.
“We don’t even have the original contracts anymore, and we’re busy frantically trying to get our hands on those,†Savely said.
With the public comment period for the pipeline ending on June 30, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for granting Tallgrass Energy permission to abandon the pipeline ahead of the conversion, is now reviewing the potential environmental impacts of the project.
“The commission will use this environmental document in its decision-making process to determine whether the project is in the public convenience and necessity,†FERC, an agency under the authority of the U.S. Department of Energy, said in a July 11 notice.
Third project planned in Nebraska
The expansion of the 45Q tax credit created by Congress in 2008 to incentivize companies that burn fossil fuels to capture and sequester greenhouse gases sparked a proliferation of projects across the U.S. over the last year.
By 2026, companies will be eligible to receive $50 for every ton of carbon dioxide they capture and store thousands of feet underground, up from $32 per ton available now. For a brief time, lawmakers considered increasing the credit to $85 per ton, but those talks fizzled.
As that debate was taking place, Summit Carbon Solutions announced its Midwest Carbon Express, a $4.5 billion, 2,000-mile network of pipelines connecting to ethanol plants — including a half-dozen in Nebraska — that will sequester carbon dioxide in North Dakota.
A second project that will connect to several facilities in Nebraska, the Heartland Greenway from Navigator Ventures, a 1,300-mile network expected to cost $2.5 billion, was also announced last year.
In July 2021, landowners along the Trailblazer Pipeline route learned they were also living near what could become the “backbone†of a third carbon capture and sequestration project in Nebraska.
According to its filing with FERC, Tallgrass Energy said the 36-inch pipeline will be repurposed “for CO2 transportation from potential emission sources in Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado.â€
The proposal to convert a natural gas pipeline to carbon dioxide is perhaps the first and largest of its kind. Tallgrass Energy said it was the first proposed conversion in the region, but no federal agencies or industry groups track that information.
The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America said none of its 26 member companies had any similar projects in the works, nor was the Natural Gas Supply Association aware of any similar proposals.
While Tallgrass Energy’s documentation filed with FERC indicates the carbon dioxide would be piped “to a sequestration site in Wyoming and/or Nebraska,†Stan Belieu, director of the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said no “tangible proposals†for CO2 sequestration sites are currently in the works for Nebraska.
The Legislature in 2021 passed a bill (LB650) introduced by then-Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk with 48 votes granting the commission authority to create rules to locate future carbon sequestration sites — a process it concluded earlier this year.
Instead, if the conversion project is given approval, carbon dioxide will be piped from facilities like the ADM ethanol plant in Columbus — the first partner announced for the pipeline — to Wyoming and injected into the Denver-Julesburg Basin, which stretches from Nebraska’s Panhandle south into eastern Colorado.
The Wyoming Energy Authority awarded Tallgrass Energy a grant in January to begin developing a sequestration site in the Cowboy State, with the potential of burying 10 million tons of carbon annually once operational in 2024.
Wyoming is the second state after North Dakota to develop its own regulatory framework for a Class VI well — the designation for geologic sequestration — independent of the federal government to store carbon dioxide.
Tallgrass Energy has not yet applied for a Class VI permit, according to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, or notified the department of the exact location of the well.
“We have only received preliminary information at this time,†Lily Barkau, groundwater section manager, told the Journal Star in an email.
Companies can take advantage of 45Q tax credits if they use CO2 for further extraction of oil and gas, but Steven Davidson, a vice president at Tallgrass Energy, said the Trailblazer Pipeline project is designed to sequester carbon only.
“It will not be used for further extraction,†Davidson said.
Tallgrass Energy also said it doesn’t anticipate customers served by Trailblazer will be affected if the pipeline is abandoned — a fact that helped draw support from several local leaders.
The natural gas that once flowed through Trailblazer will be rerouted through the underutilized Rockies Express Pipeline, better known as REX, which runs nearly parallel to Trailblazer, and new laterals will connect to existing customers, the company said.
Location, location, location
In an email, Davidson said one of the benefits to converting the Trailblazer pipeline is its location, which “provides optimal connectivity for a number of ethanol, power generation and industrial facilities looking to decarbonize.â€
That has won the support of elected leaders in all three states where the pipeline exists, as well as the Nebraska Farm Bureau, Renewable Fuels Nebraska, Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and the Nebraska AFL-CIO.
Dawn Caldwell, executive director of Renewable Fuels Nebraska, said carbon capture and sequestration projects are key to ensuring ethanol producers maintain access to markets with clean fuel standards.
“As domestic and global market demands for low-carbon products increase, this is an opportunity to capitalize and strengthen the value-proposition for our agriculture and industrial sectors,†she wrote.
Ricketts, in a June 8 letter to FERC supporting the project, said the conversion “represents a valuable contribution to the long-term economic competitiveness of Nebraska’s industrial and agricultural sectors.â€
“Absent efforts like the Trailblazer Conversion Project, Nebraska could face market impediments that would adversely impact Nebraska’s farmers, ranchers and local economies,†the governor wrote.
Sixteen state senators joined Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward in a letter to FERC backing the proposed conversion, writing that the Nebraska Legislature understands “the importance of carbon management to our state’s economy.â€
“This effort will result in Nebraska industrial and agricultural product’s continued competitiveness in markets that are requiring carbon neutrality,†Kolterman wrote. “Absent efforts like the Trailblazer Conversion Project, Nebraska’s agricultural and industrial products will face market impediments that will adversely impact Nebraska’s economy and hurt farmers, ranchers and local economies.â€
Nebraska Public Power District, in a letter supporting the abandonment of the natural gas pipeline ahead of the planned conversion, said Trailblazer could be “a potential shipper of CO2 captured from coal gas emissions†at its Gerald Gentleman Station near Sutherland.
John Swanson, NPPD’s director of generation strategies and research, said the state’s largest public power entity has explored carbon capture and sequestration strategies on its own.
Being able to connect into a carbon transportation pipeline less than 20 miles away from the coal-fired plant would be “a tremendous opportunity,†he said, particularly for a facility that generates exponentially more CO2 than an ethanol plant.
A carbon capture system installed on one of two units at the Gentleman Station could extract 2 million tons of carbon dioxide in a “slow year†for energy demand, Swanson said, and as much as 4 million tons in a high-demand year.
But it comes with a hefty price tag.
Swanson said NPPD has estimated installing a carbon capture system at its power generation facility in Lincoln County could top $1 billion, which may mean recruiting a private partner to invest in the system — and receive a return from the tax credits.
“It’s not cheap to capture carbon on the backside of a fossil plant,†he said. “It’s all early, and we’ll see exactly what happens, but it’s an interesting world when a natural gas pipeline is wanting to convert. It tells you how far down the road we are when it comes to CO2 sequestration opportunities.â€
Questions about safety, viability
If FERC ultimately approves Tallgrass Energy’s application to abandon the Trailblazer Pipeline as a natural gas carrier, the energy department agency won’t have any oversight in what comes next.
Carbon dioxide pipelines fall beyond FERC’s regulatory authority. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which operates under the U.S. Department of Transportation, currently has limited power to regulate carbon dioxide pipelines.
But those regulations are incomplete, according to the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit promoting pipeline safety, which said PHMSA has historically taken a “prescriptive minimum†approach to safety rules for carbon pipelines.
Most of the 5,000 miles of carbon dioxide pipeline in the U.S. transport the gas as a supercritical state fluid, which has properties of both a liquid and a gas and requires pipes that can handle higher pressures.
Operating pipelines under those conditions makes them more prone to fractures, but the Pipeline Safety Trust says current federal regulations “do not contain any detailed requirements that specifically identify how to address†those problems.
“This regulatory gap means that current federal pipeline safety regulations are clearly inadequate because CO2 pipeline companies could develop CO2 gas and liquid pipelines that fall outside of this narrow federal rule,†it added.
The safety trust said the federal agency, which in May began a review of regulations for carbon dioxide pipelines, should enact minimum safety standards for all CO2 pipelines, including existing pipelines converted from oil and natural gas to carbon dioxide.
It’s not clear whether or not PHMSA will issue new rules as directed by the Biden administration, and if it does, if those will be done in time to affect the conversion of the Trailblazer Pipeline.
Attorney Paul Blackburn of Bold Alliance, which has organized opposition to oil pipelines as well as carbon dioxide pipelines, said questions remain about whether or not the conversion can be done safely.
“If Trailblazer gets converted, they get to make up their own safety standards,†Blackburn said. “Maybe they’ll do a good job, maybe they won’t. Nevertheless, there won’t be a federal agency overseeing the conversion.â€
Calvert, who lives in Arizona but co-owns the farmstead in Lincoln County with several siblings, said the family is “not happy†about the lack of regulations currently in place, particularly with their 74-year-old mother living a short distance from where the pipeline runs.
The family has also invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into an old farmhouse where they plan to open a shelter for victims of human trafficking that is less than a mile from the pipeline, she said.
If the pipeline ruptured — as happened in 2020 in Satartia, Mississippi, hospitalizing nearly 50 people — those individuals would have difficulty escaping the gas, which is heavier than air and stays near the ground.
“We have huge concerns about it not being regulated. We have huge concerns about hazardous waste,†Calvert said in a Zoom interview last week. “It’s never been done before on a repurposed pipeline, and there are documented issues to go with that.
“They are just slamming it through with no real due process,†she added.
‘Not a practical option’
Oil and gas groups have also raised concerns about the safety and viability of repurposing existing infrastructure to transport carbon dioxide.
The National Petroleum Council said converting natural gas pipelines to carriers of CO2 was “not a practical option,†particularly over long distances, in a December 2019 report, adding it didn’t believe converted pipelines “would significantly help develop an expanded CO2 pipeline network†in the U.S.
Natural gas pipelines have a maximum pressure rating of 1,480-pounds-per-square-inch gauge, which is defined as a Class 600 pipeline by the American National Standards Institute, a nonprofit organization that helps develop consensus standards for products, services and systems.
The institute classifies carbon dioxide pipelines as Class 900 designed for 2,200 psi gauge — roughly 700 psi gauge more than those for natural gas.
While the National Petroleum Council said natural gas pipelines less than 100 miles long could be converted to carry CO2 without adding any further infrastructure, longer pipelines would require more pumping stations to maintain the needed pressure to keep CO2 in a supercritical state.
“If the goal is to transport large volumes of CO2 100 miles or more, then the lower pressure rating of existing natural gas pipelines makes it impractical to repurpose them for use with CO2,†the report states.
Some shorter sections, or pipeline laterals, could be repurposed, the petroleum group said, “but project-specific engineering would be required to evaluate if this would be technically and economically viable.â€
Davidson said while most new CO2 pipelines are designed smaller in order to move product under high pressure, the Trailblazer Pipeline is designed to move gaseous products at a lower pressure.
“We’ll perform some work on the valves and compressor stations, as well as some general maintenance,†he said, “but this high-performing pipeline is fully capable of moving large volumes of CO2 in a gaseous phase.â€
Savely, who said the proposed carbon dioxide project has forced her and others to try and get up to speed on the issue as quickly as possible, said she was skeptical of the plan.
“We’ve got this old thing in the ground that is at least 40 years old,†Savely said. “How are we even going to determine whether or not it’s up to the task? We’ve received no notification about what that’s going to look like.â€
Worth the fight
Calvert said she didn’t learn about Tallgrass Energy’s project until June 11, when she received notice that the public comment period was open.
A few weeks later, she and several other family members submitted comments opposing the project. The 30-day window to comment closed shortly after.
Unlike the Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator Ventures projects, which are currently obtaining their own easements from landowners along their proposed routes, the Trailblazer Pipeline is already in the ground, which has left several neighbors feeling that there is no use in putting up a fight.
But Calvert and others say they filed oppositions to the plan with FERC to let the agency know that there is opposition to the plan, even if the “general flavor of the community†is that the project is a done deal.
Savely said they are working to get copies of the agreement signed by their grandfather to see if language in the easement allows for the pipeline to be converted.
"We literally have no idea what they say," Savely said, who added that even if the agreement contains language allowing for the pipeline to be used for something else said "there is still a lot of questions if you can contract away rights for something you never even imagined would exist."
Calvert and Savely have also connected with the Nebraska Easement Action Team — the same entity organizing opposition to the other pipeline projects — to learn about their legal options, they said.
“We know that the court of public opinion does make a difference,†Calvert said. “And we do believe the fight is worth a fight, even if we don’t win.â€