Farmers Slow to Cede Land to Midwest Carbon Express

Landowners in Iowa have been slow to cede their property rights to a 2,000-mile proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would cut through the U.S. Midwest, an analysis byReutershas found.

Summit Carbon Solutionssaid last month it had negotiated easements with hundreds of landowners along the pipeline route, marking a major advance for what it hopes will become theworld’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.

But in Iowa, the state that would host the largest section of the proposed line, the company has reported just 40 land easements, covering just 1.9% of its 703-mile traverse, according to a database maintained by the Office of the Iowa County Recorder and analyzed byReuters.

Summit toldReutersit has paid over $17 million to landowners along the pipeline route so far, and that negotiating the rest of the route will take a year or more.

The four other states along the pipeline's route - Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota - do not publish statewide easement records.