The Sun-Times’ Editorial Board’s warning that “Transporting carbon dioxide to Illinois must be done safely” cannot come soon enough. Corporations like Navigator CO2 stand to make billions of dollars off these dangerous pipelines, thanks to generous tax credits in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. Wasting no time, a trio of pipeline profiteers are rushing to ram thousands of miles of CO2 pipelines from Illinois to North Dakota before adequate rules to guarantee safety can be finalized.
It’s far too dangerous to build this cart as we ride it. A single incident could unzip a CO2 pipeline for miles, leaving mass asphyxiation and trapped emergency vehicles in its wake. If industry has its way, networks like those proposed for the Midwest will be only the beginning, and millions of people will be put at risk.