Natural Gas, CO2 Pipelines Coming to Jefferson County

By Gordon HopkinsThe presence of hundreds of long, green pipes south of Fairbury, just off Highway 8, has not gone unnoticed by locals. Those pipes are the property of Tallgrass Energy, and will be used to construct a pipeline that will transport natural gas across Jefferson County.County Commissioner Mark Schoenrock has been in contact will Tallgrass Energy and discussed the matter with his fellow commissioners at a meeting on November 11, 2023, “I've been communicating with the Tallgrass people. You know, they have the Rockies Express pipeline. You've probably seen all these pipes coming in, stored out here by the camp's ever see road. That's actually for the natural gas system for the Rockies Express pipeline.”Schoenrock indicated this was separate from another planned pipeline that will also cross Jefferson County, “It's called the Trailblazer, a CO2 pipeline. They don't anticipate any deliveries on that until next spring at the earliest.”The pipes being stored near Highway 8 are strictly for Rockies Express natural gas pipeline and not for the CO2 pipeline.FJN spoke to a representative of Tallgrass, who noted that the Trailblazer project was still in early stages, “We don't even have lines on a map yet.”A carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline transports CO2 from an industrial process that separates the gas and then transports it to another location for sequestration and storage.CO2 is a greenhouse gas and the purpose is to prevent that gas from entering the atmosphere.President Joe Biden has made CO2 sequestration a part of his overall climate agenda. In November of this year, the Biden administration announced over $444 million to support projects to fight climate change through carbon management, including expanding CO2 storage infrastructure.Despite the fatc that the function of such pipelines is to prevent greenhouse gasses from further contributing to climate change, some of the loudest opponents are actually climate change activists.The Sierra Club, for example, has called CO2 pipelines, “schemes to extend the life of the fossil fuel industry at a time when we know we need to just transition to clean energy.”Commissioners have requested Tallgrass Energy to attend a future meeting and provide an update on pipeline projects.

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