Nestled alongside the curves of the Illinois River simply exterior the city of Hennepin is the nation’s largest dry-mill ethanol plant, the place a community of pipes, grain elevators and exhaust towers rise like a mini-city. Surrounding the plant are lots of of acres of corn, the state’s prime crop typically used to make ethanol gas.
The plant’s proprietor, Marquis Power, processes 360,000 bushels of corn every day, making it an necessary buyer for the state’s practically $21 billion corn trade. A 3rd of Illinois corn is used to make ethanol gas.
Marquis Power plans to construct a brand new carbon seize and sequestration mission — which might bury tens of millions of tons of the ethanol plant’s air air pollution underground — permitting it to broaden its ethanol manufacturing and safe profitable federal tax credit.
However the proposal has drawn opposition from some farmers and state lawmakers who fear carbon seize may pollute a close-by aquifer and disturb topsoil as new pipelines are constructed.
Marquis Power, together with the state’s corn foyer, has responded with tens of millions of {dollars} in marketing campaign contributions to state lawmakers, an Examine Midwest evaluation has discovered. A few of its largest recipients have pushed for pro-carbon seize insurance policies and opposed new rules.
Final yr, the Illinois Common Meeting accredited a brief ban on carbon seize initiatives and launched a brand new invoice to ban the observe across the Mahomet Aquifer in Central Illinois, which is the water supply for over half one million individuals.
Nevertheless, Senate President Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat, used his place as a committee chairman to desk the Mahomet Aquifer invoice throughout a November listening to. A number of observers attending the listening to instructed Examine Midwest they imagine the invoice would have handed if Harmon had allowed for a vote.
Since 2021, Harmon has acquired $147,500 from Marquis Power, in line with the marketing campaign finance database Illinois Sunshine.
Since 2020, Harmon has additionally acquired $17,500 from the Illinois Corn Affiliation, which additionally opposed the invoice.
A spokesman for the Senate mentioned Harmon was unaware Marquis Power opposed the invoice to guard the Mahomet Aquifer.
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“I assist extra safeguards to guard our consuming water and the Mahomet Aquifer particularly,” Harmon mentioned in a written assertion to Examine Midwest. “Given the moratorium that’s already in place and uncertainty of the brand new federal administration, I feel it is sensible to pause and see what shakes out in D.C., after which think about our choices. Our solely precedence is defending clear consuming water.”
Total, Marquis Power, a non-public firm, contributed $248,000 to state lawmakers final yr, most of which went to Illinois’ 4 strongest legislative leaders.
However final yr’s contributions are simply the newest in a decade-long effort by Marquis Power and its CEO to form coverage on the Illinois statehouse. Since 2008, the corporate has spent $1.2 million on state lawmaker campaigns.
Examine Midwest tried to contact Marquis Power by telephone and electronic mail a number of occasions. A spokesperson for the corporate mentioned they weren’t excited about commenting at the moment.
Carbon seize proponents declare it fights local weather change, expands Illinois corn market
Primarily based on expertise initially used to squeeze oil out of practically depleted fields, carbon seize is the method of changing carbon dioxide air pollution into liquid, sending it by a pipeline, after which pumping it practically a mile underground.
Marquis Power’s particular plans are to inject CO2 over a five-year interval to solely about half a mile underground, in line with the Illinois State Geological Survey.
Carbon seize and sequestration could sometime be thought of a standard a part of waste administration, like rubbish removing or sewage remedy, mentioned Holly Jean Buck, a local weather politics sociologist on the College at Buffalo in New York.
Some see carbon seize as a solution to local weather change. Storing carbon dioxide emissions underground can stop the gasoline from warming the environment.
From left to proper: The primary diagram depicts the carbon seize and storage (CCS) course of, from capturing CO2 at industrial services to its transportation, injection, and long-term storage in underground formations with depth of storage roughly one mile underground. The second diagram exhibits the construction of a Class VI properly used for geologic sequestration of CO2. It consists of safeguards like cement and casing to guard underground consuming water sources (USDWs) and illustrates the CO2 plume inside the deep injection formation. charts by EPA
Nevertheless, increasing Marquis Power’s use of carbon seize, which in flip will increase the usage of ethanol gas, means continued use of the fossil gas trade at a time when Illinois and the federal authorities are attempting to incentivize electrical autos as a method to combat local weather change, mentioned Silvia Secchi, an economist and geographer on the College of Iowa.
“It’s a very massive drawback that we have now basically out of date Massive Ag nonetheless driving local weather mitigation coverage in 2024,” Secchi mentioned. “It’s very a lot the ability of a foyer in opposition to the ability of science, the best way I see it.”
However state Sen. Sue Rezin, a Republican from Morris, believes carbon seize is required to offset local weather change whereas nonetheless with the ability to meet vitality calls for.
“In an effort to scale back our carbon footprint, to attain our targets that have been signed by the state of Illinois, we should have carbon seize; in any other case the numbers merely received’t add up,” she mentioned.
Rezin has acquired $76,100 from Marquis Power since 2011. In 2021 and 2023, she proposed payments to grant the corporate pipeline entry by public land alongside the Illinois River. The payments have been unsuccessful.
In a written assertion offered to Examine Midwest, Rezin acknowledged that one in every of her prime priorities as a senator is to advance legal guidelines “that create jobs, assist financial growth, and assist the industries which can be important to Illinois and my district.”
She wrote that the laws she launched “was geared toward increasing alternatives for our state’s agribusiness, using the ethanol trade to its fullest potential, and serving to to cut back our carbon footprint.”
The Illinois Corn Growers Affiliation has supported Marquis Power’s carbon seize push, selling it as a method to improve the marketplace for Illinois corn.
“With the extreme downturn within the ag financial system taking place at present, Illinois corn farmers want extra market demand,” mentioned Brad Stotler, director of public coverage for the Illinois Corn Growers Affiliation.
Marquis Power employed 49 individuals in 2019, in line with Bloomberg. As a non-public firm, it’s not required to reveal monetary data, comparable to annual income or CEO pay.
Opponents fear about water air pollution, pipeline leaks
Some Illinois farmers fear that buried carbon dioxide may leak into groundwater, which prompted the Illinois Common Meeting to impose a moratorium on CO2 pipeline building till July 2026, or till the Pipeline and Hazardous Supplies Security Administration comes up with new security requirements.
In March 2024, a leak occurred at one in every of Archer Daniels Midland’s carbon dioxide wells in Decatur, prompting lawmakers to introduce extra laws prohibiting carbon sequestration exercise over, underneath or by any sole-source aquifers.
That invoice was stalled throughout its November listening to by Harmon, the Senate chief.
Some witnesses on the listening to questioned whether or not the ban was mandatory.
Marc Miller, a geologist and deputy director of the Prairie Analysis Institute on the College of Illinois, which has studied ADM’s carbon dioxide properly since 2011, mentioned future initiatives would retailer carbon dioxide greater than a mile underground, whereas the Mahomet Aquifer is simply 500 ft under the floor.
“So far, PRI has discovered no proof of damaging impacts from carbon storage to the groundwater provide,” Miller testified through the listening to.
However state Sen. Rachel Ventura, a Joliet Democrat, remains to be involved.
“Though we have now perhaps a limestone shale there, there are cracks in it. We have now our personal holes for issues like wells and different pipes,” mentioned Ventura, who co-sponsored the aquifer ban invoice. “So the fact is that the gasoline, over time, will come again to the floor.”
Ventura additionally co-sponsored a invoice final legislative session to ban the usage of eminent area for carbon dioxide pipelines. The invoice didn’t move.
There’s additionally concern about leaks alongside the pipelines transporting carbon dioxide all through the state. Whereas Marquis Power’s proposal would sequester its emissions on web site, different proposals from out-of-state corporations would require lots of of miles of pipelines carrying carbon dioxide to wells in Illinois.
In 2020, a CO2 pipeline burst in Satartia, Mississippi, sending 45 individuals to the hospital. Inside minutes, carbon dioxide overwhelmed residents, who collapsed of their properties and open air.
The dense fog of CO2 additionally displaced sufficient oxygen to choke automobile engines. Automobiles stalled in the course of the highway as individuals tried to evacuate. Some drivers who left their vehicles turned disoriented and misplaced, and others misplaced consciousness. There have been no deaths.
Susan Adams operates a corn and soybean farm in southwest McLean County, about 300 ft from a proposed carbon seize injection properly.
“We will probably be within the instant neighborhood of the pipeline and properly when farming that subject, and I feel that offers us, if there’s a rupture, we’d have two minutes to evacuate,” Adams mentioned.
Uncertainty over Trump’s plans for carbon seize tax credit score
Because the Earth’s floor temperature continues to rise from the usage of fossil fuels, Marquis Power says its plant can obtain “internet zero manufacturing” by carbon seize.
The corporate can even obtain $85 for each ton of carbon it sequesters by federal tax credit that would complete tens of millions of {dollars} yearly. With out the tax credit score, corporations have little incentive to spend money on carbon seize, mentioned Scott Irwin, chair of the College of Illinois’ agricultural advertising division.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly known as local weather change a hoax, however his picks to steer the Environmental Safety Company and his proposed Nationwide Power Council have been vocal of their assist for carbon seize.
Darrell “Mark” Marquis, CEO of Marquis Power, spent $110,000 final yr on a number of pro-Trump campaigns, in line with federal marketing campaign finance information.
Nonetheless, uncertainty surrounds the Trump administration’s plans for the 45Q tax credit score for carbon seize. The president has promised to finish EPA guidelines limiting energy plant emissions, which can have an effect on whether or not these industries proceed with their carbon seize plans. Nevertheless, if the present credit score of $85 per ton stays, ethanol corporations should still wish to money in.
Some say carbon seize needs to be centered on harder to decarbonize industries, like cement and metal crops, which produce extra world carbon emissions.
“Ethanol is the low-hanging fruit. They aren’t actually fixing a tough drawback,” mentioned Tracy Fox, who’s with the Coalition to Cease Predatory Pipelines, an Illinois-based group against CO2 pipelines.
However past the science and environmental arguments over carbon seize, many see ethanol as purely a neighborhood financial concern.
Lowering Marquis Power’s ethanol manufacturing could be detrimental to many Illinois farmers, mentioned Betsy Rowland, who farms 8,000 acres of corn and soybeans in Bureau County.
“If one thing have been to occur to these ethanol crops, they wouldn’t simply be the farmers that have been hurting,” she mentioned. “There’s not lots occurring in Bureau County job-wise apart from agriculture, and to have one thing occur to these crops would actually damage the neighborhood.”
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