Port: Pavlovian opposition to 'climate change' is what's making carbon pipeline construction difficult - INFORUM

Port: Pavlovian opposition to 'climate change' is what's making carbon pipeline construction difficult

"A carbon pipeline could be a lifeline for North Dakota's carbon-heavy industries, but a certain faction of citizens can't get past the term 'climate change.'"

MINOT, N.D. — Minnesota, like North Dakota and other states, is proceeding through the regulatory process around constructing a carbon pipeline by Summit Carbon Solutions. And in Minnesota, like these other places, many concerns are rooted in property rights and safety.

Understandable concerns, though not warranted. The relationship between pipeline builders and property owners can be tense, but that's not a new situation. We have a well-worn regulatory and judicial process that has allowed our nation to build millions of miles of pipelines. As for safety concerns, carbon pipelines aren't new. There are two already operating in North Dakota, including one that's been in place for decades without issue.

What's new about the Summit pipeline, called the Midwest Carbon Express, are the politics. Typically a pipeline for oil or natural gas comes under (sometimes violent) protest from left-wing environmental activists. The Summit project is under fire from a strange coalition of right-wing climate change doubters and green energy protectionists who don't want to see carbon capture help their fossil fuel competitors.

Reporter Tom Cherveny, from the West Central Tribune in Willmar, Minnesota, wrote about the former of those two motivations recently.“That is an issue a lot of people have when we’ve been out with the landowners,” Joseph Caruso, a Summit spokesperson, told Minnesota regulators at a recent hearing.“They fundamentally don’t believe it is a problem, and they fundamentally don’t believe the government should be solving a problem that is not a problem.”

That's what's driving much of the opposition in North Dakota, too.

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Because, again, the construction of pipelines in our state is nothing new. Even carbon pipelines are a known quantity. It's the politics of climate change that's getting in the way, ironically enough, of a project that could represent an enormous boost to North Dakota's carbon-heavy industries like energy and agriculture.

Don't believe me? Consider this anecdote from the recently completed legislative session. Toward the end of the session House Concurrent Resolution 3035, a straightforward expression of our state's support for an independent Taiwan in the face of Chinese aggression, which, to that point, had been proceeding through the legislative process with little opposition, ran into a wall of opposition.

The reason is that, during the process, and at the request of representatives of Taiwan, some language was added supporting Taiwan's desire to be included in international climate change meetings. Suddenly, because the resolution now mentioned "climate change," many lawmakers decided to default to Communist China's position on Taiwanese independence.

It didn't matter that the resolution took no position on climate change. It didn't matter that it only supported Taiwan's desire to participate in climate change talks with other independent nations. The resolution said "climate change," and that was enough for some of the ponderous boobs in the Legislature.

The amendment passed, albeit narrowly, on a 47-44 vote.

That's the sort of Pavlovian response the Summit pipeline is up against, sadly. A certain type of person hears "climate change," and their brains turn off.

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