Illinois Soybean Growers warns against impacts of CCS legislation on farmers, state biodiesel industry

The Illinois State Capitol building in Springfield

Illinois Soybean Growers is raising the alarm over the potential passage this week of the Carbon Capture and Sequestration legislation in the Illinois General Assembly that the group said will lead to the destruction of property rights and the soy-based biodiesel industry in favor of out-of-state interests.

“This legislation is the missing link that is needed for large-scale CO2 sequestration operations to take advantage of credits being offered,” said Steve Pitstick, ISA’s government-relations chairman.

“The legislation will also incentivize the usage of eminent domain to construct CO2 pipelines across countless family farms in Illinois to those sequestration sites,” he said. “It is essential to eliminate those incentives to use eminent domain to balance the need to store CO2 and protect property rights.” 

Pitstick added that farmers should stand united against “government taking their most precious resource and impacting their freedoms to manage their lands.” 

The naturally occurring Mount Simon sandstone and shale formation that makes up the Illinois Basin has an estimated storage capacity of over 11 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Illinois’ carbon-capture businesses would stand to gain up to $85 per metric ton of permanently stored carbon dioxide through federal tax credits in this legislation, which equates to hundreds of billions—if not trillions—of dollars. 

As written, the legislation will also negatively affect the value of soybean oil.

It reduces support for biomass-based diesel made from soybean oil in favor of other alternative fuels.

“Climate policy should create additional opportunities for alternative fuels in the marketplace,” Pitstick said.

“Cannibalizing our state’s biodiesel industry in favor of out-of-state interests will cause less soybeans to be crushed and decrease marketing options for our soybeans.” 

ISG is urging the opposition of eminent-domain pipelines and ask Illinois residents to send their legislators a message to oppose SB 1289 here.

The Illinois Soybean Association checkoff and membership programs represent more than 43,000 soybean farmers in Illinois.

The checkoff funds market development, soybean production and government-relations efforts, while the membership program, Illinois Soybean Growers and the Illinois Soybean Growers PAC, actively advocates for positive and impactful legislation for farmers at local, state and national levels.