Despite pushback, bill advancing Indiana’s carbon sequestration projects moves forward

A bill that seeks to propel Indiana’s ongoing carbon sequestration pilot project was approved Tuesday by lawmakers in the House, signaling momentum for what has so far been a divisive measure.

Senate Bill 451 is part of a years-long effort to move forward the construction of carbon capture and sequestration projects, while also giving special privileges to an Indiana company that is preparing to undertake the nation’s largest carbon dioxide storage project.

Wabash Valley Resources LLC plans to build an ammonia production facility in Terre Haute and store its carbon dioxide emissions underground to reduce its carbon footprint. The process involves capturing carbon dioxide and injecting it deep into the earth’s crust.

Farmers and other landowners have expressed repeated concerns that the proposal would allow the company to store its carbon emissions under their land without consent or fair compensation.

In an effort to mitigate those concerns, lawmakers amended the bill to require that landowners get paid, per acre, at least 40% of the annual Purdue Farmland Values & Cash Rents Survey Results for carbon storage. For most, that’s an increase from the $250 per acre stipulated in an earlier version of the bill.

Those payments continue for the lifetime of the project. If landowners change, the new property owner will receive compensation every year until the carbon dioxide ends.

Still, those who can’t reach a deal or want more money would have to sue.

The House sent the bill back to the Senate Tuesday in a 73-22 vote. The Senate can either accept the changes or negotiate further in conference committee.

Rep. Tonya Pfaff, D-Terre Haute, emphasized that the project would create 500 to 750 construction jobs and over 100 “good-paying permanent jobs” in western Indiana — opportunities and investment the region “desperately needs.”

“This project is already helping Indiana as a state at the forefront of clean energy production and carbon capture, while also creating jobs and helping farmers producing ammonia for fertilizer,” Pfaff said Tuesday before the House chamber, noting that carbon sequestration projects can help significantly reduce the state’s reliance on imported fertilizer.

“As a state, we need to be investing in the jobs and the technology of the future,” Pfaff continued. “This isn’t a theoretical opportunity. This is real, this will happen. They just need the legislature to give them the framework to move forward.”

In other news, the legislature gave a green light to more than two dozen other bills Tuesday:

• SB 167 advanced 84-9 from the House and would require all Hoosier high school seniors to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), except in cases where a parent submits a signed waiver, or if a school administrator is unable to make contact with a student’s guardian. House sponsor Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, noted that although FAFSA completion is not required for graduation, the federal form is still needed to qualify for the state’s 21st Century Scholars program, as well as other state and federal scholarships and grants.
• Another bill to increase students’ access to college and university transcripts also passed out of the House and heads back to the Senate. Senate Bill 404 “makes sure that no student who is putting forth a good faith effort to pay off their educational debts is prohibited from accessing their college transcripts,” said bill sponsor Rep. Julie McGuire, R-Indianapolis. If a student who owes less than $1,000 has paid at least $100 more towards the debt in the last year, a university must give them at least one copy of their college transcript in a given year, according to the bill. Students with more than $3,000 of debt who have paid down 10% of that debt, or at least $300 in the last year, must be provided at least one copy of an official transcript.
• In a 29-12 vote, the Senate sent a bill to the governor could slow the retirement of coal-fired power plants. Senate Bill 9 would require utilities to provide the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) with at least six months notice if they plan to retire, sell or transfer a generating facility of at least an 80-megawatt capacity. The final version of the bill additionally includes a provision expanding the instances in which a utility can petition the IURC to recover costs related to a federal compliance project — before the project has been completed. Currently, utilities can only petition the IURC in instances where these costs have already been incurred.
• Senators also voted to amend House Bill 1015, which would establish a pilot program to ticket speeding drivers in highway work zones. Tuesday’s change would ensure that only work site cameras, and not other camera systems, would be impacted. A full vote could come this week.
• A bill that would allow courts to order biological fathers to pay for certain pregnancy and postpartum costs moved out of the Senate Chamber. House Bill 1009 heads back to the House for either a concurrence or final negotiation. That’s because the Senate added a provision limiting the costs to “reasonable” expenses. Only Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, voted against the bill.
• The Senate also moved a bill that would establish a 25-foot ‘buffer zone’ around law enforcement officers conducting official business, such as an arrest, on a 32-10 vote. Though several Republicans stood up and expressed their concerns about House Bill 1186, only one joined the chamber’s nine attending Democrats to vote against it: Sen. Mike Young of Indianapolis. Several expressed concerns about whether the buffer would hinder public accountability,  including Randolph, who called it a bill that would protect “bad conduct by bad cops.”
• Lastly, senators voted to advance a bill that allow utilities to charge ratepayers earlier for big projects, though some had qualms with the proposal. “I’m just concerned this bill will just give utilities another tool to use ratepayer’s money to build projects,” Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, said, adding that some Hoosiers already had higher energy costs than their peers. Becker and Sen. Jim Tomes both voted against the bill, which passed on a 31-10 vote.