Two dozen Hoosiers — most living near a forthcoming West Terre Haute project — railed against proposed carbon dioxide sequestration regulations in a two-hour hearing in Indianapolis on Friday.
“We need you to fight for us like this is happening to you,” Vigo County resident Rosemarie Scott told the three Department of Natural Resources staffers running the meeting from behind their laptops.
“Fight like you live there,” she continued. “Fight like this is right in front of your house, because (for) many of the people in this room, that’s the reality for them.”
She was among 18 mostly red-shirted in-person attendees living near a pilot project led by Wabash Valley Resources. The group chartered a bus to attend the public hearing.
WVR intends to pipe and inject 1.67 million tons of carbon dioxide annually a mile below the earth’s surface as part of its plan to produce “low-carbon-intensity” anhydrous ammonia fertilizer at a former coal gasification plant in Vigo County.
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Indiana’s Natural Resources Commission could vote for final adoption of the permanent rules as soon as Tuesday, at the next meeting in Mitchell, DNR Assistant General Counsel Whitney Wampler said.
DNR has been developing them since 2023, when lawmakers granted it that authority — and let it implement temporary, emergency rules.
The regulations could take effect as soon as October, per a regulatory analysis.
Included are definitions, agreements between pore space owners and storage operators, transmission pipeline certificates of authority, permitting, insurance requirements, record-keeping and more.
Witnesses argued the proposal isn’t good enough.
It has “vast and egregious regulatory gaps” and “prioritize(s) companies,” Vigo County resident Whitney Boyce said.
She and others criticized the definitions as overly vague and fodder for loopholes; sought verification for voluntary easements; pushed for stronger insurance requirements; worried about water use and contamination; feared leaks and more.
“When there is a leak and there is a plume, how does the (carbon dioxide) stay in a complete, round circle?” one remote participant asked sarcastically, to hearty laughter from in-person attendees. “Wabash Valley Resources, that’s all they tell us. They tell us, ‘It will not spread!'”
Lawmakers first authorized the pilot in 2019 and revisited it in 2022. In between, in 2022, they established requirements for carbon sequestration projects and exempted the pilot from them.
Ben Inskeep, the program director for Citizens Action Coalition, added that DNR should better protect public safety, require better site suitability data and remove the “arbitrary deadlines” set for itself from the regulations.
Participants also lambasted DNR’s process.
They noted that both public hearings have been held far from active projects during working hours. They called for a third, evening meeting to the west.
“Most of us are retired and stuff, and we can get on a bus and come over here,” said Vermillion County resident Flo Evinger. “… An everyday person that is working today cannot be on hold to get on the computer and talk. It’s almost like you do not want any comments from the public.”
She was one of several who criticized DNR Director Alan Morrison, a former state lawmaker appointed to the role by Gov. Mike Braun, for his legislative support of sequestration and acceptance of campaign donations from Wabash Valley Resources.
“How are we supposed to feel that we are getting a fair shake?” she asked.
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