Omaha Ethanol Conference Attendees Greeted with Faux Magazine, Digital Billboards Sponsored by Landowners Opposed to Carbon Pipeline Projects

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 12, 2023
Contacts:
Mark Hefflinger, Bold Alliance, mark@boldalliance.org
Jane Kleeb, Bold Alliance, 402-705-3622, jane@boldalliance.org

Omaha Ethanol Conference Attendees Greeted with Faux Magazine, Digital Billboards Sponsored by Landowners Opposed to Carbon Pipeline Projects

Copies of “Ethical? Carbon Pipelines” magazine, styled after conference media sponsor Ethanol Producer Magazine, distributed at event site circled by mobile billboard truck

Omaha – Attendees at this week’s “Fuel Ethanol Workshop” at the CHI Health Center in downtown Omaha will be greeted this morning with a “wake-up” call in the form of a faux industry publication calling out the risks and tax-related issues with proposed carbon dioxide pipeline projects that are currently partnering with Midwest ethanol plants, along with a mobile digital billboard truck that will be circling the event venue and hotels on Monday.

Bold Alliance, a group started to help organize farmers and ranchers opposed to the defunct Keystone XL pipeline, sponsored the send-up of event media sponsor Ethanol Producer Magazine, with a faux cover announcing the latest edition of “Ethical? Carbon Pipelines” magazine, along with a Table of Contents page styled after the magazine’s, but featuring reports and articles published by Bold Alliance attorney Paul Blackburn, and others – such as “Double-Dipping of Federal Tax Credits for Carbon Pipelines?” and “The Inflation Reduction Act May Save the Fossil Fuel Industries.” The mobile digital billboard truck circling the event venue features similar messages, including images of Iowa landowners holding signs saying “No Eminent Domain” and “Our Land is Not For Sale.”

“The ethanol industry has long been an ally to landowners and advocates who want to take market share from Big Oil,” said Bold Alliance founder and director Jane Kleeb. “Supporting carbon pipelines literally hands billions of dollars to Big Oil to keep their grip on our energy portfolio. In the end, ethanol plants and landowners will be left holding the bag with this latest tax scam, because we all know when the 45Q tax credit goes away, the pipelines and capture equipment will be left for us to clean up. These risky and under-regulated carbon pipelines want to use eminent domain for private gain. We are asking the ethanol industry to stand with rural folks opposed to these pipelines, since we have stood with them for decades.”