$850M vs $1M

With many schools resuming session, I thought a little math might be fun.

Tallgrass Energy, in partnership with Bold Nebraska, offered a "Community Benefits Agreement" to the Trailblazer Pipeline landowners. Sounds nice, right?

This agreement would (theoretically) offer the first responders training and equipment along the pipeline. This did not occur in Peetz Colorado or Logan County Colorado.

Next, it would pay each landowner $0.10 per metric ton of CO2 it moved through their land IF they would sign the agreement acknowledging that Tallgrass/Trailblazer had a [valid] easement. (No, we did not sign it.)

For a quarter-section landowner with the pipeline bisecting their property like us for a one-half mile stretch of the 392 mile pipeline, this would mean roughly $1,276 per year.

As a 45Q Sequestration Tax Credit recipient, Tallgrass/Trailblazer is eligible to earn up to $85 per metric ton and Trailblazer Pipeline can carry up to 10 MILLION tons per year. That's an $850,000,000 gross profit opportunity . That's an at-most potential payment of $1,000,000 per year to landowners.

So, using your tax dollars, they can keep $849,000,000 of gross profit to transport CO2 to Carpenter, Wyoming and then store it deeply underground.

Another way to state this is that Trailblazer/Tallgrass makes $1,084,183 per year per one-half mile of pipeline and they share $1,276 per one-half mile with that landowner IF the landowner will agree that they operate an easement on the property.

Many of the original Trailblazer Pipeline easements DID allow for "other substances or liquids transportable by pipeline". So, those landowners don't seem to have the ability to legally fight against the CO2 transport. Our easement had both of those allowances struck out and initialed by the notary (thank you, Robert [Bob] Fischer!). For the landowners without a legal leg to stand on, this isn't a bad deal.

Are you seeing how tax incentives may drive profiteering activity?

And just for fun. In the event that any legal activity resulted in a temporary ceasing of pipeline operations, that would be a daily drop in gross profits of $2,168,367 PER DAY.

Fun math lesson?