Thanks to your advocacy efforts, a bill that protects landowner subsurface property rights regarding carbon sequestration has passed both the Indiana House and Senate and now heads to Gov. Holcomb.

It’s also thanks to Indiana Farm Bureau members that House Bill 1249 and Senate Bill 265 were soundly defeated. These bills didn’t recognize landowner property rights below the surface. They provided no landowner notice, no need for landowner consent and no compensation to landowners for use of their land.

The issue common to both bills is the question of who owns and controls “pore space,” a term that refers to subsurface crevices in which carbon dioxide is stored.

Most important, INFB fought all session for the passage of HB 1209. It sets up the framework to protect landowner property rights regarding carbon sequestration. We worked with BP (British Petroleum), National Petroleum Council, Purdue University, CountryMark and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources on the language needed for this bill, which has now passed both the House and Senate and will become law July 1 after it is signed by the governor.

In addition to the multiple calls and texts I made to legislators in favor of the bill, Gov. Holcomb and his staff and Purdue University President Mitch Daniels also made calls supporting the legislation. It was all hands on deck. It was, however, the support of our members – who sent 1,149 emails, made many Statehouse visits, sent targeted texts and made calls to key legislators – that really made the difference.

That also is what made a difference in the defeat of SB 265, which Farm Bureau opposed. The bill would have allowed a pilot project in West Terre Haute. The proposal for the pilot project called for piping carbon dioxide to injection wells in Vermillion County to then use landowners’ pore space for the sequestration of carbon dioxide without landowner consent or compensation. SB 265 would have severed the pore space property rights of the landowners where the carbon dioxide would be stored.

Landowners could not have been compensated for the use of their subsurface pore space, nor could they have negotiated the lease or sale of their pore space. Everything could have been done without landowner consent.

Fortunately, a majority of legislators recognized that pore space rights should be protected like any other mineral, oil or gas rights. Thanks to them, and thanks to you, our grassroots, for advocating for agriculture.