Indiana Landowners Travel to Washington, Urge Repeal of Wasteful 45Q Tax Credit for Carbon Capture & Storage Schemes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 19, 2025

Indiana Landowners Travel to Washington, Urge Repeal of Wasteful 45Q Tax Credit for Carbon Capture & Storage Schemes

Landowners met with Indiana Sens. Todd Young and Jim Banks, and Rep. Mark Messmer

Washington, D.C. – Indiana landowners Susan Strole-Kos, Janet Cianteo, Rosemarie Scott, and Judy Mendoza last week traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak with their representatives in Congress about their concerns with the wasteful 45Q federal tax credits that underpin dangerous carbon, capture and storage (CCS) projects. 45Q is a direct pay tax credit available to corporations that utilize or sequester carbon dioxide emissions. The group from Indiana joined landowners and advocates from eight states last week during last week’s Congressional “fly-in” to urge that 45Q be eliminated.

While in Washington, the Indiana landowners met with Indiana Senators Todd Young and Jim Banks, and Representative Mark Messmer to urge them to eliminate the 45Q tax credit and end the billions in tax breaks for these dangerous CCS projects.

The landowners are part of a new state-based legal co-op, the Indiana Action Team, created to pool the resources of landowners who oppose eminent domain and have concerns ranging from safety and leaks – like the recent leak from ADM’s CCS facility in Illinois – to the wasteful 45Q tax credits that are the financial lynchpin for projects such as Wabash Valley Resources in Indiana, which is dependent on a $1.5 billion loan guarantee made by the Dept. of Energy during the Biden administration.

In conjunction with the fly-in effort, Bold Alliance launched an online letter-writing campaign urging supporters to write to their Congressional representatives and ask them to support the bipartisan bill from Reps. Scott Perry (R-Penn.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to repeal 45Q (HR 1946).

Susan Strole-Kos, a Vigo County landowner who traveled to D.C. last week, said, “As a Hoosier, and a sixth-generation farmer, I believe our community is more important than a CCS company’s private profits. I believe the state of Indiana and the Midwest should not be a dumping ground for industry’s waste. Policymakers need to wake up and listen to their constituents. Public safety should always be the first priority, and civil liberties should never be trampled on. Eliminate the 45Q tax credit. Profits should never come before people, and eminent domain should never be used for private gain.”

Emma Schmit, Bold Alliance’s Pipeline Fighters Director, stated, “Across the country, people are recognizing carbon capture projects for what they are– money grabbing schemes that put the risk on our communities while wealthy investors make off with the profit. Congress needs to put an end to this money grubbing, landgrabbing scam. Our rights, our safety, and our futures are on the line.”

About Indiana Action Team:
The Indiana Action Team landowners’ legal co-op works to educate landowners and to support organizing those who are opposed to eminent domain for private gain, and works with attorneys to file landowner legal challenges to proposed CO2 waste dump and pipeline projects, and lawsuits and appeals including constitutional challenges and condemnation litigation. (https://indianaactionteam.org)

About Bold Alliance:
The Bold Alliance is a network of “small and mighty” groups in rural states working to protect land and water. We fight fossil fuel projects, protect landowners against eminent domain abuse, and work for clean energy solutions while building an engaged base of citizens who care about the land, water, and climate change. (https://boldalliance.org)

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