Illinois gets in bed with China to bring a new electric car battery plant to the state and plans to send carbon dioxide from ethanol plants out of Iowa to North Dakota hit a snag.

Those are two of the topics we’ll tackle this week with former Rock Island County Republican Party Chair Bill Bloom and former Scott County Democratic Party Chair Elesha Gayman.

Let’s start in Iowa, where a few different plans are ongoing to move carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to storage sites out of state.

One of them would move it through the Quad Cities area to an underground storage facility in Illinois.

There’s also a proposal to move CO2 to North Dakota. That plan ran into trouble when South Dakota’s Public Utilities Commission rejected it.

It follows a similar decision in North Dakota.

The pipeline company plans to challenge the decisions. The Iowa Utilities Board will vote on the project later this year.

We talked about this issue in the past when it pertained specifically to Illinois. People in Port Byron haven’t been shy about expressing their opposition.

We know there’s a lot of fear out there of the pipelines leaking or breaking, there’s the “not in my backyard” syndrome and concerns about eminent domain.

Gayman and Bloom offered their perspectives on the plans.       

A new plant that makes batteries for electric cars will be coming to Illinois.

Governor JB Pritzker touted the deal when it happened about a week and a half ago.

Chinese company Gotion is expected to bring at least 2,600 jobs and provide a key supply chain for electric cars – not anywhere around the Quad Cities.

This deal is part of a larger initiative to bring more Asian investments to Illinois. But this one involves a company from China.

There’s a lot of anti-China sentiment in the United States lately.

Some federal lawmakers want to prevent any property in this country from being owned by any Chinese individuals or entities.

China’s seen as a national security threat.

We know the governor is committed to green technology.

Bloom and Gayman weigh in on if it’s a bridge too far.

Watch the video above for the complete conversation.