Landowners who have refused to grant property easements for the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline say they’re outraged state regulators have given the project a green light — and considering their legal options. The Iowa Utilities Board announced Tuesday that the project would get a construction permit if regulators in the Dakotas approve the pipeline route in their states. Jess Mazour of the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter has been working with a coalition of landowners for the past three years.
Sherri Webb and her siblings inherited Shelby County land from their grandmother. During the Iowa Utilities Board hearings last fall, she testified against the use of eminent domain to seize her family’s land for the project.
Attorney Brian Jorde says the first step is a formal request that asks the Utilities Board to reconsider its decision, then a lawsuit could be filed in Iowa district court after that.
Jorde says Iowa politicians rolled out the red carpet for the pipeline developer. Governor Reynolds appointed two of the three members of the Iowa Utilities Board after it began reviewing Summit’s construction permit. Wally Taylor, an attorney for the Sierra Club Iowa chapter, says regulators ignored evidence showing the project had no direct benefit to the public, but is designed to profit Summit and the ethanol plants it chooses to link to the pipeline.
The Iowa Utilities Board decision stipulates that Summit must get approval from North Dakota for its pipeline route and underground storage location AND from South Dakota regulators for the route in that state. The approval process in South Dakota could stretch into 2026.
Supporters of the pipeline say it will help Iowa-produced ethanol compete in low carbon fuel markets around the globe. In a written statement, Monte Shaw of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association said despite the overheated rhetoric of a few, the overwhelming majority of impacted landowners support this project. According to Summit’s C-E-O, 75 percent of Iowa landowners along the pipeline route have signed contracts to let the pipeline pass through their property.
