Officials from seven Iowa counties are asking the Iowa Utilities Commission to reconsider its conditional approval of the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline project. Shelby County Board of Supervisors chairman Kevin Kenkel says the commission’s decision did not address zoning issues.
Monday was the deadline for filing the paperwork, asking the Iowa Utilities Commission to rescind the construction permit. Landowners who oppose the project and the Sierra Club of Iowa have also filed objections. Kenkel isn’t making any predictions on how the commission might respond.
In addition to Shelby County, officials from Kossuth, Floyd, Emmet, Dickinson, Wright and Woodbury Counties signed the 16-page challenge filed with the Iowa Utilities Commission. Kenkel says it’s unrelated to the pending case in a federal appeals court over hazardous pipeline zoning ordinances in Shelby and Story Counties.
Summit recently announced plans to expand the pipeline route through Iowa by over 300 miles to connect to ethanol plants that had been part of the abandoned Navigator CO2 pipeline project. The commission’s ruling on Summit’s initial request says the company must get approval for its route through South and North Dakota before construction may start in Iowa. A final option for groups that oppose the pipeline project would be filing a lawsuit asking the courts to block construction.
