Iowa property owners who oppose having the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline on their land are asking state regulators to pause the review of plans to expand the route. Jess Mazour of the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter says a new South Dakota law banning Summit from using eminent domain in that state to seize land for the project is a game changer.
Mazour was among around 70 people who gathered in the Iowa Capitol Tuesday before delivering petitions to the Iowa Utilities Board. Dennis King, a Clay County farmer, says the proposed pipeline route runs through four of his farms.
Robert Nazario, a Republican from Iowa Falls who ran for a seat in the Iowa House last year, says pipeline opponents need to defeat Iowa lawmakers who support the project — just as South Dakotans fighting the pipeline did.
At least 14 Republican legislators in South Dakota were defeated by Republican challengers last year in races where the pipeline was a major issue. Marva Schuldt of Readlyn says the extension of Summit’s pipeline route is within 450 feet of her farm in Bremer County. She’s urging people to attend a town hall meeting with US Senator Chuck Grassley next week.
The pipeline project is financed, in large part, with federal tax credits for carbon sequestration. Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, says the pipeline will address the demand for low carbon fuels — and its demise would be a damper on corn prices for Iowa farmers. The Iowa House has passed several bills to regulate carbon pipelines over the past four years. All of those bills have stalled in the Iowa Senate. This year, several bills addressing pipeline related issues are pending in the Iowa House.
