The Sierra Club’s Iowa Chapter has filed a lawsuit that seeks to overturn state approval of a permit for the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline. In late June the Iowa Utilities Commission issued a permit for construction of the initial route for the carbon pipeline, giving Summit eminent domain authority to seize property from landowners who have not voluntarily agreed to let the pipeline run through their property. The Sierra Club’s Jess Mazour says people who objected to the pipeline did not get a fair hearing before the Iowa Utilities Commission.
Wally Taylor, an attorney for the Sierra Club, says the commission incorrectly said Summit’s pipeline had a public benefit as a so-called common carrier that may be granted eminent domain authority.
Taylor says the lawsuit cites other misstatements of fact and faulty legal conclusions. Mazour says the commission’s decision was not unexpected after Governor Reynolds replaced the commission’s chairwoman and appointed another commission member in the spring of 2023.
The Sierra Club is arguing the Iowa Utilities Commission showed a pattern of favoritism to Summit and contempt for pipeline opponents during the public hearing about the project that stretched over 25 days last fall.
Five Iowa counties, landowners who object to the pipeline and nearly 40 Republican legislators have filed separate appeals. Summit Carbon Solutions issued a statement this past week, saying the company is confident in the Iowa Utilities Commission’s thorough review process. Summit, ethanol producers and Iowa Corn Growers have argued the carbon pipeline will help grow markets for ethanol in the U-S and abroad and benefit farmers.
