IUB chair signals Summit pipeline permit hearing will proceed as planned

By Jared Strong, Iowa Capital Dispatch

The Iowa Utilities Board chairperson said Monday he doesn’t foresee the need for another scheduling meeting for Summit Carbon Solutions’ pipeline permit request, casting doubt on a delay to the proceedings that is sought by pipeline opponents.

The board is considering requests to delay the evidentiary hearing for Summit’s proposed carbon dioxide pipeline, and there is also a pending motion to dismiss the company’s petition for a permit.

“I’m not saying, ‘No, there won’t be one,’ ” Chairperson Erik Helland said of another scheduling conference like the one held Monday. “But at this point in time, we don’t anticipate needing another scheduling conference.”

The board decided last month to set Summit’s hearing to begin Aug. 22 — nearly two months earlier than initially expected. That hearing could go for months, and Summit has indicated it wants a decision on its permit by the end of this year.

Pipeline opponents have sought to delay the hearing until next year.

Summit seeks to build a pipeline that will span more than 2,000 miles in five states to transport captured carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to North Dakota, where it will be pumped deep into the ground. That carbon dioxide might be otherwise emitted into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.

Mary Powell, a Shelby County landowner in the path of Summit’s project, told the board Monday that she has “great concerns about how the (Iowa) Utilities Board has all of a sudden tried to push everything through really quickly.”

“It feels that you’re not listening to the landowners, that you’re not following your own statements to be impartial, that you’re being pushed by people with big money,” Powell said.

It has been nearly two years since Summit began its permit process in Iowa. The company, in its requests to expedite the process, has indicated that even though it started the process in Iowa before it did so in other states, it is likely to get decisions on its permits in other states first.

Yet there is growing concern among state lawmakers that Summit’s permit is being “fast-tracked” to the detriment of landowners’ rights.

Two groups of Republican state lawmakers have submitted recent objections to the board, and Rep. Charley Thomson, a Charles City Republican and attorney, recently indicated he is representing a group called the Republican Legislator Intervenors for Justice that will take part in the permit proceedings.

Even former Congressman Steve King, a Kiron Republican, is getting involved: “Mr. King believes that private property rights are one of the most fundamental rights in our Constitution, and any attempt to take them for government purposes for eminent domain should be used sparingly,” said Anna Ryon, an attorney who is representing King.

King was also part of a discussion in Fort Dodge on Saturday about how to prevent the use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipeline projects. In a Monday report, IUB staff said there are 1,035 parcels of land for which Summit has not obtained voluntary easements and will seek eminent domain.

“This matter clearly should be continued,” said Brian Jorde, an Omaha, Nebraska, attorney who is representing dozens of landowners in several states. “It’s premature to think we can move forward in any fair way on Aug. 22.”

He said there is confusion among landowners who are subject to eminent domain about how they can effectively participate in the process, and that there will be further challenges from project opponents that will prevent a starting date in August. Jorde recommended the board delay the evidentiary hearing until next spring.

On behalf of Floyd County landowner George Cummins, Jorde has also asked for the board to dismiss Summit’s hazardous liquid pipeline permit application because the company’s pipeline will not be transporting liquid carbon dioxide.

The carbon dioxide will exist in Summit’s pipeline in a “supercritical” state that has been described by federal regulators as a misty gas.

Summit’s written response to that argument is expected to be filed this week, and Helland said board orders on the motion to dismiss and to reconsider the hearing schedule are forthcoming.

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