IUB Denies Request for Carbon Pipeline Environmental Study
The Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) has denied a request for an environmental impact study for an underground carbon capture pipeline, which includes a section that would cross north Iowa.
Summit Carbon Solutions proposed “Midwest Carbon Express” pipeline would begin its easternmost branch with the Homeland Energy Solutions ethanol plant between Lawler and New Hampton. It would then be built west through Chickasaw, Floyd and Cerro Gordo counties among others.
While the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska request for an environmental impact study along the pipeline’s proposed route was declined, the IUB says it will consider specific environmental issues it has and those raised by those involved with Summit’s application for a hazardous liquid pipeline permit.
The IUB statement says a separate environmental impact survey is not required by federal regulations for it to fulfill its statutory requirements in considering the permit. The IUB’s order says this was similar to a request made for the Dakota Access oil pipeline, which the board also rejected.
Meanwhile, a second carbon pipeline is also being proposed involving several north/northeast Iowa counties. Navigator CO2 Ventures would like one branch of its Heartland Greenway pipeline to include the Valero Renewables Fuels plant outside Charles City and build south into Butler County and Poet Bioreprocessing near Shell Rock. Another branch would also include the Poet plant in Fairbank and involve Delaware and Bremer counties and link to the Shell Rock plant.
