Summit Pipeline Opponents Seek Procedural Halt in Iowa After North Dakota Decision

Since Summit Carbon Solutions’ permit for an underground carbon capture pipeline in North Dakota was recently rejected, pipeline opponents have asked the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) to pause Summit’s application in Iowa.

Sierra Club attorney Wally Taylor has written a motion to the IUB seeking to suspend the permit proceedings in Iowa, noting that, “Without a North Dakota permit, Summit has no project.”

The request comes as the IUB prepares to host Summit’s pipeline permit evidentiary hearing, poised to start next week in Fort Dodge.

The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Shelby County landowner Mary Powell also wrote the IUB, “It would not be fair to take our land away from us when the pipeline that is proposed to run through our land has nowhere to go.”

Summit, which wants to build sections of its carbon pipeline in Chickasaw, Floyd, Mitchell, Cerro Gordo, Franklin and Hancock counties in north Iowa, will seek eminent domain for about a quarter of its route in Iowa. Summit spokesperson Sabrina Zenor claims the company has voluntary easement agreements for about 75% of the route.

In the meantime, Zenor says the company will ask North Dakota’s Public Service Commission to reconsider its permit application, which was denied because it didn’t minimize its negative effects on residents and the environment.

The overall project spans five states, with the final destination for underground sequestration of the CO2 in North Dakota.