A public hearing is underway in Fort Dodge that will decide the future of the proposed pipeline Summit Carbon Solutions wants to build across Iowa to capture CO2 from ethanol plants.
Over the course of the quasi-judicial proceeding, the Iowa Utilities Board will review cases where landowners are resisting the use of eminent domain to build the pipeline on their property. Board members will also hear extensive testimony from the company and other groups supporting and opposing the project.
Landowners who object to the Summit pipeline filled seats at the hearing after rallying outside.
Speaking at the rally, Tim Baughman of Denison said the project would cut through farmland rented out by his family to grow corn and soybeans. Baughman said his family values that land as a model for soil conservation.
“Our soil has not been plowed for 47 years,” Baughman said. “And now Summit Carbon Solutions wants to target our land for their private profits.”
Baughman said the hearing should be delayed since a siting permit application for the project was rejected by regulators in North Dakota.
Among other concerns, the North Dakota Public Service Commission took issue with the company's lack of response to landowners who requested a reroute of the pipeline on their land. The commission also said Summit failed to adequately demonstrate how it would address areas of “potential geologic instability.”
“If Summit failed to meet the burden of proof in North Dakota, guess what, they have failed to meet it in Iowa also,” Baughman said.
The decision in North Dakota was one of the first issues addressed by the board at the hearing. IUB chair Erik Helland announced the board denied a motion filed by the Sierra Club to postpone the Summit hearing based on the actions of the North Dakota PSC. Helland said the IUB’s process is “separate and distinct” from other states.
Opponents had also asked to delay the hearing while a district court reconsiders a motion to dismiss Summit’s pipeline application. But Helland said the IUB would not wait for the court’s decision, noting the board had already spent “over half-a-million dollars to date” preparing to occupy the Cardiff Event Center for the extent of the hearing.
Tuesday afternoon the IUB moved into the first stage of testimony, from landowners resisting the use of eminent domain for the pipeline project.
Summit’s proposed pipeline system would remove CO2 from ethanol plants in five states. The greenhouse gas would be transported to North Dakota and pumped into permanent underground storage wells, qualifying the project for lucrative federal incentives aimed at curbing carbon emissions.
The ethanol industry says the project is also necessary to market low-carbon fuels in the future. Without it, ethanol producers warn corn markets would be jeopardized.
Marcia Langner told board members she is against the pipeline and Summit’s use of eminent domain even though corn is one of the primary crops grown on her Clay County farmland.
“Saying that corn value is going to tank if the CO2 pipelines are not constructed would be a slap in the face to all the innovative people in the industry,” Langner said. “Capturing CO2 from ethanol plants, combining it with hydrogen and turning it into green methanol is just one alternative the industry has in its arsenal.”
The IUB hearing could last weeks as board members hear testimony on more than 900 parcels of land where landowners oppose eminent domain.
