DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Television Iowa Capitol Bureau) – A group of landowners, lawmakers, and local governments say the Iowa Utilities Commission made the wrong call when it gave the green light for a carbon capture pipeline. The IUC granted Summit Carbon Solutions the power to access unwilling landowners’ land to build it.
Republican State Rep. Charley Thomson of Charles City is leading three dozen republican state legislators’ appeal to the Iowa Utilities Commission.
Thomson says the IUC made its ruling on the project with unanswered questions about the project’s safety and benefit to the public. “The whole thing is written as if they had a conclusion they wanted to reach and then they had certain things they wanted, points they wanted to make sure that they had touched on,” Thomson said.
Summit says its project will eliminate enough carbon to equal taking 4 million cars a year off the roads, but Thomson doubts that. “It’s a little like very slowly like trying to drain Lake Michigan or Lake Superior into a mason jar using a tablespoon,” Thomson said.
The pipeline will run more than a third of the counties in Iowa.
Thomson says not everyone who will be impacted got to talk to the commission before the decision. “If you had a house in proximity but not over the pipeline route, even though you are at risk safety wise of something happening with this and you getting killed, they didn’t want to hear from you,” Thomson said.
Local governments are also asking the commission to take another look.
While Summit says the total project across multiple states will bring an investment of $8 billion to the region, Steve Kenkel with the Shelby County Board of Supervisors says it could hurt their economic development. “The new residential, the new commercial property out there, that’s our tax base. That’s how we grow down the road and if that starts erode, who’s going to want to build around this?,” Kenkel said.
Summit says 75% of landowners have signed voluntary agreements with the company to allow the company to build under their land. Despite that, Thomson says it’s still fair to ask everyone to go through the project approval process all over again. “Keep in mind our constitution is designed to protect the people with unpopular opinions or unpopular positions in litigation,” Thomson said.
The IUC has 30 days to review the request to reconsider. If they decline to revisit the matter, Thomson says they’re exploring their legal options through the courts.
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Conner Hendricks covers state government and politics for Gray Television-owned stations in Iowa. Email him at conner.hendricks@gray.tv; and follow him on Facebook at Conner Hendricks TV or on X/Twitter @ConnerReports.
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