What’s next for Floyd County legally in the wake of the Iowa Utilities Commission (formerly the Iowa Utilities Board) decision to grant Summit Carbon Solutions a permit to build an underground carbon capture pipeline could be known this week.
During Friday (06.28) afternoon’s Floyd County Board of Supervisors meeting, Chair Mark Kuhn says they’re going to “let the dust settle†before taking further steps in their efforts to have more say towards possibly regulating the pipeline’s construction. He says Floyd County and six other counties will get a better idea how to proceed after consulting with Tim Whipple with Ahlers & Cooney, PC.
Kuhn also noted that about a dozen property and landowners in the County have, to this point, rejected Summit’s efforts to secure voluntary easements to build the pipeline and are opposed to the use of eminent domain to secure the rest of the land they need along it’s proposed route.
Sections of Summit’s approved 688-mile route would go through Floyd, Chickasaw, Cerro Gordo, Hancock, Kossuth, Wright, Grundy, Hardin and Franklin counties. Partner ethanol plants on the company’s initial mainline route include Homeland Energy Solutions near Lawler and Golden Grain Energy near Mason City.
The IUC’s approval of Summit’s main line comes with a caveat. Summit must also secure permits from North Dakota and South Dakota and approval from Nebraska and Minnesota before construction can begin in Iowa.
Summit will also need to apply for additional ethanol plants that were previously associated with the Navigator CO2 Ventures that the company also looks to incorporate into the pipeline, including Valero Renewables near Charles City, Absolute Energy near St. Ansgar, and Poet Bioprocessing near Shell Rock.
