A Northeast Iowa county is being sued by Summit Carbon Solutions over attempts to regulate the company’s planned carbon dioxide pipeline in Iowa.
In 2022, Summit sued Story County and Shelby County in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. Both lawsuits alleged the locally elected county boards of supervisors were attempting to impose on the project siting requirements that are the exclusive province of federal regulators.
In December 2023, a federal judge sided with Summit and permanently barred the two Iowa counties from enforcing their ordinances that restrict the placement of carbon dioxide pipelines.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Summit has now sued Bremer County over the same issues, claiming that despite the December 2023 court ruling in the two previous cases, Bremer County has passed and let stand similar – and, in some respects, identical — local regulations of carbon pipelines and related construction activity. The county is also accused of threatening to fine Summit for non-compliance.
The company says that on October 30th, Bremer County Attorney Darius Robinson wrote a letter stating that Summit was not in compliance with ordinances passed in September 2024, and threatening to fine Summit.
In the letter, Robinson allegedly warned Summit that “that any non-compliance with the Bremer County ordinance can result in all legal remedies being pursued” and formally requested that company representatives attend an upcoming public meeting to discuss the matter.
As a result, the company says it must now seek declaratory and injunctive relief against the enforcement of the Bremer County ordinances.
*read the complete Iowa Capital Dispatch article here
