Opponents of Carbon Pipeline to Host Info Session Thursday (04.24) Night in North Iowa
Opponents of the underground carbon capture pipeline being proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions are hosting informational sessions in North Iowa.
The Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, Bold Alliance, Iowa Easement Team, and impacted landowners are sponsoring meetings across the state to educate communities about carbon capture pipelines and prepare affected landowners for Iowa Utilities Commission (IUC) proceedings.
A “Carbon Pipeline Opposition” meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm Thursday (04.24) night in the Floyd Community Center in Floyd. Local landowners and issue experts will provide an overview of the proposed Summit projects, updates from across the project’s five-state footprint, and action steps to prepare for pending permit proceedings.
Another session is scheduled for 6:30 pm Monday, May 5th, at the Manly Town Hall in Manly.
There are currently no IUC public hearings set related to Summit, but the company is expected to seek a second permit to add ethanol plants to their project previously with the Heartland Navigator CO2 pipeline, including Valero Renewables near Charles City and Poet Bioprocessing near Shell Rock and Fairbank. Summit also wants to add the Absolute Energy ethanol plant near Saint Ansgar.
Meanwhile, Summit suffered another setback in South Dakota this week, where the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) rejected their latest permit application as “not viable.” That comes after South Dakota passed a law last month that bans Summit from using eminent domain to acquire easements along its route in which landowners are opposed to the pipeline on their property.
The IUC has approved a permit for Summit’s “main line” pipeline in Iowa, including a branch that would start with the Homeland Energy Solutions ethanol plant between Lawler and New Hampton and go west through Chickasaw, Floyd and Cerro Gordo counties, among others. However, the IUC won’t allow Summit to build in Iowa until the company secures permits from both South and North Dakota.
