Clark Kauffman<\/a> is deputy editor at Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Summit Carbon Solutions announced on May 13<\/a> it is altering the route of its proposed pipeline across Iowa to help \u201caccelerate progress\u201d on the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a new filing submitted to the Iowa Utilities Commission for approval, the company indicates it intends to move segments of the pipeline\u2019s proposed route, which the company says will result in fewer miles of land, and fewer landowners, being affected by the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If approved, the changes would remove previously planned routes through Shelby, Pottawattamie, Montgomery, Adams, Page, Fremont, Mitchell, and Worth counties, while also reducing the miles of pipeline running through Crawford, Floyd, Sioux, and Dickinson counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>\n\n\n\n Overall, Summit said, the changes would reduce by more than 400 the number of different landowners affected by the pipeline, and would reduce the overall scope of the project by approximately 200 miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sherri Webb, whose family owns 40 acres of Shelby County land that the pipeline would have cut across under the previously planned route, said the May 13 announcement is good news for her family but she remains concerned about the overall project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis saves our land \u2013 for now, at least,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m glad we are where we\u2019re at with all of this today, and so we\u2019re celebrating today and we\u2019re thanking God over and over,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were so many Shelby County people showing up to express their opposition that I think Summit just didn\u2019t want to deal with us anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Webb said Summit\u2019s announcement leaves some questions unanswered such as what will happen with some of the signed easements that property owners have with Summit to let the pipeline cross their land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSummit owns a lot of signed easements they wouldn\u2019t need now,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I wonder what they\u2019re going to do there. Are they going to sell them to somebody else for a public project and then we will again be faced with losing our land? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In June 2024, the Iowa Utilities Commission approved<\/a> a permit for Summit Carbon Solutions to build more than 600 miles of a carbon sequestration pipeline in Iowa, with the condition that the company gain permits in the Dakotas before beginning construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, along with several Iowa counties and individual landowners, sued, hoping to overturn the IUC\u2019s permit approval. Last fall, after South Dakota denied Summit a permit and passed a law barring the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines, Summit filed a petition with the IUC<\/a> to amend its approved permit by removing the condition that required approval in the Dakotas and by adding add several modifications to the company\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jess Mazour, conservation coordinator for the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, which has opposed the project due to environmental concerns, said that even with the latest announced changes, the project \u201cis still a pipeline to nowhere,\u201d and said the alterations are a sign the project is in trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese significant changes show that Summit is struggling to make their project happen and trying to spin it as a win,\u201d Mazour said. \u201cIt\u2019s time Summit withdraws their application and accepts that Iowans do not want their carbon pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kathy Stockdale, a Hardin County landowner whose property wouldn\u2019t be affected by the proposed new route, said the changes appear to be a sign that the project is in trouble with some of its business partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve heard that some of the ethanol plants, their contracts with Summit may be expiring and that they\u2019re not signing up to renew them,\u201d she said. \u201cTo me, Summit should have to reapply to the Iowa Utilities Commission for project approval because they\u2019re just making so many different changes to their original plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSummit\u2019s project has been on shaky ground for a long time,\u201d said Wally Taylor, the Sierra Club Iowa chapter\u2019s legal director. \u201cSummit has been flailing around to try to keep their project viable and now it looks like it\u2019s falling apart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Summit said on May 13<\/a> that its pipeline project will remain tied to what it called \u201ca strong core group of ethanol facilities,\u201d including 27 that are located in Iowa. As part of the proposed route restructuring, the company will no longer pursue routes to ethanol facilities tied to Absolute Energy, POET Corning, POET Hanlontown, or Green Plains Shenandoah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe believe this is the right step for the project and the right step for the communities counting on new opportunities,\u201d Summit CEO Joe Griffin said. \u201cAgriculture is facing real economic pressure right now. Farmers and ethanol producers need access to new markets and long-term growth opportunities, and there is urgency to getting infrastructure like this moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Griffin said the company\u2019s focus is on building the portions of the system that are economically positioned to move ahead now, while continuing to evaluate future opportunities for expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis allows us to focus on the core infrastructure that makes the most sense today and move through the process faster and more efficiently,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cWe are building this project for the long haul because strong infrastructure is critical to the future of agriculture, rural communities, and America\u2019s energy future. Even with these refinements, this remains the largest single private infrastructure investment in Iowa history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Griffin said Summit sees \u201cstrong support from the majority of landowners and stakeholders across our project footprint,\u201d and said the pipeline is all about \u201ccreating durable economic prosperity, strengthening rural communities, supporting America\u2019s energy independence and national security interests, and helping ensure agriculture remains competitive for all future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Related story from South Dakota Searchlight: Summit describes new carbon pipeline route as not including South Dakota<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Related story from North Dakota Monitor: Summit carbon pipeline rerouted to storage site in Wyoming; North Dakota future unclear<\/a><\/p>\n The post Summit Carbon Solutions alters proposed pipeline route<\/a> appeared first on Bleeding Heartland<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n
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Energy,Iowa Utilities Commission,Land Use,Sierra Club,Summit Carbon Solutions\r\n
Source link www.bleedingheartland.com<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clark Kauffman is deputy editor at Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared. Summit Carbon Solutions announced on May 13 it is altering the route of its proposed pipeline across Iowa to help \u201caccelerate progress\u201d on the project. In a new filing submitted to the Iowa Utilities Commission for approval, the company indicates it intends to move segments of…","protected":false},"author":506,"featured_media":80,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[633,994,995,996,997],"class_list":["post-2116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-energy","tag-iowa-utilities-commission","tag-land-use","tag-sierra-club","tag-summit-carbon-solutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}