At Iowa Capital Dispatch, Jared Strong reports on the state of hearings on permits for ethanol carbon pipelines.
There's Thursday's brief Capital Click, Summit pipeline hearing will resume on Tuesday:
A regulatory hearing for Summit Carbon Solution’s pipeline permit has concluded for the week and will resume on Tuesday.
The Iowa Utilities Board had hoped to finish Summit’s evidentiary hearing by the end of this month, but the cross examination of witnesses has gone longer than it initially anticipated.
Board chairperson Erik Helland and Summit attorney Bret Dublinske have said pipeline opponents have caused the delays.
“This has been a very special-interest and lawyer-driven process,” Dublinske said Wednesday. He added: “There’s no reason this can’t move faster. There’s no reason this couldn’t have moved faster for weeks.”
Summit seeks a permit to build more than 680 miles of pipe in Iowa that would transport captured carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to North Dakota for underground sequestration.
The hearing has gone for six weeks and is meant to examine the evidence submitted by Summit, landowners and others to determine whether the project deserves a permit. The company seeks eminent domain to get land easements for about a quarter of its route in Iowa.
The pace of the hearing has lagged from the start, and two weeks ago the board gave no indication how the hearing would proceed if it didn’t end this week. The board waited until Wednesday to say it had extended its reservation of the hearing venue in Fort Dodge to all of next week, and that it planned to resume on Monday.
But due to the late notice, it will instead resume on Tuesday with affected landowners testifying in-person and remotely via video conferencing. Brian Jorde, an attorney for more than 100 of those landowners, indicated that up to 10 might be available on Tuesday. It was unclear how many have yet to testify.
Navigator CO2 wants to suspend its pipeline permit process in Iowa until utility regulators in Illinois approve the project, according to a motion it filed in Iowa.The company wants to build a carbon dioxide pipeline system that would transport the captured greenhouse gas from ethanol plants and other facilities to Illinois, where it will be sequestered underground or used for other commercial purposes.
About 810 miles of the initially proposed system lies in Iowa, but the company said it is adjusting its plans after a setback in South Dakota.
The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission denied Navigator a permit to construct its pipeline in early September. Since then, the company has indicated that it is not negotiating for new land easements in that state and in part of Iowa.
Navigator filed a motion with the Iowa Utilities Board on Friday to cancel a scheduling conference that was set for Oct. 9, withdraw its motion to establish a procedural schedule and to pause its permit proceedings.
“Navigator is currently reviewing its Iowa route and technical specifications in light of decisions from regulatory authorities in neighboring states and individual landowner requests, which may lead to necessary revisions in Iowa,” Navigator said in a prepared statement. “Being conscious of the time and resources of all parties to this proceeding, Navigator has withdrawn the proposed procedural schedule with the Iowa Utilities Board.”
The company plans to file an update on its project with the board by the end of March. Illinois regulators are expected to make a final decision on the project by the end of February.
The Friday motion is a substantial shift from the company’s plans two months ago, when it was pining for the IUB to finalize a schedule. At the time, it sought to start its final evidentiary hearing in June 2024.
The company is one of three that have proposed carbon dioxide pipeline projects in Iowa. Summit Carbon Solutions recently concluded its sixth week of testimony for its evidentiary hearing and has said it wants a decision by the end of the year. Wolf Carbon Solutions petitioned for a permit in February, but its process has had little progress since, according to IUB filings.
These Iowa Capital Dispatch articles are republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
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