Letters: Landowners should not be intimidated by Summit's letter

To the editor:

Last month, Summit Carbon Solutions received a conditional permit from the Iowa Utilities Commission (IUC) to construct a 680-mile CO2 pipeline across Iowa. The proposed pipeline, named the Midwest Carbon Express (MCE), will carry pressurized CO2 from ethanol plants across five Midwestern states to North Dakota where it will be permanently sequestered underground. The investment company will then earn billions of dollars annually in 45Q carbon tax credits.

Summit recently filed additional applications with the IUC to bring 16 ethanol plants from the now-defunct Navigator CO2 pipeline onto the Summit trunkline with lateral routes. This past week, Summit sent a threatening letter to Iowa landowners on the lateral lines to inform them that their property is on the route of a proposed CO2 pipeline. In the third paragraph of the letter, Summit uses the term “eminent domain” six times and the word “condemnation” twice, making it seem like these actions are imminent. They are not.

The use of this frightening language is disingenuous on Summit’s part. It is meant to intimidate landowners and rush them into signing voluntary easements to avoid going to court. Summit Carbon Solutions currently has no authority to use eminent domain for the lateral lines. The company merely started the process by filing 16 new applications with the IUC. No hearings have been held, no new permits have been approved, and no authority has been given to use eminent domain on the lateral lines.

As a matter of fact, Summit’s initial application for the original CO2 pipeline in Iowa has not yet been fully approved. It is conditional until several regulatory requirements have been met, such as road and river crossing permits and the approval to use five billion gallons of water annually in the Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) process.

More importantly, the IUC ruled that Summit cannot begin construction in Iowa until it has obtained permits in North Dakota and South Dakota, as well as shorter lines in Minnesota and Nebraska. It has neither a permit for the route nor the underground sequestration site in North Dakota. In South Dakota, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) denied Summit’s first application, and the company has yet to refile. Even with a new application, the permitting process in the Mount Rushmore State will take a year or longer.

Iowa landowners on Summit’s lateral lines should not feel rushed or forced into signing easements at this point. Summit has several regulatory hoops to jump through just to finalize its original CO2 pipeline permit. It will take even longer to add permits for the 16 lateral lines. Impacted landowners do not need to sign easements, they do not need to negotiate with Summit’s land agents, and they do not need to feel intimidated by Summit’s recent letter.

Bonnie Ewoldt, Milford

Crawford County landowner