Law Enforcement Gets Advice for Potential Carbon Pipeline Disputes
Opposition against companies seeking to build carbon capture pipelines in north Iowa has been more vocal than those in support of the projects thus far.
To date, the rate of voluntary easements from landowners to allow construction of the pipelines has been a slow return for both Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator C02 Ventures. If that trend continues, the companies could seek out the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) to implement eminent domain to get the remaining easements necessary, which could make things contentious.
Chickasaw County Sheriff Marty Hemann told the Board of Supervisors this week that he attended a recent conference in Des Moines to help law enforcement be prepared, just in case.
Hemann noted that, to date, there haven’t been no problems between landowners and Summit, which is proposing its pipeline start with the Homeland Energy Solutions ethanol plant between New Hampton and Lawler, and then build west from there through Floyd County, Cerro Gordo County and, eventually, to an underground storage facility in North Dakota.
The Navigator carbon pipeline would utilize the Valero Renewables ethanol plant west of Charles City as a starting point for one leg of its Heartland Greenway pipeline and head south into Butler County to the POET Bioprocessing ethanol plant at Shell Rock and, eventually, to Illinois.
The IUB has not approved a permit for either carbon pipeline and isn’t expected to take the measures up until early next year.
