Carbon Capture Company Clashes with Landowners

The specter of eminent domain has drawn the ire of Iowa landowners. Summit Carbon Solutions has proposed building a $4.5 billion pipeline that would take CO₂ produced by ethanol plants and other industrial users and transport it to underground storage sites in North Dakota. While Summit has reached voluntary agreements with 750 landowners on roughly 1,200 of the 2,900 necessary parcels, dozens of Iowans have filed objections with the utilities board. Irate landowners cite safety concerns and damage to underground drainage networks and report repeated harassment by Summit land agents. The landowners’ legal counsel, Brian Jorde, calls eminent domain “a gun held to landowners’ heads.” He adds that it negates their negotiating power and makes voluntary easements nonexistent. Read more HERE.