Summit Wants 50 Percent Pipeline Expansion in Iowa After Approval

Summit Carbon Solutions got approval from the Iowa state regulators for its carbon dioxide pipeline system it wants to build in the state. Summit wants to move forward with expansion requests for that system beginning in late August.

Documents filed with the Iowa Utilities Commission show proposed public informational meeting dates for 23 counties that would take about four weeks to complete. The first meeting would be on August 26. The company must hold those meetings in the affected counties before it can negotiate with landowners for easements and file petitions for permits to build the extensions. The 14 proposed offshoots to additional ethanol plants from Summit’s initial proposal would increase the system size in Iowa by about 341 miles, or 50 percent.

Summit can’t start laying pipe in Iowa until it obtains permits in the Dakotas. The company can use eminent domain in Iowa to force agreements with unwilling landowners thanks to the ruling in June by state regulators in Iowa.