The Iowa Utilities Board is getting closer to determining a public hearing about the three proposed underground carbon dioxide pipelines that will go through Iowa.

Greene County Environmental and Zoning Administrator Chuck Wenthold says the IUB met earlier this week and indicated that the public hearing should be held in Fort Dodge, however, no date has been announced for the hearing. The Greene County Supervisors, at their most recent meeting, voted to submit a letter to the IUB objecting for Summit Carbon Solutions to use eminent domain for its private use. Summit’s pipeline would stretch 12 miles into Greene County and would take carbon dioxide emissions from Louis Dreyfus to an underground storage facility in North Dakota. 

Additionally, the Iowa Legislature is also trying to pass a bill that would put a moratorium in place that would not allow carbon pipeline companies to use eminent domain until next year. District 24 Senator Jesse Green applauds the House bill as a formality.

“When I’ve dug underneath the surface on this issue and the process that the pipelines are at right now, the earliest that they would ever be able to get an Iowa Utilities Board hearing to be able to possibly utilize eminent domain would be next spring anyway. So I think this bill is just kind of cementing the reality of what’s happening and just giving people a little better feeling and a little more comfort in the near term.”    

Eminent domain is when one entity seizes property from a landowner for market value. The House’s moratorium remains in the Senate for consideration.