Opinion: Governor, slow down the Iowa CO2 pipeline approval process

To Gov. Kim Reynolds:

Please allow Iowa to be “a place where families thrive, businesses grow, and government is responsive to the people.”

The debacle of the Summit hazardous CO2 pipeline lies squarely on your shoulders. You took an oath to protect the citizens of Iowa against dangerous consequences. In regard to the installation of hazardous CO2 pipelines, the word "Hazardous" should compel you to consider all of the safety aspects of this project and potential risks it will pose to the citizens of Iowa regardless of the time it may take.

Your appointed Iowa Utilities Board is fast tracking the hearing schedule ahead two to six months and then casting their own protocol to the wind by ordering the Exhibit H landowners to defend their landowner rights against a proposed hazardous CO2 pipeline that has not even been fully explained by Summit, the petitioner of the permit. Summit was still sending out survey letters this month. This is ridiculous! It appears you are intentionally allowing the stacking of the deck in favor of a construction project that has no proof of achieving its desired outcome. Summit doesn’t even know if it is transporting liquid or supercritical CO2. How can we trust it with the stewardship of our land?

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There are no answers to the safety questions Iowans have been asking about this project. Waiting until construction begins to share safety information is irresponsible! An unnecessary extra burden is being placed on our first responders, EMTs, law enforcement, and emergency room staff with this pipeline. The safety concerns of this pipeline and endangerment of uninformed inhabitants should be reason enough to deny this permit until safety regulations are developed by Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA. This pipeline will be within one mile of the Denison, Iowa airport, a housing development, a mobile home trailer park, the Peterson Manufacturing plant, a four-lane state divided highway, the Anderson Ethanol plant, three railroad tracks, Boyer River and Crawford County Memorial Hospital; 8,178 residents are in close proximity to this hazardous pipeline. We are concerned that the catastrophic episode of the Sartartia, Mississippi, CO2 pipeline eruption could occur in Denison, Iowa, if no PHMSA safety regulations are developed before the Summit hazardous CO2 pipeline is constructed.

I respect you and agree with many of the legislative initiatives you are spearheading. I heard you address landowners at the Crawford County Cattlemen's Banquet and Crawford County Pheasants Forever Governor Hunt. I doubt that you will want to hunt on land that is within a mile of the hazardous CO2 pipeline kill zone. I know that you campaigned on the plank of the Republican platform that vowed to protect landowner rights. Many Republican state senators stood on that same platform with you. Since the Summit hazardous CO2 pipeline was announced, you and the Iowa Senate have distanced yourselves from this issue and the Iowans who elected and believe in you. Your lack of leadership in upholding the Iowa Constitution has allowed the Senate to not get involved, and therefore a response has been killed for debate two years in a row. Summit should not have eminent domain authority when it is not a utility and will profit greatly, and its project is not for the public good. I do not understand why you are subjecting our cherished land to be violated by this invasive hazardous CO2 pipeline when the soil is the keystone to our state's economy. Please do not abandon Iowa landowners for $188,000 in campaign contributions.

More: Senate won't curb eminent domain for carbon pipelines; most Iowans say they want limits

Summit was able to secure a hazardous CO2 pipeline route in Minnesota with voluntary easements. Landowners should not be forced to have a forever easement on their land when the 45Q and 45Z tax credits will only be paid for 12 years. Summit will be making billions per year in this theft-by-deception scheme by potentially taking my land and having me pay income taxes, property taxes, and liability insurance, if I can even get liability coverage. Summit gets a forever easement to control my property and I get no say in how Summit chooses to use it.

Bruce Rastetter has the reputation of selling his investments after five to seven years. If foreign investors are partners in his LLC, will the Summit hazardous CO2 pipeline bring about foreign land ownership and control, yet another violation to the Iowa Constitution? The IUB should pause the fast-track schedule at least until the PHMSA regulations for hazardous CO2 pipelines are released. Please do not allow the economic pressure and political influence of a private company to compromise your important responsibility of protecting all Iowans.

Please delay the hearing schedule until the PHMSA regulations are released so safety concerns can be answered before construction begins. Please remove eminent domain from the negotiation agenda for a private, for profit corporation.

Tim Baughman lives in Crawford County. His land is affected by the planned Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: Governor, slow down the CO2 pipeline approval process