(Radio Iowa) – New requirements for the company that has a permit to build a carbon pipeline and for the state regulators that granted the permit have cleared initial review in the Iowa House. One bill would require Summit Carbon Solutions to show it has enough insurance to cover all damages from a pipeline rupture. Cynthia Hansen’s family owns land in Shelby County that’s in the pipeline’s path. “We already have our letter from our insurance company saying that we cannot get liability insurance on this piece of ground if this pipeline goes through because (liquified carbon) is considered a pollutant, so that puts us at great risk if the pipeline would rupture,” Hansen said. “I mean, we would go bankrupt.”

Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, says the cost and liability if there’s a rupture would hit property owners as well as local governments who’d have to respond to the disaster. “It is the local county supervisors, law enforcement, EMT personnel, fire fighters that will be responsible for the safety of their citizens,” Holt said, “and it also appears that counties will be left holding the bag, (along with) landowners, should something go wrong.” A spokesperson for Summit Carbon Solutions says in order to secure its pipeline permit, the company was required to have at least a 100 MILLION dollar insurance policy and the ability to compensate landowners for damages from construction. The other bill would require members of the Iowa Utilities Commission to attend the commission’s hearings and informational meetings.

Holt says House Speaker Pat Grassley attended a public meeting scheduled by the agency, but no one from the commission was there to hear comments from the public. “This was confirmed for me when we had an informational meeting in Holstein, in Ida County. I was there. No commissioners were there,” Holt says. “Unfortunately, this seems to fit the pattern of arrogance toward property owners that has been on display throughout this entire process by the Iowa Utilities Commission when the leadership changed.” Governor Kim Reynolds replaced the commission’s chairman and appointed another new member to the panel in April of 2023.

Jessica Mazour is conservation program manager for the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter. She says the new commissioners have been disrespectful toward property owners who object to having the pipeline on their land. “Not showing up to meetings, not listening — I mean we’re talking about people who put their lives on hold for four years to protect their property from a company that’s coming in to take their land, endanger their families,” Mazour said, “and they don’t even have the ability or the care to show up and listen to them.” Peg Rasmussen owns land in Montgomery County where Summit Carbon Solutions plans to extend its pipeline during phase two of the project. She says one commission member was at the informational meeting she attended. “I’m sure that there was bias in terms of how they interpreted the meeting,” Rasmussen said, “so having multiple ears there hearing could related to better understand what the public really was saying.”

Similar bills have been filed in the Iowa Senate, but no subcommittee hearings on either senate bill have been scheduled.