Counties, Landowners File Motion to Halt Iowa Utilities Commission Review of Summit CO2 Pipeline

Counties, Landowners File Motions to Halt Iowa Utilities Commission Review of Summit CO2 Pipeline

A coalition of Iowa counties along with landowners have filed motions urging the Iowa District Court hearing their appeal of the Iowa Utilities Commission’s (IUC) approval of a carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline permit for Summit Carbon Solutions to halt the IUC’s further consideration of Summit’s permit until the court renders its decision on their case.

Shelby County, Wright County, Floyd County, Woodbury County, Dickinson County, Kossuth County, Emmet County, Hardin County, and Franklin County filed the motion this week in their ongoing appeal of the IUC’s approval of Summit’s pipeline permit in Iowa.

Landowners with the Iowa Easement Team represented by Brian Jorde with Domina Law filed their appeal of the IUC’s decision in September 2024, and oral arguments in the case were heard in October 2025. Landowner plaintiffs then petitioned the court in December 2025 to reconsider its decision to remand elements of their challenge back to the IUC for further review. Along with the Counties, landowners also earlier this week submitted motions to the IUC asking for a halt to any further changes to permit terms until the court rules on the merits. The Sierra Club also filed a motion in support of the Counties’ motion. 

Since the IUC first granted Summit’s permit back in 2024, the company has encountered numerous new obstacles to its boondoggle project. After South Dakota approved a ban on eminent domain for CO2 pipelines, Summit recently announced it would pursue an alternate route from Iowa through Nebraska into sequestration areas in Wyoming, but also asks the IUC to still allow the company to seek a path through the Dakotas. 

While the IUC approved Summit’s request to remove the Dakotas from its current intended route, the agency placed new stipulations that Summit submit permit details for its new sequestration plans, and how it will get there. Summit has now petitioned the IUC to amend its permit terms further, to add new eminent domain requests and make changes to pipe diameters, and add new valve locations. But the Counties and Landowners say enough is enough.

“Landowners across the Midwest have spent half a decade in limbo because of a project they never asked for. Now, Summit wants to change the rules in the middle of the game – all without telling the public what, or where, the end goal truly is. It seems clear that Summit has dug itself into a hole, and rather than building a ladder, the company is continuing to dig deeper by layering new legal complexities onto an already convoluted process,” said Emma Schmit, Bold’s Pipeline Fighters Director.