Landowners Facing Eminent Domain for Risky CO2 Pipeline Boondoggle Not Fooled by Summit Carbon Executive Shuffle & “Re-Brand” Charm Campaign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 14, 2025

CONTACT:
Mark Hefflinger, Bold Alliance, mark@boldalliance.org

Landowners Facing Eminent Domain for Risky CO2 Pipeline Boondoggle Not Fooled by Summit Carbon Executive Shuffle & “Re-Brand” Charm Campaign

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

Hastings, NE – Landowners who are continuing to face threats of eminent domain seizure of their farmland by Summit Carbon Solutions for the company’s proposed “carbon capture” CO2 pipeline say they are not fooled by the company’s recently announced “re-branding” and announcement of a new CEO and management team. The company’s claim to have tossed out the bad apples in favor of “a new senior leadership team focused on partnership and respect” fails the smell test.

“The fact that we still can’t get liability insurance, they would drain billions of gallons of water every year, and they refuse to be transparent says it all. Shakespeare’s ‘a rose by any other name’ doesn’t apply here. This is lipstick on a pig, plain and simple. Swapping in a new CEO doesn’t change what they are, and our ‘NO’ is still a firm ‘NO’ when it comes to our land,” said Sherri Webb, a targeted landowner in Shelby County, Iowa.

Incoming Summit CEO Jim Griffin sent a letter to the landowners along the proposed Summit pipeline route in Iowa, who he claims have signed voluntary easements, and a different letter to the more than 1,000 landowners who have refused to sign easements and instead face the prospect of eminent domain seizure of their property against their will for the project.

“Summit’s ‘reboot’ was expected, but after four years of stress, frustration, and animosity, I don’t think a new CEO or upper management shift will do the trick,” said Brian Jorde, attorney with Domina Law Group representing hundreds of landowners along the proposed Summit route. “Are Summit’s major investors the same? Are the major figures behind the scenes the same? After all, it’s the puppet master who controls the show. Are they sticking with the same law firms? It has been Summit’s lawyers who have caused the most distress for landowners. If Summit wants to have a chance to get a project built, it should dismiss all of its current ‘Phase 2’ dockets before the Iowa Utilities Commission, agree to route around oppositional landowners, and pledge not to use eminent domain. That is about the only path for their investors to see a return.”

“Summit can shuffle executives all it wants, but that won’t fix the fundamental problem with its business. Landowners don’t oppose this pipeline because of who’s steering the ship. They oppose it because the project demands that everyday people shoulder the risk and destruction so Summit and its wealthy backers can cash in by the billions. It doesn’t matter who is named CEO when it’s the business model that is the non-starter,” said Emma Schmit, Bold Alliance’s Pipeline Fighters Director.

About Iowa Easement Team
The Iowa Easement Team works to educate, organize and support landowners who are opposed to eminent domain for private gain, and pool resources for landowners seeking legal representation in eminent domain battles and pipeline fights. Landowners with the IET also sponsor a range of advertising and social media outreach, and are networking with other state-based Easement Teams and landowners opposing carbon pipelines across the Midwest. The Easement Action Teams are a project of the Bold Education Fund. Read more about the IET: https://IAeasement.org.

About Pipeline Fighters Hub:
The Pipeline Fighters Hub provides technical, legal, story telling and organizing assistance to any community fighting pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, with the goal of protecting the land and water. (https://pipelinefighters.org)

About Bold Alliance:
The Bold Alliance is coordinating state-based groups with our Pipeline Fighters Hub and landowner legal groups called the Easement Action Teams to stop carbon pipelines from using eminent domain for private gain. We believe that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is unproven and overly expensive and wastefully incentivized approach to climate change, and that the carbon pipelines needed for CCS are poorly planned, under-regulated, and risky infrastructure. These huge and complex projects should not move forward until counties, states and the federal government prove first that they are a better climate solution than renewable energy, and second that safety, planning, and routing standards are in place to avoid inefficient chaotic development driven by wasteful federal spending. (https://boldalliance.org)

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New Summit CEO Letter to “Unsigned” Landowners

CEO Letter to Unsigned Landowners

New Summit CEO Letter to “Signed” Landowners

CEO Letter to Signed Landowners