Landowners Petition Court to Reconsider Limited Remand of Summit Permit Approval Appeal Back to Iowa Utilities Commission

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Dec. 24, 2025

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

Landowners Petition Court to Reconsider Limited Remand of Summit Permit Approval Appeal Back to Iowa Utilities Commission

Des Moines – Landowners in Iowa who face eminent domain seizure of their property for Summit Carbon’s proposed CO2 pipeline today filed a motion for an Iowa court to reconsider its decision to remand elements of their challenge to the Iowa Utilities Commission’s approval of Summit Carbon’s CO2 pipeline permit back to the Commission for further review.

“The result is not good or bad, but we believe the court misconstrued the significance of South Dakota’s landowner rights law protecting its citizens from eminent domain abuse and we have respectfully requested the court reconsider its findings as they were material to the decision to grant remand,” said Brian Jorde, attorney with Domina Law Group representing landowners with Bold’s Iowa Easement Team. “Either way, remand is very limited, and the evidentiary record cannot be reopened on any and every issue Summit wishes were different. We have also asked the Court to direct the IUC on the few limited areas of review. Further, if the Court is not inclined to reconsider its decision, the logic used in the Remand Order, in our view, requires portions of Summit’s permitted Iowa route be rescinded and Summit’s eminent domain rights relative to those miles also be rescinded.

“The ruling doesn’t come as a surprise. After years of working to protect property rights from hazardous carbon pipelines, we know not every judge, regulator, or legislator will stand by us the first time around. But, we know the people of Iowa stand with us. So, we’ll continue to explore property rights protections through every possible avenue, including through the courts, the Iowa Utilities Commission, and the legislature,” said Emma Schmit, Bold Alliance’s Pipeline Fighters Director.

About Bold’s Easement Action Teams:
The Easement Action Teams are a project of the Bold Education Fund. The EATs work with local communities to provide immediate legal representation to landowners facing pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Our first priority is to protect landowners’ property rights and water. We believe landowners should have the ultimate right of what does and does not happen on their land. We stand against the use of eminent domain for private gain. (https://easementLLC.org)

About Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub:
The Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub, a project of the Bold Education Fund, 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:
The Bold Alliance and Bold Education Fund are 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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CO2 Order
11X321802 - MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION
Motion Reconsdier Remand Maps