Latest news with #SummitCarbonSolutions'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Kim Reynolds appoints Sarah Martz to serve as Iowa Utilities Commission chair
Gov. Kim Reynolds has selected Sarah Martz to serve as chair of the Iowa Utilities Commission, the regulatory panel that oversees carbon capture pipelines and other utilities across the state. Martz, who has served on the three-member commission since May 2023, was among the commissioners who voted to grant construction permits to Summit Carbon Solutions' planned carbon capture pipeline, allowing the company to use eminent domain to acquire land from owners unwilling to sell it access. 'Sarah's background, engagement in regional and national associations, and experience to date on the commission will be an asset to the IUC as it prepares to help our state navigate an expected increase in demand with additional heavy power consumers coming online,' Reynolds said in a statement May 19. A two-thirds majority of the 50-member Iowa Senate will need to confirm Martz's appointment as chair. Her overall term runs through April 30, 2027. She succeeds former Republican lawmaker Erik Helland as chair, effectively immediately. Helland and another former GOP legislator, Joshua Byrnes, will continue to serve on the commission. Helland's term spans through April 30, 2029. The Senate recently confirmed Byrnes to a second term that runs through April 30, 2031. In addition to overseeing pipeline projects, the Iowa Utilities Commission regulates investor-owned electric, natural gas and water utilities. It has specific regulatory jurisdiction over municipal electric and natural gas utilities and over rural electric cooperatives. Martz leads the commission while it has increasingly fallen under scrutiny from those pushing back on eminent domain use for carbon capture pipelines. After years of House- backed legislation stalling in the Senate, Iowa lawmakers finally sent a bill to Reynolds on May 12 that seeks to limit eminent domain use for the private projects. More: Republicans' frustrations spill into debate as Iowa Senate passes eminent domain bill The measure, House File 639, also would implement new requirements for the Iowa Utilities Commission, including that all members be present at hearings on proposed public utility regulations, electric transmission lines and pipelines. Reynolds has not said whether she will sign or veto the legislation. Martz serves on various committees and state working groups at the National Association of the Regulatory Utility Commissioners, including the Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment as well as Transmission and Performance-Based Regulation State Working Groups that bring together nationwide peers and other experts. She also is the Iowa representative to the Organization of MISO States, which represents state and local utility regulators in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator region. Before she joined the Iowa Utilities Commission, Sarah worked in roles at Alliant Energy for 11 years optimizing power plants, researching solar performance and piloting new technologies such as energy storage in Iowa communities. She managed the company's electrical distribution engineering team. While all three commissioners approved awarding permits to Summit's proposed pipeline project, Martz was the only commissioner who didn't file a written dissent in connection with the order. Helland, as chair at the time, objected to delaying construction of some sections of the pipeline until Summit had obtained permits to build connecting pipelines in neighboring states ― South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska ― and to the sequestration site in North Dakota. He said doing so delegates "the statutory authority of the board to the public utility commissions of other states." Byrnes objected to approving part of the pipeline he thought imposed more burden than benefit. "The North-South lateral runs approximately 123 miles through seven counties and impacts 118 eminent domain parcels — all of which are necessary to serve only one ethanol facility," Byrnes wrote, referring to a section of the proposed pipeline running from Ida County to Fremont County. But all three commissioners found that overall, "the proposed service provided by Summit Carbon is in the public convenience and necessity" and should be approved. Marissa Payne covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. Reach her by email at mjpayne@ Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @marissajpayne. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Kim Reynolds appoints Sarah Martz to chair Iowa Utilities Commission
Reuters
23-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
South Dakota regulators deny Summit Carbon Solutions a carbon dioxide pipeline permit
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Regulators in South Dakota on Tuesday denied Summit Carbon Solutions' permit application to run about 700 miles (1126 km) of its carbon dioxide pipeline through the state, the second time the state has spurned the company hoping to build the world's largest carbon pipeline aiming to combat climate change. The denial is another of several setbacks to the project, including South Dakota's March ban on the use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines. The state denied the company's first permit application in 2023. Summit hopes to run 2,500 miles (4023 km) of pipeline across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota to capture carbon dioxide from 57 ethanol plants and store it underground. The company has faced resistance from landowners along the route who refuse to sign easements out of concern about potential pipeline leaks and impact to land values. In a Tuesday afternoon meeting, members of the state Public Utilities Commission said Summit had not adequately demonstrated a viable route for the pipeline without the use of eminent domain - compulsory land purchases for projects in the public's interest. "We will take the necessary steps to refile an application that reflects a reduced scope and continued engagement with landowners and plant partners," said Summit spokesperson Sabrina Zenor. Groups resisting the pipeline celebrated the decision. "Summit's application depended on the use of eminent domain to force unwilling landowners into the project. Now that South Dakotans have the right to say 'no, thank you', the route was unworkable," said Chase Jensen, an organizer with Dakota Rural Action, in a statement. The ethanol industry supports carbon capture and storage projects because they would help the industry secure lucrative tax credits for lower emission fuels. Carbon storage projects have drawn huge investment but also are expensive and unproven at scale. Summit's permit applications have been approved in Iowa, North Dakota and Minnesota. Nebraska does not have a state approval process for carbon dioxide pipelines.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Q&A: South Dakota's new Republican Party chair wants to weed out fake Republicans
South Dakota's new Republican Party chairman is a former Democrat, but he's been a Republican for nine years. Now he's concerned about 'Republicans In Name Only,' or RINOs, and wants to weed them out. 'RINOs are a real thing,' Jim Eschenbaum said. 'People say, 'Don't call us RINOs.' Well, If you're supporting abortion or gun control in any way, or any kind of sequestering of First Amendment rights, well, that does not align with conservative principles.' Eschenbaum is a 62-year-old Hand County commissioner and farmer. He was a registered Democrat for 32 years until he and his wife switched when Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton for president in 2016. 'We said we couldn't align with that one, so we were already planning to vote for Trump, and we both switched and became Republicans,' he said. Eschenbaum got more politically engaged while fighting Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions' proposed $9 billion carbon capture pipeline, which he calls a 'boondoggle.' The project would transport carbon dioxide emissions from dozens of ethanol plants in five states to an underground storage site in North Dakota, where the carbon could also be used to extract oil from old wells. For the carbon it sequesters underground, the project could qualify for billions in federal tax credits for removing heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. The project's need for eminent domain has motivated staunch opposition in South Dakota. Eminent domain is a method of forcing landowners to provide access to their land, in exchange for compensation determined by a court. Members of a grassroots movement against the pipeline's use of eminent domain have had a big impact on South Dakota politics. They helped oust 14 state Republican lawmakers in last June's primary election; referred what pipeline critics considered a pro-pipeline law to the ballot in November, where voters rejected it; and helped pass a law earlier this year barring carbon pipeline companies from using eminent domain. Eschenbaum was a leading figure in the ballot referendum campaign. 'That did indeed gain me a lot of public exposure,' Eschenbaum said. 'I did public informational meetings all over the state before the general election.' Eschenbaum said the people he met along the way encouraged him to run for state Republican Party chairman. Some of those same people were becoming more active in the party themselves, and were shifting the party's power balance to members of the anti-pipeline movement. 'They said we need good, honest, outspoken leadership,' he said. 'I always tell people the truth is easy to speak. It's not tough to speak what you believe.' The state party elects a chair during the first meeting of its state central committee in each odd-numbered year. Voters include Republican county chairs, vice-chairs, state committee members and other designated officials. Eschenbaum was elected chairman in February and recently spoke with South Dakota Searchlight. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. It is, because of the state organization, the county organizations, the county precinct committeemen and committeewomen, and the elected Republican officials in the county who are part of that county central committee. It exists, most importantly, because of its party platform. That party platform is amended by the entire group of people, which would include precinct committeemen and committeewomen who go to the state convention. That platform shows what the South Dakota GOP stands for, and then I think our elected officials should be held to the task of promoting and voting along the lines of that platform. And so there is a purpose. I agree that people are funding candidates now instead of just throwing all the money to the state or state party. And I am perfectly OK with that. We don't need any more money thrown to the state GOP than what we need to operate. And we've already taken $77,000 out of the annual operating costs of the state GOP. Reggie Rhoden, Governor Rhoden's son, was executive director and he was being paid $5,400 a month. He resigned at the meeting on February 22, when we did the elections. And we have decided thus far that we don't need an executive director. Nobody knows that he was doing much. I think you should be a constitutional conservative. And what I mean by constitutional conservative is that you vote and represent Republicans based on the two constitutions: the South Dakota Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, which everyone raises their right hand and swears an oath to when they're sworn in. And then our party platform, which is conservative values. I have even proposed a South Dakota GOP scorecard. I don't know if the state central committee will decide to do it, but it would be based on just those three principles, the two constitutions and the party platform. Well, it's establishment power players and power to the people. The average Joes are realizing they have a voice. It comes from that 2024 primary. A lot of those candidates that got voted out, those incumbents that got voted out, had all kinds of money behind them from the ethanol plants and Summit Carbon Solutions. And the people got out and talked to people. This is what party politics should be. This is what government should be. The best thing I can do to bring them all together is be open and honest and communicative with them, and I've been doing that. I feel like the South Dakota GOP has been run by just a few power players, and they really didn't want a new voice or input. I've stated this so many times: They ask for our money and our vote, but they don't want our voice. They don't want us involved in the process, and that's just a terrible thought when you've got a state central committee that's composed of about 200 members and the bylaws. The bylaws make it clear to me that the chairman's job is to facilitate the operations and decision-making of the state central committee. The state central committee should have the power, not the chairman or any other executive director or anything. The state central committee's discussions and decision-making should guide the party. And that's what I ran on. I ran on a campaign of power to the people and being accessible to the people, and so far it's going good. Some of these counties that did not want me elected are starting to talk to me. There was quite a while there that they didn't like this farmer from Hand County getting in amongst the politicians. But I said our state motto for God's sake is 'Under God the People Rule,' and some of these politicians, they get elected to office, they get a fat head about what it is they want to do or who they want to benefit, or using government to do business, and that's not what government is intended to be. It's supposed to be a minimal service to the people, and it just keeps growing and growing and growing and getting more authoritarian and powerful, and that's not what our founders intended it to be, in my opinion. My wife and I were both raised in Catholic Democrat families. And what do young people do if they haven't really gotten themselves involved in politics in high school and started making decisions of which way they're going to go? You register the same as your parents were. Well, as abortion became a bigger topic, my wife and I both agreed we wouldn't support any Democrat that supported abortion. The Democratic Party that we aligned with was more of that JFK kind of a Democrat that worked for the working class and common people. The party got away from that. They just got further and further away from it. They just keep stepping to the left even more all the time and supporting all kinds of foolishness that the Republican Party does not support. I'm extremely involved as chairman — like I said, responsive to people. I'm trying to make every Lincoln Day Dinner [a fundraising event for county Republican parties] across the state that I can possibly get to. These are complaints that I heard about the previous chair or previous administration. You'd have a Lincoln Day Dinner, give plenty of notice for it, and they're like, 'No, very busy that day.' If you take a job like this, you have to commit the time that it takes to do it right. I don't know why that didn't happen previously. It could be speculated probably two or three different ways. I said when I took this job, 'I will not be a butt kisser to any politicians. I'm working for the people to elect good politicians.' Just because you're elected to office currently does not guarantee you're going to get reelected to office again. It just doesn't. This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SD's new Republican Party chair wants to weed out fake Republicans
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
First South Dakota, then Iowa? Landowners, lawmakers rally to stop Summit pipeline
Landowners opposing the Summit Carbon Solutions' planned pipeline rallied with renewed energy at the Iowa Capitol Tuesday after South Dakota's governor recently signed a law blocking the use of eminent domain to build carbon-capture pipelines. "This fight is far from over," said fourth-generation farmer Dennis King from Clay County, who said he has four farms that would be affected by the pipeline. "South Dakota has shown us that this pipeline can be stopped." Since South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden signed the law this month, Summit asked the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission to suspend its pipeline permit application. Summit Carbon Solutions' plan would build a carbon sequestration pipeline $8.9 billion project extending 2,500 miles across South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and North Dakota to connect 57 ethanol plants. Several dozen Iowans at the Capitol Tuesday demanded lawmakers pass House File 943, which would also ban eminent domain for carbon pipelines on agricultural land. House Republicans advanced several bills through the legislative "funnel" aimed at limiting eminent domain by companies seeking to build carbon capture pipelines. The legislation isn't the first effort to end eminent domain in Iowa. The House passed House File 2664 last March to allow property owners in eminent domain proceedings to seek a constitutional review in court. Caila Corcoran, 31, said her family has four generations of farmers who've worked and lived on their land in Dickinson County. The pipeline would run through her family's land, she said. "One thing we keep hearing is that if we don't allow a multibillion-dollar corporation to steamroll their way through our state, we'll look as if we aren't friendly to business," Corcoran said. Another Iowa landowner, Marva Schuldt of Bremer County, said the pipeline would be built 450 feet from the land she's lived on for 56 years. She called on Iowa's federal Republican Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley to listen to the rallygoers' calls to oppose the pipeline. Randy Albright, a fifth-generation from Guthrie County, said in the Iowa Capitol rotunda Tuesday that most Iowans don't understand the gravity of how some landowners are being affected. "They're just stealing the ground from under us and the general public needs to be made aware. Look at our flag. 'Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain,'" he said. Sabrina Zenor, Summit's communications director, said in a press release on March 6 that it's unfortunate South Dakota's law "changed the rules in the middle of the game." "This kind of regulatory uncertainty creates real challenges — not just for our project, but for the ethanol plants in South Dakota that now face a competitive disadvantage compared to their counterparts in neighboring states," Zenor said. "While this presents obstacles, our project moves forward in states that support investment and innovation, and we will have more news on that soon." Summit did not respond to the Register's requests for comment Tuesday. Several state lawmakers joined the rally of concerned Iowa landowners to voice their opposition to the pipeline and ask their colleagues to pass the bill. Sen. Jeff Taylor, R-Sioux Center, who is one of the sponsors on the Senate version of the bill, Senate File 92, said there's no good reason that the Iowa Legislature can't vote to be next after South Dakota. "I know it gets frustrating. I know it can produce anger and depression, and all of those negative things. But also look on the bright side. I filed one bill in 2022," Taylor said. "This year, there are over 20 bills that have been filed in the Senate and the House collectively trying to address this serious problem." A group of nearly 40 Iowa lawmakers, who call themselves the Republican Legislative Intervenors, announced in September they filed lawsuits filed federal and state lawsuits seeking to undo the Iowa Utilities Commission's approval of Summit's building permit. Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, said he plans to file an amendment to the legislation to require a debate on the Senate floor. The amendment Bisignano spoke of was for Senate Resolution 6, which failed Tuesday 18-30. Four Republicans, Sen. Kevin Alons, R-Salix; Sen. Doug Campbell, R-Mason City; Sen. Rocky De Witt, R-Sioux City; and Sen. Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville, voted for it. "We cannot have a pipeline being built when we still haven't settled whether we want it," Bisignano said. "So I ask you, today's the day. Talk to the Republicans in the Senate, tell them to vote for the amendment that will bring that bill to the floor for debate." Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said there's nothing more important than the right to private property. Holt is one of the lawmakers suing the Iowa Utilities Commission. "We're also sick and tired of the manner in which the Iowa Utilities Commission has treated landowners," Holt said. "It has been despicable, and we're going to address that too." Echoing Holt, Rep. Charley Thomson, R-Charles City, said the commission has been "beyond disappointing, it shouldn't happen in Iowa. "We think our politics our clean and our government is honest, and boy, the IUC just does not fit that description these days," Thomson said. "They've ignored people, they've ignored safety concerns, and their view of the Constitution is just hard to figure out." Rep. Eddie Andrews, R-Johnston, said while he represents urban areas of Iowa, he doesn't want a pipeline to affect the residents living in his district's backyard. "You are the board of directors of the country. You are the board of directors of this state, and it's just astonishing to me that we have a number of people in this building who don't quite understand that," Andrews said. Register Statehouse Reporter Marissa Payne contributed to this report. Sabine Martin covers politics for the Register. She can be reached by email at or by phone at (515) 284-8132. Follow her on X at @sabinefmartin. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Summit pipeline foes in Iowa encouraged after South Dakota passes law
