By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Utilities Board hearing on Summit Carbon Solutions proposed pipeline has resumed this week. A schedule on the board’s website indicates that tomorrow (Thursday), the company will start offering its rebuttal to dozens of landowners who’ve testified they do not want the pipeline on their property.

Neil Dahlquist, a neurologist in Minnesota who owns land in Palo Alto County, testified this morning. Dahlquist said he’s been unable to get confirmation that his insurance company would provide liability coverage if the pipeline ruptured. “If there’s a catastrophe, it’s going to bankrupt us,” Dahlquiest said. “…It’s something that shouldn’t be forced on us. Why wreck all this good land by doing something that’s going to be harmful?”

Dahlquist suggests if the pipeline is built, it will shut down when federal tax credits for carbon capture expire. “It’s going to make a few rich people richer in the United States and a boondoggle and make a lot of people poorer in terms of tax dollars,” he said.

A bill President Biden signed last year establishes a tax credit worth $60 for every metric ton of sequestered carbon. The U.S. Treasury Department estimates $2.3 billion in carbon tax credits will be claimed between now and 2029. Ethanol plants have signed up to connect to Summit’s proposed pipeline, expecting to market carbon neutral ethanol as a result. Groups like the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and the Iowa Corn Growers say capturing carbon from ethanol plants is key to the industry’s long term survival.

Last month, Navigator cancelled its carbon pipeline project. The company cited “unpredictable” regulatory processes in states along the proposed pipeline route.