The Epoch Times recently interviewed Domina Law Group Managing Lawyer Brian Jorde for an article about the ongoing battle against the Midwest Carbon Express pipeline. The Midwest Carbon Express is one of three proposed projects that would capture carbon emissions from ethanol plants and transport it as liquified CO2 through thousands of miles of pipeline so it can be sequestered deep underground.
As reported by The Epoch Times, the company behind the $4.5 billion Midwest Carbon Express pipeline, Summit Carbon Solutions, has been actively working to obtain permits to construct the pipeline and gain access to privately owned land along the planned route. Summit’s even gone as far as asking regulators to allow it to use eminent domain, a right typically reserved for the government and public use projects, to gain access to private land to construct its pipeline.
Summit’s aggressive tactics and the project itself have raised concerns among the ranchers, farmers, and landowners with property along the proposed route, which spans five states – Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. That includes concerns about the impact to soils, crops, and people, liability for pipeline damage, and the fact that Summit stands to profit immensely off using landowners’ private property.
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Attorney Brian Jorde, who is helping over 500 landowners in multiple states challenge easements and protect their land, says the legal fight is about the abuse of eminent domain:
“When there’s a constitutional power that was originally limited to the government—the governmental entity taking something of a private citizen for the beneficial public use of all persons, that’s one thing,” Jorde told The Epoch Times. But now, Jorde says, state legislatures are handing out the powerful tool of eminent domain to any company that might form overnight.
The article goes on to discuss how Summit is still actively pursuing the ability to use eminent domain in proceedings before the Iowa Utilities Board and regulators in other states. As Jorde told The Epoch Times:
“If you are not paying attention, you will be next. As Americans, we are notorious for only caring about something when it’s at our doorstep and not getting out there and speaking up when others, unknown to us, are being affected. Well, guess what? You’re next. It’s coming to you or someone you know. Corporations roll on and people— your rights—are collateral damage to their profits. That’s the biggest problem.”
Read the full article from The Epoch Times featuring Brian Jorde’s interview here.