Domina Law Group Managing Lawyer Brian Jorde was recently interviewed by WNAX Radio about his work with the newly formed South Dakota Easement Team.
As Jorde told WNAX, the South Dakota Easement Team was created to help landowners impacted by the Midwest Carbon Express, a multi-billion-dollar pipeline that would capture carbon emissions from ethanol plants and transport them in the form of liquified CO2 through multiple states before ending in Nebraska. Summit Carbon Solutions, the company behind the proposed pipeline project, has sparked controversy with its attempts to use eminent domain – a right typically reserved for the government and public-use projects – to secure access to private property to construct its pipeline.
In addition to representing property owners in all five states impacted by the Midwest Carbon Express, Jorde and our firm have helped establish the South Dakota Easement Team to unite landowners throughout the multiple South Dakota counties where pipeline construction has been proposed.
Like the work we’re doing in Iowa, North Dakota, and other affected Midwest states, the Easement Team is intended to educate landowners about their property rights, connect them with resources and legal representation, and keep them up to date about the status of legal challenges and other pipeline developments. As Jorde told WNAX radio:
“It’s based on the model that we started over a decade ago in Nebraska which allows for concerned landowners threatened with eminent domain and the fear that their land and property rights are being taken to join together under one umbrella group and share information and have consistent legal representation and essentially be stronger together than they would be individually.”
Jorde also discussed how landowners banding together can be a powerful force in the fight to protect property rights threatened by the pipeline, especially considering Summit’s efforts to intimidate landowners, capitalize on their lack of understanding about the process, and pressure them into signing agreements.
“Frankly, they’re in the intimidation and threatening stage, so it’s never too soon to join together. There are lots of people who don’t understand the process who think they have to talk to these companies and their agents or think they have to sit down to sign documents. They don’t have to any of that. So the first stage is education and empowerment and then of course legal actions that are consistent with the landowners’ goals, and we’re doing both of those things simultaneously.”
You can listen to Attorney Brian Jorde’s full interview with WNAX Radio here.
If you have questions about the South Dakota Easement Team or your rights as a landowner in any of the Midwest states where Summit Carbon Solutions plans to construct its carbon pipeline, Domina Law Group wants to help. Call (888) 387-4134 or contact us online for a free consultation.