Domina Law Group Managing Lawyer Brian Jorde was recently featured in an AG Week article discussing recent hearings over Summit Carbon Solutions’ controversial carbon capture pipeline.
As reported by AG Week, a series of meetings before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission were held earlier this month to determine whether Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions should be granted a requested permit to build roughly 28 miles of hazardous liquid pipeline in Otter Trail and Wilkin counties. The pipeline would connect a Green Plains ethanol plant to Summit’s proposed network of pipelines that would span 2,000 miles across five states and connect 32 plants to an underground storage site in North Dakota.
While Summit has been eager to obtain permits given the prospect of massive profits, many landowners with property along the proposed path have been reluctant to sign easement agreements.
As a firm that represent landowners in all states where Summit’s pipeline has been proposed, we know that property owners have significant concerns about health risks, potential damage to farmland, and lost property value, as well as the potential for Summit being granted eminent domain, a right typically reserved for the government and public use projects that would force them to give Summit access to their land.
Just as in Minnesota, landowners have been standing in opposition to Summit’s pipeline in other states too. in North Dakota, for example, similar hearings were held last month before the North Dakota Public Service Commission to let landowners and advocates voice their concerns.
As AG Week reports, Attorney Brian Jorde was present at those meetings, and asked Summit’s Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Powell who would own the liquified carbon dioxide in the pipeline, and about the ownership structure of Summit Carbon Solutions, which has been scrutinized for having a foreign ownership interests with a company that has had troubles in its native South Korea.
Powell was advised by an attorney to not answer Jorde’s questions about the company’s ownership. His silence prompted some landowners to question how they can trust a company that doesn’t provide information or answer basic questions.
You can read the full article discussing Jorde’s comments at the North Dakota hearing here.