Carbon pipeline company will ruin trees from below ground

From the very first time I received a call from a Summit Carbon land agent, besides voicing that I would never sign an easement and the project is ill-advised and fraudulent, I also expressed concern about the damage to my mature trees and their benefit as wildlife habitat and erosion control. In repeated conversations with land agent as well as a Summit engineer, I stated my concern for trees. I was eventually told that Summit could bore under my trees "with no surface disruption." Not once did I ask them to bore under my trees or under my property. Not once. That is something Summit "offered" as an alternative to killing my trees.

Yet, in the Iowa Utilities Board decision order, the Iowa Utilities Board states that Summit "agreed" to bore under. How can they "agree" when they were not "asked?" Now I know exactly what they were scheming — and what the Iowa Utilities Board decision went along with: to remove the root systems of the trees but not take the aboveground portion of the trees. What an utterly insane and devious response. Iowa Utilities Board and Summit — shame on you, all of you. The bias toward Summit is so painfully obvious. Bought and paid for — each of you. There is no "public use" or benefit to CO2 pipelines. It's a way for Summit’s "benefactors" to line their pockets courtesy of us taxpayers.

Kathy Carter

Rockford