Meetings with Summit, utility commission were a dog and pony show

On Sept. 20, Summit Carbon Solutions (SCS) and the Iowa Utilities Commission (IUC) completed a lightning round of 23 CO2 pipeline informational meetings in 23 counties over 25 days.

I attended the Oelwein and Waverly meetings. A commenter in Waverly asked everyone who opposed the pipeline to stand. I and at least 150 other people (over 90%) stood up. Bremer County residents asked questions and shared concerns about the pipeline for over 3 hours. I was proud of how they stood up for their communities.

These meetings were, however, simply dog and pony shows. Nothing i said, nothing anyone said, was heard by SCS or the IUC. No commissionsers were present. No public record, neither transcript nor recording, was made. No commissioner, legislator, agency director - no one - will hear or remember the passionate, compelling opposition arguments that Iowans poured out this summer. When I pressed the IUC staff on why no public record was made, they eventually responded with, “Yes John, we could make a public record of this, if we wanted to.”

If they wanted to? I am troubled, deeply, by that response. I knew these meetings would be dog and pony shows. However, I did not realize that SCS and the IUC would treat those attending as the dogs and ponies. With no public record, let me restate for the IUC commissioners what I heard from Iowans at these meetings - Iowa should reject the Summit CO2 pipeline. With that message I wholeheartedly agree.

John Crabtree

Oelwein