Navigator wants CO2 pipeline hearing to start in June 2024

The second company to propose an expansive pipeline system in Iowa to transport carbon dioxide seeks a final permit hearing next summer and a decision by state regulators in early October 2024.

Navigator CO2 Ventures recently filed a motion with the Iowa Utilities Board to set a procedural schedule that will guide the remainder of its hazardous liquid pipeline permit process. Navigator wants to discuss the potential schedule with the board and others in a conference after the board’s regular meeting Aug. 15.

The company proposes to set its final evidentiary hearing to begin June 27 next year, to “avoid any conflicts with other known hearings the board may have in 2024, and importantly avoid both the planting and harvest seasons for Iowa’s farmers,” according to its motion.

Harvest is one reason why some have objected to the start date of an evidentiary hearing for another company, Summit Carbon Solutions, which is set to begin later this month and could go on for weeks or months.

“Farm Bureau appreciates Navigator selecting June as the start date for the hearing because it is after planting season and should provide enough time to complete the hearing before harvest season starts in September,” the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation said in a recent filing.

However, the group opposes finalizing the schedule until Navigator submits a preliminary list of properties for which the company is likely to seek eminent domain. That list — part of what is called “Exhibit H” of the pipeline permit applications — is required by state rules before the evidentiary hearing is scheduled.

“Navigator has failed to file any of its required Exhibit H filings despite previous representations that it would begin to make the filings in May 2023,” Iowa Farm Bureau wrote this week. Navigator has indicated it will finish submitting that exhibit by Oct. 4.

For its project, Summit’s pipeline would span more than 680 miles in Iowa and, a month ago, included eminent domain requests for 1,035 parcels of land for which the company had not obtained voluntary easements. That number has dropped to about 950, said Jesse Harris, a spokesperson for the company. He expects it will decline further before the evidentiary hearing later this month.

Navigator’s proposal includes about 810 miles of pipe in Iowa, and the company has been reticent about its progress in obtaining voluntary easements. Andy Bates, a spokesperson for the company, declined this week to reveal the number of voluntary easements the company has secured, but said it has spent about $16 million in Iowa so far for the agreements.

“Without knowledge as to the number of parcels which would be subject to a request for eminent domain, there is no way to know what time period is necessary to allow for the parcel reviews to be completed prior to the (evidentiary) hearing date,” said Richard Kimberley, whose Polk County farmland is in Navigator’s path and who objected to setting a procedural schedule.

He continued: “The requirement of making Exhibit H filings is of heightened relevance in this matter given Navigator’s previous representations that it would make such filings, followed by its subsequent failure to do so.”

The use of eminent domain to complete the projects has been a unifying concern for people who are typically ideological opposites on other issues. In this instance, it has joined environmental groups such as the Sierra Club of Iowa with former U.S. Rep. Steve King, a conservative firebrand who has dismissed concerns about climate change.

King has sought to participate in Summit’s pipeline proceedings because of his concerns about “the use of eminent domain for private gain against the clear constitutionally protected property rights of his former constituents.”

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After the utilities board rejected his request to participate as an “intervenor” because he is not directly affected by the project, he joined with several landowners who are close to Summit’s route or who are directly affected by other pipeline proposals to form a group called the “King Intervenors.” The board has not yet issued a decision on whether to grant the group intervenor status.

The pipeline projects — along with a third proposal from Wolf Carbon Solutions, which includes Linn County on its route — are meant to transport captured carbon dioxide from ethanol plants and other facilities to other states for underground sequestration or for commercial purposes. The ethanol plants can qualify for lucrative tax credits for sequestering CO2 that would otherwise go into the atmosphere.

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.