Officials in a northern Iowa county are evaluating last week’s federal court ruling that permanently blocks Shelby and Story County ordinances that would have restricted where hazardous liquid pipelines may be located.
Kossuth County Supervisor Carter Nath of Lu Verne represents the area where Summit’s proposed carbon capture pipeline would pass and he says the ruling wasn’t a surprises was already a preliminary ruling on that. It was just making it a permanent ruling,” Nath says. “In my mind, it really didn’t change things. Maybe in the court of law, it’s just more finalized.”
A federal judge ruled the ordinances in Story and Shelby County could have made it impossible for Summit Carbon Solutions to build a carbon pipeline even if the Iowa Utilities Board grants the company a permit. Kossuth County Supervisors have drafted an ordinance that’s similar to Shelby County’s. It has not gone into effect, but has made it most of the way through the approval process. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss the ordinance tomorrow morning at its meeting in Algona.
(By Brian Wilson, KLGA, Algona)