By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Utilities Board hearing for the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline has entered its third week.

Summit’s chief operating officer was first to take the witness stand today. James Powell is in charge of design, construction and operation of the pipeline. He said Summit’s project is about ensuring ethanol plants that connect to the pipeline make a profit.

“I think the benefits are to more than just Summit Carbon,” Powell said. “The benefits are to the ethanol plants, their workers and the farmers who supply corn to those ethanol plants.”

Brian Jordy, a lawyer for pipeline opponents, suggested the Utilities Board is being asked to pick pipeline investors as winners and property owners who don’t want the pipeline on their land will be the losers. Powell responded. “We’ve reached agreement with 73% of the landowners in this state, so we fully expect that we can reach agreement with the remaining landowners that’ll e affected,” Powell said.

Jordy said: “There’s no such thing as when the threat of eminent domain is hanging over landowners head.”

Powell replied: “Mr. Jordy, we’ve been negotiating with Iowa landowners for almost two years in this state and we have not had and still do not have the right of eminent domain.”

Powell said the company has rerouted its proposed pipeline 1500 times in Iowa. “Many of those were due to survey results, avoiding cultural features, environmental/biological features,” Powell said, “or landowner preference.”

Under questioning, Powell said he does not know the full slate of investors in Summit Carbon Solutions. However, Powell did tell attorney Brian Jordy the pipeline company is a spin off of Summit Ag Group, which is owned by Bruce Rastetter, an entrepreneur who’s made investments in the pork and biofuels industries.

“Why is it that Mr. Rastetter isn’t here to testify and defend the supposed value of this project?” Jordy asked.

Powell responded: “I think he entrusts his management team to defend the value of the project.”

Jordy continued: “And so, by that answer, do you agree that you esentially work for him when you reference: ‘His management team?’”

Powell replied: “No, I work for the board of directors, of which he is one member of.”

Summit Carbon Solutions is seeking eminent domain authority so unwilling landowners would be forced to grant the company permanent access to more than 900 parcels, or sections of property. Landowners opposed to the project testified during the first two weeks of the Utilities Board hearing, which is being held in Fort Dodge.

By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

State Climatologist Justin Glisan says a tornado outbreak is unlikely this month because Iowa is in a severe weather drought.

“When you don’t have thunderstorms to drive rainfall, you don’t get a lot of severe weather and you get into pervasive drought,” Glisan says.

So far this year in Iowa there have been 63 confirmed tornadoes. “Four percent of the tornadoes that we see across the state of Iowa occur in September, so not a particularly high number,” Glisan says, “but recently back in 2018 we had 12 September tornaodes and then in 2019 we had nine and that’s an interesting thing to look at because 2018 was the second wettest year on record, 2019 the 10th wettest on record, so we had a very active storm track through fall.”

The mid-Atlantic and southern states are getting a lot of rain right now during hurricane season, but Glisan says those storm systems rarely bring beneficial rainfall to Iowa. “We did have a June tropical system back in 2019 that made it into eastern Iowa,” Glisan says, “and that had been the first time since 1900 that we had seen a tropical system actually make it into Iowa.”

Glisan says a “moisture gate” from the Gulf of Mexico is blocked off right now, preventing the development of thunderstorms. Glisan warns, though, that tornadoes happen in every month of the year. “Think back to the December 15th outbreak in 2021 — 63 tornadoes across the state, the highest tornado count for any month in the state of Iowa,” Glisan says, “but also the highest tornado outbreak for a December outbreak in United States history.”

DES MOINES – Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is encouraging all Iowa high schools to participate in a statewide effort to register students to vote. Each school that registers at least 90 percent of their eligible students by March 22 will receive the 2023-2024 Carrie Chapman Catt Award, named after the Iowan who was a national leader in the women’s suffrage movement. Schools that register at least 50 percent and 70 percent of eligible students will also receive statewide recognition.

“It’s important for every eligible Iowan to vote, and young people are a major part of that,” said Secretary Pate. “Young people in Iowa are becoming more and more engaged in Iowa’s election processes. Registering students to vote is a big step in keeping up that momentum. Since the creation of the Catt Award, thousands of students have registered to vote, and we look forward to seeing voter turnout in upcoming elections reflect that.”

State law allows 17-year-olds to register to vote in Iowa. They can also participate in primary elections if they will be 18 years old in time for the general election.

Schools interested in being considered for the Carrie Chapman Catt Award and receiving information and resources about how to conduct a voter registration should visit sos.iowa.gov/youth/carriechapmancattaward.html. More details about the Carrie Chapman Catt Award and a list of last year’s winners are also available on the website.

Secretary Pate will conduct a formal trophy presentation at each school that registers at least 90 percent of eligible students.

The Catt Award was launched in 2019. Over the 2022-2023 school year, 19 schools were recognized for registering 90 percent of eligible students to vote.