A company planning to construct a pipeline through thirty Iowa counties is fighting a court order requiring it to name the corporate and government landowners on whose lands the company intends to build, the Associated Press reports.
The Iowa Utilities Commission demanded Summit Carbon Solutions the information release, but it exempted the company from naming individual landowners who would be impacted by the $4.5 billion carbon dioxide pipeline. Much of the land is owned by family trusts and corporations that would be named in the filing.
Environmental advocates assert that having the names of landowners public provides support for landowners who are not interesting in having a pipeline run through their properties. It would allow those impacted to file collective lawsuits and to challenge the project in municipal and county hearings.
“The minute landowners know they’re not alone, that they don’t have to feel hopeless, that there are things they can do to protect their land, they don’t want to sign” pipeline easements, Sierra Club Iowa director Jess Mazour said. “And Summit doesn’t want that to happen.”
“The board should reconsider its order and hold that business entity names and addresses — the vast majority of which belong to small family farm operations — be held confidential,” Summit said in its appeal.