Primghar, Iowa (RI) — A northwest Iowa farmer who has agreed to let the Summit Carbon pipeline run through his family’s land was part of a group lobbying legislators on Tuesday.
The group is urging the passage of the proposal that would give the company more leeway to rechart its pipeline route around landowners who won’t sign a voluntary easement.
Kelly Nieuwenhuis of Primghar is a former member of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and an investor in the Siouxland Energy ethanol plant.
Nieuwenhuis was president of Siouxland Energy’s board of directors when it signed the contract to hook up to Summit’s pipeline to export carbon from the plant in Sioux Center.
Nieuwenhuis points to Nebraska, where a natural gas pipeline was converted, and in September, it began shipping liquified carbon from a dozen ethanol plants to Wyoming. Eleven of those plants are in Nebraska. One is on Iowa’s western border.
Nieuwenhuis says Nebraska’s operation shows what could happen for every Iowa ethanol plant.
Nieuwenhuis spoke with reporters after posing for a group photo with dozens of like-minded people who were at the statehouse. Based on his experience with pipelines and other utility projects, Nieuwenhuis told reporters he had no qualms about signing a voluntary easement for Summit’s pipeline.
Nieuwenhuis farms with two brothers, and all their corn is sold to produce ethanol. He’s a current member of the National Corn Growers Association’s Corn Board, a group that supervises the organization’s activities and serves as public advocates for its goals.
KIWA Staff Photo
