Summit Carbon changes leadership; community members weigh in

Summit Carbon Solutions recently met with Montgomery County officials to discuss changes to the organization.
At the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors meeting on Sept. 30, Joseph Cosgrove, a project manager with Summit, shared that since meeting with the supervisors last, there had been a leadership restructuring.
“We do have a new CEO and management team that transitioned this late summer. The CEO’s name is Joe Griffin. Joe has over 40 years of experience also operating and building complex project pipelines, compressor stations, and all sorts of things. His leadership reflects a forward-looking approach for Summit to advance what we want to do, which is emphasize the importance of open communication, honesty, landowner outreach, added value to everyone, making sure communities feel safe,” Cosgrove advised.
Cosgrove added that they will be holding a special event next month to get more feedback from those potentially affected by the project.
“We’re holding an open house on Nov. 10 here in Red Oak at the McAlpin Place. The entire executive team is going to be there. It’s open for everyone to come, people in the community, landowners, emergency responders, whoever wants to meet the new management team, ask them questions about what they’ve done in the past, their experience, what they’re planning on doing, everything like that,” commented Cosgrove.
Cosgrove said that Summit is now offering a new community benefits agreement, and said there are a number of parts to the it.
“For emergency response and preparedness, we want to emphasize that every county will get $50,000 plus $1,000 per mile of pipe in their county. So specifically for Montgomery County, you have about 42 miles of pipe. That would equal about $92,000 in a grant that’s given to the emergency management coordinator, and they can decide however they want to spend the money for equipment, trainings, however they see fit,” Cosgrove stated. “That will be given 180 days or earlier before operations start.”
Cosgrove said that Summit is also looking to emphasize open and honest communication with its public outreach.
“We’ve revamped our website to make sure that it’s easier to ask questions, read information that’s simplified, nothing too complex. We also want to make sure that we have our contact information for people that have questions. We want to make that an emphasis point that we’re here to answer questions and have open communication,” Cosgrove said.
Another new initiative being added, Cosgrove explained, is landowner commitments.
“We’re adding a new $500 survey payment for anyone that voluntarily gives us access to, environmental surveys, cultural surveys or any other surveys that are required for us to know exactly what is on the property, and how we can actually route the pipeline through their property,” Cosgrove explained. “Additionally, with that, we’ve heard people question payments and they want more options. There’s still the lump sum option where you get paid up front, but we’re adding a second option, which would be annual payments. If you want to take five annual payments so your taxes are less each year or 10 years or whatever, then we could also do that. We’re also adding a third option, which is interesting, which is where you turn the value of your easement into equity into the company. And then as the stakeholders of the company get paid out, the person would also get paid on financial distributions. They would get checks as the company succeeds. Additionally, we have added in a royalty payment per foot of pipeline on each landowner across the entire project. That is going to be driven on a scale based on state acquisition percentage. It keeps going up as acquisition does go up.”
As for county benefits, Cosgrove said there’s also a royalty for counties that includes scales, but that scale is just on acquisition based in Montgomery County specifically. If Montgomery County is at 80% acquisition, the county gets a certain amount per foot and a royalty and annual payment. He also spoke about county property taxes.
“I’m just giving the supervisors updated numbers. It’s $1.276 million in property taxes that someone would annually pay for the pipe being in the ground,” Cosgrove said.
According to Cosgrove, Summit did file an amendment on its project plans on Sept. 15 and the amendment was filed for several reasons.
“When we got the original Iowa Utilities Commission order, there were small adjustments that were required by the IUC. So we added those in. Another reason was from certain landowner feedback that we were not able to update on the existing plans except by amending it. Certain landowner feedback was adjusted on the plan before we filed the amendment,” Cosgrove advised. “An additional reason is there’s an updated industry recommendation in 2025 about railroad crossings and road crossings. We made a few of those changes across railroads and roads because of updated industry recommendations, so we come up to a certain standard. We updated some pipe sizes and added an additional plant in Denison. We planned to add them originally, but we didn’t get an agreement signed, and so we added them now. Those updated pipe sizes are due to additional volume from phase two plants and whatnot. We also wanted to preserve the option of getting to carbon stores to the north, but also potentially going to stores to the west so that we didn’t have a ‘pipeline to nowhere.’ We did know there has been a potential route out west. We wanted to make sure that our permit wasn’t forcing us north and we had an option.”
Cosgrove also said he believed the 45Q tax credit being used for the project would remain viable.
“When the 45Q first got started, it was under George W. Bush, his first term. Then when Obama took over in 2008, the tax credit was raised. When Trump took over, the tax credit was raised again. When Biden took over, it stayed, and then when Trump took over, it once again stayed. So through different political parties and different political ideals and decades of consistent and updated 45Q, we strongly believe that that tax credit will stay, not just because it’s for carbon capture pipelines only, but it helps the ag industry, which I know a lot of people believe in strongly, and it will benefit ethanol plants greatly. I don’t know if the value may change or not, but it will stay,” explained Cosgrove.
Cosgrove also commented about concerns that were raised over the amount of water the project would require.
“We have heard about water usage issues potentially. And we have, with our new executive coming in, been looking at alternative options of lessening our water footprint, potentially using air cooling for our compressors, and potentially using better recycling systems so that if we use water, we can just recycle and use the same water. We are looking at new avenues of lessening our water usage,” Cosgrove stated.
The supervisors also heard comments from members of the public regarding the pipeline. West Township resident Jan Norris stated that Summit is a business with its own priorities, and questioned changes to the IUC order.
“The route, the destination, and the use of the carbon would be stricken from the conditional permit but it is not addressing the significant concerns of landowners. This project is still trying to obtain eminent domain to seize what landowners will not sign over, use federal tax dollars to fund their private project, damage Iowa farmland while using our water and energy, and still place a hazardous pipeline dangerously near our homes. The financial incentives they are offering to landowners in the county will not even begin to compensate for the risk and potential future costs,” Norris said. “These actions are a little sugar on a bitter pill. Legal professionals recognize recent actions as bizarre and uncustomary. In the last few weeks, Summit has filed a motion to amend the permit, asked the district court to remand the case back to the IUC instead of hearing oral arguments on an appeal, and filed a motion to consolidate the 16 separate dockets into one project after objecting to the same just last year. The changes they are requesting are more significant and could indicate they know the project is in trouble.”
Villisca City Council Member Tripp Narup felt that the area had enough things to worry about without a pipeline.
“In Villisca, we’ve got a 100 year old water plant. We’ve got a $3 million bridge we’ve got to replace. We have no idea how we’re going to do it. We’ve got enough problems. As a council person, I don’t need a pipeline containing carbon that’s less than two miles from my town. With a slight north wind and a catastrophic failure of that pipeline, it could wipe out everybody I know in Villisca, including me,” commented Narup. “I’m not really thinking that’s a great idea. As I’ve said here before, there’s no good use for carbon other than putting bubbles in my Coca-Cola. There’s no market for it, the whole thing is a boondoggle and we need to see through that.”
Lori Johnson addressed the supervisors, reiterating her concerns over a leak harming her daughter, Sarah, as it would be located less than 300 feet from their residence.
“My prayer every single day is that this pipeline is unable to be built. If something happens, that little girl watching a movie 288 feet from that pipeline is not going to see the next day. I would rather move out of the county than put Sarah under a risk to her life because of this pipeline that has no value to any of us. I am not a landowner, but that’s how close we are to the pipeline. The landowner near us has already signed an easement. We have our hands tied unless we can convince people in our county to do something to stop this pipeline. I’m just trying to keep Sarah safe,” Johnson stated.
Karen Seipold, a resident farmer in Mills County, spoke about her concerns regarding Summit’s actions.
“Summit should not be able to yank around the IUC or you as county supervisors. Your number one priority is your citizens. You were put in this position to defend and protect and improve the county. Summit is not in the business to defend, protect, or improve anybody’s property. These folks are just doing a job. They’re working for a private company that’s using our tax dollars. These carbon pipelines have been breached multiple times, and there have been problems,” Seifold said. “There’s been leaves, destruction of property, injury to human life. If you willingly let this happen, you’re just going to let these people take over our county. They should not be allowed to yank around and change their policies in our IUC and our counties at their own whims. We’re not allowed to change any leases. I’ve discussed with Summit trying to change some of these ideas that they have in place like permanent leases. That’s ownership, that’s not a lease. They have control of the entire property, not just a tiny path. I urge you to please defend and protect the citizens that put you folks in office.”
Maggie McQuown in Garfield Township encouraged the supervisors to consider filing an objection so it at least has the option to be an intervener in this project.
“Montgomery County is one of the counties that’s most affected since we have a both north-south and east-west line running through. And it’s only serving two ethanol plants. It seems to me like it’s a huge investment on Summit’s part to reach and serve two ethanol plants. You listened to the citizens of Montgomery County about the wind ordinance and voted that down even though that was a company with a proven record that was planning to come in. It would have had great tax benefits for the county. This is an unproven company, an unproven project, and the tax benefits I don’t think match that,” McQuown explained. “Also, it involves eminent domain. Wind and solar do not involve eminent domain. I think we have a lot of landowners that may not be speaking up because it’s not crossing their land, and people who have signed feel that they can’t speak up. The people in the second phase of thje project will not be able to speak up.”
Kerry Hirth was the last to address the supervisors, saying she’s in Columbia, Mo., and her father, Rodney, is a Montgomery County landowner.
“Summit is here right now as a private corporation in the context of trying to offer counties a pittance compared to what they’re taking in by trying to pit citizens against each other. I urge everyone to remember that’s what’s going on right now. They’re preying on us,” stated Hirth.
No other discussion on the carbon pipeline took place at the meeting.