Iowa utility regulators to decide on Bakken pipeline in March

Board to decide eminent domain
on landowners who refuse

DES MOINES, Iowa – Iowa utilities regulators plan to make a decision on whether to allow a Texas company to bury 346 miles of crude oil pipe under Iowa farmland next month.

Iowa Utilities Board chairwoman Geri Huser says the three-member board intends to meet March 9 and consider an order pertaining to the permit application from Texas-based Dakota Access to build the so-called Bakken pipeline.

Huser said at a meeting Friday the board expects to vote March 9 or March 10.

The board also must decide whether to allow eminent domain permitting the company to take property from owners of nearly 300 parcels of land who refuse to sign easements.

 

Environmental and property rights groups oppose the project. Supporters say it’s a safer way to transport oil and it will create jobs.