Public utility regulators in Iowa will begin a hearing Tuesday on a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline for transporting emissions of the climate-warming greenhouse gas for storage underground that has been met by resistant landowners who fear the taking of their land and dangers of a pipeline rupture.

Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed $5.5 billion, 3,219-kilometer pipeline network would carry CO2 from 34 ethanol plants in five states to North Dakota for storage deep underground — a project involving carbon capture technology, which has attracted both interest and scrutiny in the U.S.

North Dakota regulators earlier this month denied a siting permit for Summit’s proposed route in the state, citing myriad issues they say Summit didn’t appropriately address, such as cultural resource impacts, geologic instability and landowner concerns. On Friday, Summit petitioned regulators to reconsider.

Other similar projects are proposed around the country, including ones by Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf Carbon Solutions, which would also have routes in Iowa.

Here is what to know about Summit’s project as more proceedings begin.

What is carbon capture?

Carbon capture entails the gathering and removal of planet-warming CO2 emissions from industrial plants to be pumped deep underground for permanent storage.

Supporters view the technology as a combatant of climate change. But opponents say carbon capture and storage isn’t proven at scale and could require huge investments at the expense of cheaper alternatives such as solar and wind power, all at a time when there is an urgent need to phase out all fossil fuels.

Carbon capture also is viewed by opponents as a way for fossil fuel companies to claim they are addressing climate change without actually having to significantly change their ways.

“I think there’s a recognition even in the fossil fuel industry that, whether you like it or not and agree or not, (climate change) is a reality you’re going to deal with from a regulatory standpoint, and you’d better get out in front of it or you’re going to get left behind,” said Derrick Braaten, a Bismarck-based attorney involved in issues related to Summit’s project.

New federal tax incentives have made carbon capture a lucrative enterprise. The technology has the support of the Biden administration, with billions of dollars approved by Congress for various carbon capture efforts.

High-profile supporters of Summit’s project include North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, a presidential candidate who has hailed the state’s underground CO2 storage ability as a “geologic jackpot,” and oil magnate Harold Hamm, whose company last year announced a $250 million commitment to Summit’s project.

“Carbon capture and storage is going to be more and more important every day as we go forward in America,” Hamm has said.

What is happening in the five states?

The Iowa Utilities Board begins its public evidentiary hearing Tuesday in Fort Dodge, a hearing “anticipated to last several weeks,” according to a news release. The board’s final decision on Summit’s permit request will come sometime after the hearing.

Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission has a hearing set for Aug. 31 in which the panel “will make decisions about the scope of environmental review” regarding Summit’s permit application for its pipeline in two counties, said Charley Bruce, an energy facilities planner with the commission.

A Summit attorney recently indicated to Minnesota that North Dakota regulators’ decision to deny a permit will not affect the company’s plans, including for other proposed routes in southern Minnesota.

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission is set to begin its evidentiary hearing for the project on Sept. 11 and expects to make a final decision by Nov. 15.

Nebraska has no state-level regulatory authority for CO2 pipelines. Summit is working with counties individually in Nebraska.

Counties don’t approve or deny a route, but can institute ordinances’ setbacks for land-use purposes that can dictate where a pipeline may go, and can enter into road haul agreements and road crossing permits, said Omaha-based attorney Brian Jorde. He represents more than 1,000 landowners opposed to CO2 pipeline projects in four states.

Summit hasn’t hit “an insurmountable legal obstacle” in North Dakota regulators’ denial “because they literally said, ‘Try again,’” Braaten said.

“If they get over themselves I think that they could do it and get approved, but I think they certainly shot themselves in the foot and they’re making it much harder in those other states because they’re going to come in with those commissioners there looking at them with a certain level of skepticism because you literally just got denied a permit in North Dakota,” he said.

Why are landowners opposed?

Landowners have raised concerns about the pipeline breaking, as well as eminent domain, or the taking of private land for the project, with compensation.

Eminent domain laws vary state by state, said Jorde, who represents hundreds of people Summit has sued in South Dakota to take their land for its pipeline.

“When you have the power of eminent domain like a hammer over a landowner’s head, you can intimidate them into doing things they wouldn’t otherwise do, which is sign easements, which Summit then turns around and says, ‘Look at all these “voluntary” easements we have. Look at all the “support” we have,’ which is completely false,” Jorde said.

Summit has submitted eminent domain requests to the Iowa board. A Summit spokesperson did not specifically address the company’s intentions related to eminent domain when asked by the AP.

“Our team remains incredibly encouraged that Iowa landowners have signed voluntary easement agreements accounting for nearly 75% of the proposed pipeline route,” spokesperson Sabrina Ahmed Zenor said in an email. “This overwhelming level of support is a clear reflection that they believe like we do that our project will ensure the long-term viability of the ethanol industry, strengthen the agricultural marketplace for farmers, and generate tens of millions of dollars in new revenue for local communities across the Midwest.”

What about underground storage?

Summit submitted a draft application for underground storage to a three-member state panel which Burgum chairs and includes the attorney general. The timeline for a hearing and decision by the panel is unclear.

Last year, Summit and Minnkota Power Cooperative agreed to “co-develop” CO2 storage facilities in central North Dakota. Their agreement gives Summit access to Minnkota’s storage site and sets a framework for jointly developing more CO2 storage nearby.

Minnkota is pursuing Project Tundra, a project to install carbon capture technology at a coal-fired power plant.

Braaten views Summit’s Minnkota partnership as a backup plan, to “piggyback on a sure thing,” he said.

A North Dakota landowners’ group is suing over the state’s process for allowing CO2 and gas storage on private land, and land survey laws.

Braaten said the lawsuit, which would affect the permitting of a Summit storage site in North Dakota, is not directed at Summit but is tied to longtime legal battles related to landowner rights.
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Valerie Laveus remembers when she first heard about an immigration program designed to allow people to come to the U.S. from four countries, including her native Haiti.

“I said, ‘Whoa! This seems like it would work well for bringing my nephew and my brother into the country,'” said the Florida teacher, who received a WhatsApp message in January and verified with an immigration lawyer that the program was real.

After years of trying to get a green card, her brother arrived with her nephew in early August, ready to start a new life. They are two of the roughly 181,000 people who have entered the U.S. under the humanitarian parole program since President Joe Biden launched the initiative.

But 21 Republican-leaning states threaten to end the program through a lawsuit to determine its legality, which is set to be heard in a Texas court beginning Thursday, with a decision coming later.

If the Biden administration loses, it would undercut a broader policy seeking to encourage migrants to use the administration’s preferred pathways into the U.S. or face stiff consequences. The administration has said it had to act in the absence of congressional action to overhaul the nation’s immigration system.

But much of the administration’s strategy is just one lawsuit away from collapse.

In the Texas trial, Republican states are expected to argue the Biden administration is basically usurping the power of Congress by allowing up to 360,000 people annually into the U.S. from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela under the humanitarian parole program. They say the program is an overreach of a parole power meant to be used on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.

The administration argues it has the power to use humanitarian parole in this way and credits the initiative with drastically reducing illegal border crossings by immigrants from those four countries. Program applicants must pass background checks and have a financial sponsor in the U.S. who vouches for them. If approved, they must fly into a U.S. airport instead of crossing at the southern border. They can then stay in the U.S. for two years and get a work permit.

Immigrant rights groups successfully petitioned to join the legal proceedings on behalf of Laveus and six other people who are sponsoring migrants. Esther Sung, an attorney for Justice Action Center, said the groups want to show the real people who have volunteered to be sponsors and how ending the program would affect them.

Blas Nuñez-Neto, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy with the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security, said in a recent conference call that the government is worried about the upcoming trial and will appeal if the administration loses.

The case is scheduled to be heard by Judge Drew Tipton in Victoria, Texas, a Donald Trump appointee who has ruled against the Biden administration on who to prioritize for deportation. The federal government pushed unsuccessfully to have the humanitarian parole case transferred from Tipton’s courtroom after suggesting the Republican states filed in Victoria because they were seeking a favorable judge.

The U.S. used its humanitarian parole powers to grant entry to tens of thousands of Ukrainians when Russia invaded, but the Republican states’ lawsuit does not challenge that decision.

Just about anyone can be a sponsor provided they fill out the paperwork. Many, like Laveus, are sponsoring relatives who have no other way to come to the U.S.

Laveus said her brother was approved for a green card a few years ago, but the immigration system’s quotas meant his arrival was estimated to be delayed another six years. In the meantime, she supported relatives from afar as they tried to survive in a country plagued by economic instability and largely controlled by gangs.

A former opposition political leader and human rights activist from Nicaragua, who was jailed in his homeland for his activities, was sponsored by his brother, a U.S. citizen living in El Paso, Texas. The man, who wanted his identity withheld to protect his family in Nicaragua, came to the U.S. in July and plans to work in construction.

“I wanted to take this opportunity to save my life,” he said in Spanish.

Members of churches, synagogues and mosques have joined to sponsor people they don’t know out of religious belief to help others.

Eric Sype is sponsoring a member of a family he stayed with when he lived and worked in Nicaragua as a college student in 2014. Sype is one of seven sponsors represented by immigrants rights groups in the legal challenge.

The person he is sponsoring plans to work in the U.S. for two years, then return to Nicaragua to be with his wife and two children. Sype said his friend will stay in Sype’s childhood home in Washington state, where a cousin has offered him a job at an orchard growing pears, cherries and apples.

Sype said he had no hesitation about sponsoring the man, whom he said is part of his “chosen family.” Sype has spent major holidays including Christmas with the family in Nicaragua and they talk or message weekly.

“I just can’t really imagine how this program is doing anything but benefiting folks, bringing people back together,” he said.

The Biden administration’s program appears to be one of the largest single uses of the humanitarian parole authority, but it is certainly not the only administration to use it.

The authority has been used repeatedly in large and small ways including providing entry to Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians in the late 1970s, Iraqi Kurds who helped the U.S. in the 1990s Gulf War and Cubans fleeing their country at various times, according to data from the Cato Institute.

The Biden administration started the program for Venezuelans in October 2022 and added Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in January.

Still, some who are generally supportive of the program have concerns. Critics say the need to have a financial sponsor essentially favors more affluent, well-connected migrants, while also fearing the program could be used to exploit migrants.

Muriel Sáenz, who helps immigrants through Nicaraguans Around the World, a Texas-based group, said it can be difficult to find sponsors for migrants who don’t already have family ties in the U.S. She encourages U.S. citizens to sponsor people they don’t know, which can be a harder sell.

“It is too much responsibility,” Sáenz said. “Legally you are adopting people for two years.”
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The language is stark: People in torched areas of Maui should not try to filter their own drinking water because there is no “way to make it safe,” Maui County posted on its Instagram account this week.

The message reached Anne Rillero and her husband, Arnie in Kula, who were eating yet another meal of frozen pizza. The couple feels incredibly lucky they and their home survived the fires that raced across Maui in recent days, wiping most of Lahaina off the map. The number of confirmed fatalities was raised on Friday to 114 people.

When a neighborhood organization alerted them not to drink their water and to air out the house even if they run the tap, the couple decided to eat off paper plates to avoid exposure. No washing dishes.

“It’s alarming that it may be in the water system for a while,” said Rillero, a retired conservation communication specialist who has lived on the island for 22 years.

Brita filters, devices connected to refrigerators or sinks and even robust, whole-home systems are unlikely to address the “extreme contamination” that can happen after a fire.

“They will remove some of it, but levels that will be acutely and immediately toxic will get through,” said Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University researcher and expert in water contamination after wildfires in urban areas.

The Maui fires damaged hundreds of drinking water pipes, resulting in a loss of pressure that can allow toxic chemicals along with metals and bacteria into water lines.

“You can pull in contaminated or dirty water from the outside, even when those lines are underground,” said David Cwiertny, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Iowa.

Hundreds of families could be in the same situation as the Rilleros in the Lahaina and Upper Kula areas, where people have been told to minimize any contact with county water including showers. In Lahaina alone, aerial imagery and damage assessment data generated by Vexcel Data show 460 buildings apparently undamaged by the fires. These are places where people are returning.

For now, the county has told people to use bottled water for all their needs or to fill jugs at tankers called water buffaloes, which have been brought in near the burns.

The state health department’s environmental health division told Maui County, which operates water delivery systems for most residents, to test for 23 chemicals. Those are just the ones for which the federal government has set limits for drinking water.

These warnings reflect new science and are intended to avoid the whiplash of conflicting information received by people impacted by the 2018 Camp Fire in California, who received messages from four different agencies.

New discoveries

Until a few years ago, wildfire was only known to contaminate drinking water at the source, such as when ash runs into a river or reservoir. California’s Tubbs Fire in 2017 and the Camp Fire “are the first known wildfires where widespread drinking water chemical contamination was discovered in the water distribution network,” according to a recent study published by several researchers including Whelton with the American Water Works Association.

After the Camp Fire destroyed Paradise, California, officials didn’t initially understand that smoke and chemicals had leached into the water through broken and melted water pipes. So they did what was standard after other fires: they told people to boil water before use.

Concerned about benzene contamination, the Paradise Irrigation District water utility then changed the order and told people to avoid the water, district Assistant District Manager Mickey Rich said.

Four days later, the California State Water Resources Control Board announced people could drink it as long as it didn’t smell. Two and a half weeks later, that agency announced there was benzene in the water.

Two months after that, a third agency, a county health department, told the public the water was unsafe and not to attempt to treat it on their own.

“There were a lot of unknowns,” Rich said. “When the scientists came six months into the recovery, they really answered a lot of questions that we wish we would have had at the beginning.”

Other chemicals

New contaminants also have been discovered recently. The chemicals that Hawaii’s state government told Maui County to test for are called volatile because they tend to become airborne, like gasoline that turns to vapor when it drips from the pump onto your car.

But Whelton’s new research on the Marshall Fire in Boulder County Colorado, shows a group of heavier compounds, called “semi-volatile,” can contaminate damaged water lines as well, even when benzene and other better-known chemicals are not there.

“We found SVOCs leaching from damaged water meters into drinking water,” Whelton said. “You can’t use VOCs to predict whether SVOCs are present.”

For people on Maui who get their water from private wells, now would be a good time to get it tested, said Steve Wilson, a groundwater hydrologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

If fire burns near a well, it can damage the cap, which keeps out debris. Plastic in the lining can even melt, releasing hazardous fumes into the well.

“In the case of a fire, it may look fine, but it’s hard to know,” Wilson said. “It might have affected something on the inside.”

Experts caution complete restoration of safe water will take a long time.

“I would implore anybody not to make a decision about lifting the water safety order until you have repeated validation that there is no contamination that poses a health risk,” Whelton said.
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The DC superhero film “Blue Beetle” led weekend ticket sales with a modest $25.4 million opening, according to studio estimates Sunday, dethroning “Barbie” from the top spot after a record-setting run that left movie theaters colored pink for a month.

The “Barbie” phenomenon is far from over. Greta Gerwig’s film, which earlier this week became the highest grossing Warner Bros. release ever domestically, nearly managed to stay No. 1 again with $21.5 million in its fifth weekend. It’s up to $567.3 million in North America and an eye-popping $1.28 billion globally.

The other half of “Barbenheimer” also continues to perform remarkably well for a movie so far into its run.

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” took in $10.6 million in its fifth week. With a $285.2 million domestic total, “Oppenheimer” now owns the distinction of being the biggest box-office hit never to land No. 1 at the weekend box office. The previous record-holder for that unlikely stat is 2016’s “Sing,” which grossed $270.3 million in the shadow of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Hidden Figures.”

Universal Pictures’ “Oppenheimer” has done even better overseas. Its global gross stands at an estimated $717.8 million through Sunday.

“Blue Beetle,” starring Xolo Maridueña, came in on the lower side of expectations and notched one of the lower debuts for a DC Comics movie. Though earlier planned as a streaming-only release, Warner Bros. elected to put “Blue Beetle,” the first DC movie to star a Latino superhero, into theaters in the late summer, a typically quiet period at the box office.

The production price tag of about $105 million was lower for “Blue Beetle” than the average superhero film. It’s one of the last releases produced under an earlier regime at DC Studios, which James Gunn and Peter Safran took the reins of last year.

The film, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, drew solid reviews – certainly better than the three previous DC releases this year (“The Flash,” “Black Adam” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods”). “Blue Beetle” (76% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) is the rare comic-book film to put a Hispanic cast front and center.

But it also faced some tough luck, and not just in the unexpected staying power of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” Southern California was bracing Sunday for Hurricane Hilary — potentially dampening ticket sales in the region. (Los Angeles was still its top market.) And like recent releases, “Blue Beetle,” which added $18 million internationally, didn’t have its cast available to promote the movie due to the ongoing actors strike.

Universal’s raunchy R-rated canine comedy “Strays” showed even less bite. The film, with a voice cast including Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx, landed in fifth place with $8.4 million. Comedies have generally struggled in theaters in recent years, but “Strays” had it particularly rough given that its starry cast was unavailable.

“Strays” was very narrowly bested by “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” The Paramount Pictures animated release earned $8.4 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $88.1 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Blue Beetle,” $25.4 million.

2. “Barbie,” $21.5 million.

3. “Oppenheimer,” $10.6 million.

4. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” $8.4 million.

5. “Strays,” $8.3 million.

6. “Meg 2: The Trench,” $6.7 million.

7. “Talk to Me,” $3.2 million.

8. “Haunted Mansion,” $3 million.

9. “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” $2.7 million.

10. “The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” $2.5 million.
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