The Iowa Utilities Board is holding afternoon meetings this week on whether to grant a permit that allows the construction of a crude oil pipeline through Iowa. The proposed 1,134-mile Dakota Access pipeline would begin in North Dakota, travel through South Dakota and Iowa, and terminate in south-central Illinois.
Dakota Access’s parent company, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, needs permission from the Iowa Utilities Board so it can use eminent domain to gain access to land along the pipeline’s proposed route.
Opponents of the pipeline say IUB has no place permitting a pipeline since crude oil is neither produced nor refined in the state, and therefore a pipeline provides no benefit or convenience to the Iowa public.
IUB will consider out-of-state benefits in the regulation of electric transmission lines, since electrical grids serve regions and lines may be constructed to aid congestion outside Iowa. Dakota Access says for this reason the board can also consider the out-of-state benefits of crude oil.
"This is a really, kind of a unique case," says Cecil Wright, the board's chief operations officer. "I don't think there is any clear legal precedent that leans one way or the other."
In relation to this over-arching argument, the board is considering the pipeline’s potential environmental, economic and legal impacts.
