Author

Jared Strong
Jared Strong is the senior reporter for the Iowa Capital Dispatch. He has written about Iowans and the important issues that affect them for more than 15 years, previously for the Carroll Times Herald and the Des Moines Register. His investigative work exposing police misconduct has notched several state and national awards. He is a longtime trustee of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, which fights for open records and open government. He is a lifelong Iowan and has lived mostly in rural western parts of the state.
After SD rejection, Navigator asks Iowa regulators to pause pipeline permit request
By: Jared Strong - September 29, 2023
Navigator CO2 wants to suspend its pipeline permit process in Iowa until utility regulators in Illinois approve the project, according to a motion it filed in Iowa. The company wants to build a carbon dioxide pipeline system that would transport the captured greenhouse gas from ethanol plants and other facilities to Illinois, where it will […]
Carbon pipeline company has not ‘taken any state off the map’ after SD permit rejection
By: Joshua Haiar and Jared Strong - September 15, 2023
A recently failed permit application is not necessarily the end of a carbon capture pipeline company’s goal of building in South Dakota and four other states, according to a company spokesperson. “We have not taken any state off the map,” Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, of Navigator CO2, told South Dakota Searchlight in an interview Friday. The South […]
South Dakota’s Navigator pipeline decision might jeopardize Summit proposal
By: Jared Strong - September 7, 2023
Utility regulators in South Dakota declined this week to overrule county ordinances that restrict carbon dioxide pipelines when they denied Navigator CO2 a permit for its project. Summit Carbon Solutions has also asked that state’s Public Utilities Commission to give it a permit despite local restrictions, including in Minnehaha County, where the restrictions were upheld. […]
Summit adjusts proposed pipeline route in North Dakota
By: Jared Strong - August 21, 2023
Summit Carbon Solutions would build its proposed carbon dioxide pipeline farther away from North Dakota’s capital city, according to a new route that is meant to assuage commissioners who denied the company a permit this month. The state is an important part of Summit’s project, which would transport captured carbon dioxide from more than 30 […]
North Dakota denies Summit Carbon a pipeline permit
By: Jared Strong - August 4, 2023
Summit Carbon Solutions has failed to minimize the negative impacts of its proposed carbon dioxide pipeline in North Dakota and will not be permitted to construct it, state regulators decided on Friday. The state is a key part of the company’s $5 billion project, which would span more than 2,000 miles in five states, including […]
Iowa judge acquits South Dakota pipeline surveyor of trespassing charge
By: Jared Strong - July 6, 2023
An Iowa district court judge dismissed a trespassing charge against a carbon dioxide pipeline company’s land surveyor because there was no evidence he was told to avoid the property, according to court records. Stephen James Larsen, 29, of Arlington, South Dakota, was part of a survey group that went onto private property in Dickinson County, […]
Experts: Predicting CO2 pipeline rupture threats can be extremely costly
By: Jared Strong - June 1, 2023
DES MOINES, Iowa — A carbon dioxide plume modeling software did not anticipate the threat a pipeline break in 2020 posed to a small Mississippi town, largely because it did not take land topography into account. That break near Satartia, Mississippi, resulted in emergency responders scrambling to save people from a “green gas” and “rotten […]
Feds: Carbon dioxide pipelines are necessary to reduce emissions
By: Jared Strong - May 31, 2023
Up to 60,000 miles of carbon dioxide pipeline must be installed in the United States to help eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to a federal engineer. Part of that mileage might come from proposed pipelines that would cross Iowa and transport captured carbon dioxide from ethanol plants for underground sequestration or other […]
Environmental groups seek Biden moratorium on carbon dioxide pipelines
By: Jared Strong - May 25, 2023
President Joe Biden should prevent the construction of new carbon dioxide pipelines until changes to federal rules are adopted to increase their safety, opponents of the projects said Thursday. The call for an executive order to stall the projects comes as federal regulators consider changes to pipeline requirements and are set to hold a two-day […]
Landowner battles against pipelines vary by state
By: Jared Strong - May 13, 2023
Sprawling Midwestern pipelines that would carry captured carbon dioxide from ethanol plants and other facilities would change little when they cross state lines. The proposals would be constructed the same way in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and the Dakotas — with carbon steel pipe ranging from 4 to 24 inches in diameter with operating pressures […]
Judge says Iowa’s pipeline land survey law is constitutional
By: Jared Strong - May 12, 2023
An Iowa district court judge decided this week that a state law is constitutional that allows land surveys for carbon dioxide pipelines regardless of landowners’ consent, according to court records. The ruling — in a Hardin County case — is at odds with another judge’s ruling last week in Clay County, which said the law does not […]
Iowa court denies South Dakota man’s appeal in pipeline trespassing case
By: Jared Strong - April 21, 2023
The Iowa Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a carbon dioxide pipeline surveyor who was charged last year with trespassing in northwest Iowa and wanted the case dismissed before trial, according to court records. Stephen James Larsen, 28, of Arlington, South Dakota, was cited in August for going onto a Dickinson County property to […]