Today is the final day for the Iowa Utilities Board to deliberate on the permit request by Energy Transfer Partners for the Bakken Oil Pipeline. The Texas company wants to ship oil from North Dakota’s Bakken fields across North Dakota and South Dakota through Iowa to Illinois. Iowa Citizen’s for Community Improvement Organizer Nathan Malachowski says an independent environmental study needs to be done and eminent domain ruled out before the project is approved.
He says Energy Transfer Partners has failed to receive easements from many of the landowners effected.
Malachowski doesn’t think the Iowa Utilities Board members are qualified to make a decision on a permit for the pipeline.
He says besides the Iowa Utilities Board, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and State Department of Natural Resources have to sign off on the project. Malachowski doesn’t expect a decision by the Utilities Board until next month at the earliest.
