Nieuwenhuis spoke to Brownfield at the 2026 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit, which can be heard below:
A farmer from northwestern Iowa says he’s hopeful state lawmakers can pass legislation that would allow the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline project to move forward.
Kelly Nieuwenhuis raises corn and soybeans in O’Brien County and is a past president of the Siouxland Energy Cooperative Board of Directors, a farmer-owned ethanol producer.
“Here we are sitting the third year in a row that corn farmers are selling their corn at a loss,” he said. “Our state is ranked dead last in economic growth, and we have legislators trying to kill a huge opportunity for economic growth. It makes no sense to me at all that anyone would be fighting a project like this.”
Two pipeline-related bills have been making their way through the Iowa Statehouse. The House recently passed legislation that would ban the use of eminent domain to secure land along proposed carbon pipeline routes. The Senate is considering a bill that would expand the proposed pipeline corridor, so Summit Carbon Solutions could go around unwilling landowners and find people who’d let the pipeline run through their property.
Nieuwenhuis tells Brownfield he believes the Summit pipeline would unlock the full potential of the state’s biofuels industry.
“We need to get this project done,” he said. “It will give the ethanol industry a huge boost in the state of Iowa. It will give corn farmers a huge boost. Everybody is going to benefit because most people that raise corn in Iowa also raise soybeans. It’s a rising tide raises all ships.”
He says the pipeline will run through his property.
“We signed just short of three miles worth of easements back in 2022. And we’re actually working on signing another easement right now for phase two.”
Lawmakers who support banning the use of eminent domain say protecting the property rights of landowners needs to be the state’s top priority. Groups like the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association say a compromise bill could reduce the need for eminent domain and allow developers to seek willing landowners outside a project’s proposed route.
