Summit Carbon Solutions is asking a South Dakota state court to order one of the state's public utilities commissioners to recuse herself from voting on a pending permit application, alleging a conflict of interest.
In a lawsuit filed in Hughes County, the company says Kristie Fiegen's sister-in-law and her husband have accepted $88,755 in exchange for an easement allowing the proposed pipeline to cross their land. Fiegen recused herself previously when the Summit project has come before the PUC, including in 2023 when the commission rejected Summit's route application, forcing the company to reapply.
But she has declined to do so this time. "I am an elected Public Utilities Commissioner and will carry out my duties as such," Fiegen told Summit attorney Jess Vilsack in a Jan. 3 letter. "I do not have a legal conflict. I am sitting on the docket."
Summit's plans for an eventual 2,500-mile liquefied carbon dioxide pipeline have received approvals from regulators in Iowa, North Dakota and Minnesota. The company's CEO, Lee Blank, said in August that Summit was less concerned about Nebraska, which lacks state regulations on carbon pipelines but where the company must obtain approval from counties.
In the lawsuit, Summit argued that "Commissioner Fiegen's failure to explain why she does not have a conflict and her refusal to disqualify herself" in the case "are inconsistent with 'the very appearance of complete fairness' that must be present in a quasi-judicial proceeding."
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Fiegen did not respond to Agri-Pulse's request for comment, but commission spokesperson Leah Mohr said "the commission does not comment on pending litigation and has nothing further to add."
In a Jan. 2 letter to Fiegen, Vilsack said that because Fiegen's "close family members" own land that would be crossed by Summit's pipeline, they would be affected by the PUC's decision and "a court almost certainly would find it inappropriate for you to participate in this docket."
Fiegen's family members would stand to gain financially from the pipeline and because of this, may want its permit approved, Vilsack said. But if "practically or philosophically opposed" to the pipeline crossing their land, they may just as well want to see the permit denied, he added.
"The fact that your sister-in-law and her husband have been paid for the easement rights they granted to Summit does not change this analysis: They may hope that the permit is denied because then they would have been paid for easement rights that will not be used," Vilsack said.
"When a judge and other public official participates in a proceeding in which the official had a conflict of interest and should have recused herself, the orders entered in that proceeding may be void," the lawsuit argues. It also says Summit has "no plain, speedy, and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law to remedy Commissioner Fiegen's refusal to recuse herself."
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