Gazette Daily News Briefing, May 22
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Monday, May 22.
Monday will set the theme for the week as sunny, dry, and a bit warmer. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 82 degrees. On Monday night it will be mostly clear, with a low of around 57 degrees.
A 10-year-old child was killed in a single-vehicle rollover crash along Interstate 380 early Saturday.
According to a news release, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office identified the person killed in the crash as 10-year-old Elijah Beeman, of Waterloo. Two other occupants of the vehicle suffered non-life-threatening injuries. They are the driver, Roberta Hare, 30, of Waterloo, as well as a 5-year-old girl.
Police say emergency responders were called to the crash, just south of Cedar Ridge Road near Center Point, at 3:07 a.m. Saturday. They found a white Chevy Venture van on its top in the west ditch of the southbound lanes.
The crash remains under investigation.
Iowa landowners along the route of Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed carbon dioxide pipeline across Iowa may be offered third-party mediators during easement negotiations, the Iowa Utilities Board announced Friday.
In an order, the board said the proposal is intended to ease the negotiation process and make for smoother, more understandable proceedings for landowners.
But opponents of the pipelines said they see it as an attempt to encourage landowners who have been resistant to Summit’s negotiations to come to an agreement.
Summit, one of three companies seeking to build a CO2 pipeline in the state, has already signed agreements for close to 70 percent of landowners along its 680-mile proposed route, according to a company spokesperson.
The pipeline would sequester carbon collected from ethanol plants, taking advantage of federal tax incentives and making Iowa’s ethanol eligible to be sold in low-carbon markets, such as the lucrative market of California.
Under the proposal, if the landowner does not participate in the voluntary mediation, the board would begin seeking testimony related to eminent domain, which, if granted, would allow the state to take the land for the project and pay the landowner a set amount.
Brian Jorde, a lawyer representing a group of landowners before the Iowa Utilities Board and in numerous lawsuits, said the proposal is akin to “trying to do Summit’s work for them.”
“If they're going to start getting involved in helping billion-dollar companies have an easier time of wrestling property rights away from landowners who don't want to be subjected to this, then we're gonna have to have a very different conversation,” he said.
