DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa regulators concluded four days of deliberation Thursday without reaching a decision on a permit for a Bakken oil pipeline.
A permit request is intended to complete the interstate pipeline from North Dakota’s oilfields, through South Dakota and Iowa, to a distribution terminal in Illinois.
The fate of the $3.8 billion, 1,168-mile underground pipeline hinges largely on the interpretation of thousands of pages of testimony, records and law by the three-member Iowa Utilities Board. Iowa is the lone holdout after boards in South Dakota and Illinois approved the project in December, and a North Dakota board approved in January.
“I don’t know how you hold it all in your mind,” said Dick Lamb, 73, one of 265 landowners who have refused to sell their land to pipeline developer Dakota Access. “Iowa being the last state, it’s just an enormous decision. It comes down to three people weighing this $3 billion class project.”
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Rather than rule on the permit and request to use, the board instead scheduled deliberations for Feb. 19 to discuss proposed terms and conditions and set aside March 9-10 for future deliberations. That signals the likelihood of a decision being more than a month away.
“That date has been picked based on our belief that we’ll be able to direct general counsel next Friday to proceed with some additional comments related to eminent domain and other constitutional issues we believe have been raised in this case,” Iowa Utilities Board chairwoman Geri Huser said.
The delay in the ruling is a setback for Dakota Access, the subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners. It already had signed contracts with suppliers and builders and stockpiled hundreds of miles worth of 30-inch diameter pipes at the midpoint the 346-mile Iowa segment that would run from the northwest to the southeast.
The Iowa Utilities Board has pushed back its timeline a few times. Last year, the board had indicated a decision was likely in December or January, and later moved the expected decision to February. Dakota Access had hoped to begin construction early this year and have the pipeline operational by the end of the year, and had filed a motion calling for Iowa Utilities Board to speed up its process.
“We remain focused on supporting the IUB board as they proceed through their process,” Vicki Granado, a Dakota Access spokeswoman, said by email Thursday.
Rod Boshart of The Gazette Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.
