Today's intersection: the Corps, the courts and property rights

In 2015 the US Department of Transportation swatted ExxonMobil with a million dollar penalty after the Environmental Protection Agency released an overview of cleanup efforts in the aftermath of the 2011 breach of the Silvertip pipeline that spilled 63,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River upstream of Billings near Laurel, Montana during the tenure of a Democratic president. 

Summit Carbon Solutions wants to dig a ditch for a $4.5 billion pipeline vulnerable to rupture and rip up over two thousand miles of unceded tribal lands where thousands of Indigenous Americans are buried then pump carbon dioxide to some sacrifice zone in occupied North Dakota ostensibly to be sequestered. But, Republicans are militantly divided over the utility of eminent domain for private enterprise for pipelines moving carbon dioxide and building solar and wind farms but are just fine with employing it for the entrepreneurial transport of oil and gas. 

Interior Secretary nominee, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum champions the CO2 pipeline project that aligns with President Joe Biden’s push for the Green New Deal. Yet, until the Trump Organization seizes power any pipeline required Army Corps of Engineers permits for water body crossings and those usually require environmental reviews that heavily involve the Interior Department. But right now federal agencies are refusing to meet with Trump nominees to begin transition until he signs the standard ethics and transparency pledges required by every incoming president.

The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday sided with Summit Carbon Solutions in an appeal filed by a Hardin County landowner who has fought the company from gaining access to his property to conduct a survey ahead of the construction of a carbon pipeline. The South Dakota Supreme Court recently ruled that surveys or examinations of property that included more than minimal soil disturbance were not allowed. [Iowa Supreme Court Sides With Summit]

So, it looks like Republican Earth haters who voted for a convicted felon and rapist for POTUS might see their property rights just go away. Yes, the EPA and US Fish and Wildlife Service are within the Executive Branch and as Commander in Chief the president could simply order the Corps and all to stand down without involving the courts dooming private property rights to utilities that aren't your friends.

Monday on NPR’s Morning Edition we have a long talk with Leonard Leo, a central figure in the conservative legal movement. Having helped to install a conservative Supreme Court majority, he’s thinking about Trump’s second term—and how to reshape other power centers in society.

— Steve Inskeep (@steveinskeep.bsky.social) November 24, 2024 at 3:50 PM