Couser v. Story County

The federal district court for the Southern District of Iowa ruled that Iowa state law impliedly preempted certain provisions of Story County ordinances regulating hazardous liquid pipelines (such as pipelines for transporting carbon dioxide). The court also found that the federal Pipeline Safety Act preempted setback and emergency planning requirements in the ordinances.

The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint challenging a May 2023 ordinance, also on preemption grounds.

A lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the Southern District of Iowa challenged an ordinance passed by the Story County Board of Supervisors that establishes setback and other requirements for hazardous materials pipelines, including carbon dioxide pipelines. The plaintiffs were (1) the developer of a proposed interstate carbon dioxide pipeline to transport carbon dioxide captured from ethanol and fertilizer plants and deliver it to sequestration sites in North Dakota and (2) a farmer and part-owner of an ethanol production facility in Story County. The complaint alleged that the pipeline would allow the ethanol production facility to ship its ethanol to the California and Pacific Northwest markets and that without the pipeline and availability of carbon sequestration, the carbon intensity of the ethanol produced at the facility would be too high for those markets, which have low carbon fuel standards. The plaintiffs alleged that the federal Pipeline Safety Act and Iowa state law preempted the county ordinance.