Public Utilities Commissioner Kristie Fiegen, a Republican, delivers her reelection victory speech on Nov. 5, 2024, in Sioux Falls. (Photo by Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)
A company hoping to build a carbon dioxide pipeline wants a court to disqualify a South Dakota regulator from considering the project’s permit application, due to an alleged conflict of interest.
Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions filed a legal action Thursday in Hughes County court. The company wants an order forcing Public Utilities Commissioner Kristie Fiegen to recuse herself, or an order requiring her to appear and explain why the court shouldn’t impose such an order.
Summit said Fiegen has family connections to land that would be crossed by the pipeline. That land is in McCook County and is owned by a trust that includes Fiegen’s sister-in-law, Jean Fiegen-Ordal, as a trustee.
Summit said it has paid Fiegen-Ordal and her husband a total of $88,755 for an easement and for potential damages caused by the project. An easement is an agreement granting access to land.
Summit said in a press release that Fiegen’s family ties create “an unavoidable conflict of interest.”
The company is proposing a $9 billion, five-state pipeline to capture some of the carbon dioxide emitted by 57 ethanol plants and transport it for underground storage in North Dakota. The project has received permits in Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota, while Nebraska does not have a permitting process.
The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission rejected Summit’s first application in 2023. Fiegen recused herself from considering that application, due to the same sister-in-law’s ownership of land on the proposed pipeline route.
“A Public Utilities Commissioner may not participate in a proceeding in which the Commissioner has a conflict of interest,” Fiegen wrote in a letter at the time. “Given this familial relationship, I am regretfully disqualifying myself from participation in this proceeding.”
Since Summit reapplied last year, Fiegen has refused to recuse herself, saying in a letter to Summit, “I do not have a legal conflict. I am sitting on the docket.”
The letter did not put Summit at ease.
“Commissioner Fiegen’s letter refusing to disqualify herself,” Summit’s legal action says, “offers no explanation why the fact of her close family members’ ownership of land crossed by the proposed pipeline does not constitute a conflict of interest.”
Summit also said Fiegen’s involvement could open the door to appeals and litigation, potentially delaying the permitting process.
South Dakota law leaves conflicts of interests for public utilities commissioners undefined. It says “if a commissioner determines” that the commissioner has a conflict, the commissioner should file a recusal letter.
Fiegen has refused to comment publicly on the matter beyond her official letters. Public Utilities Commission spokesperson Leah Mohr has said “ex parte” rules bar Fiegen from discussing the matter. Those rules prohibit direct communication with commissioners about dockets they’re considering.