Keith Puntenney, Laverne I. Johnson, Richard R. Lamb, Marian D. Johnson, Northwest Iowa Landowners Association, Iowa Farmland Owners Association, Inc., and the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter v. Iowa Utilities Board, Office of Consumer Advocate and The Main Coalition, and Dakota Access, LLC

Summary

The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the denial of judicial review of the Iowa Utilities Board’s authorization for Dakota Access, LLC, to construct a crude-oil pipeline and use eminent domain to obtain necessary easements. The court held that substantial evidence supported the Board’s determination that the pipeline promoted the public convenience and necessity, and that the statutory and constitutional public-use requirements were satisfied. The court also held that the Sierra Club had standing and that the appeal was not moot despite completion of the pipeline.

Holdings

1. The Sierra Club had standing because its members averred that they used and enjoyed affected environmental areas and that the pipeline threatened to lessen those aesthetic and recreational interests; property ownership directly on the pipeline route was not required.
2. The appeal was not moot even though the pipeline had been completed and was operating, because the IUB retained authority to impose terms, conditions, or restrictions that could provide effective relief short of dismantling the entire pipeline.
3. The IUB reasonably interpreted and applied the public-convenience-and-necessity requirement as a flexible balancing test weighing public benefits against public and private costs, and its determination was supported by substantial evidence.
4. Iowa Code sections 6A.21 and 6A.22 did not bar Dakota Access from exercising eminent domain because Dakota Access was a company under the jurisdiction of the IUB and a common carrier.
5. Eminent domain for the Dakota Access pipeline constituted a public use under article I, section 18 of the Iowa Constitution and the Fifth Amendment, even though the pipeline crossed Iowa without taking on or delivering oil within the state.
6. The IUB did not act arbitrarily or unlawfully in refusing to reroute the pipeline around Puntenney's property or in requiring the pipeline to be bored beneath Johnson's drainage system.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Sierra Club had standing to seek judicial review of the IUB's pipeline decision.
2. Whether completion and operation of the pipeline rendered the appeal moot.
3. Whether the IUB's balancing of public benefits and costs reasonably supported its finding that the pipeline promoted the public convenience and necessity under Iowa Code section 479B.9.
4. Whether Iowa Code sections 6A.21 and 6A.22 barred Dakota Access from condemning agricultural land without landowner consent.
5. Whether Dakota Access qualified as a company under the jurisdiction of the IUB and as a common carrier.
6. Whether eminent domain for the interstate pipeline constituted a public use under article I, section 18 of the Iowa Constitution and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
7. Whether the IUB acted unlawfully or arbitrarily in rejecting individual landowner requests to reroute the pipeline or address drainage-tile and wind-turbine concerns.

Disposition

affirmed