Several opponents of the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions carbon sequestration pipeline have received letters on behalf of the company threatening lawsuits over perceived defamation, an environmental group representative said.
Jess Mazour, a conservation program associate with the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, said in a press release Thursday she received a letter from the company, “threatening to sue for compensatory or punitive damages if statements were not retracted.”
The letter, dated Nov. 12, 2024, directed Mazour to cease and desist from “interfering” with and making any “further false and defamatory statements” about the pipeline project.
The letter was sent from Jason Torchinsky with Holtzman Vogel law firm in Washington, D.C. and Todd Lantz with Weinhardt Law Firm in Des Moines.
The letter points to a quote from Mazour in a nwestiowa.com article from August 2023, where she said Summit Carbon Solutions was in “in collusion” with the Iowa Utilities Board (now Iowa Utilities Commission) to “take away democracy and people’s rights.”
The letter called the statement “false and defamatory” and said it, combined with Mazour’s “explicitly stated goal” to stop the pipelines, exposes her to “significant legal liability.”
The letter then stated Summit Carbon Solutions and investors have $1 billion invested into the project to date and Mazour should “issue an immediate” public retraction of her statement to avoid legal action.
Mazour said in a call with Iowa Capital Dispatch that she and Sierra Club counsel believe Summit has no “grounds to stand on” with the threatened lawsuit.
“This is clearly an intimidation attempt just to keep us quiet and hamper our free speech rights,” Mazour said.
Representatives from Summit Carbon Solutions did not respond to requests for comment or to verify the letters were sent on the company’s behalf.
According to the press release from Mazour and the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, at least six people have received similar letters.
Trent Loos, who hosts several rural broadcasts, has also publicly stated he received a similar letter about comments he has made. During a Dec. 2 broadcast on X, Loos admitted he was wrong about one of the statements quoted in the letter, but he doubled down on two other statements the letter called false and defamatory.
“In no way, shape, or form did I make a mistake,” Loos said of the two other alleged defamatory statements against him.
Mazour said the intention of the letters is “intimidation” and urged Iowans to “stand strong when companies take this kind of action.”
“It’s just really important that we don’t let this intimidation stop us from doing what’s right,” Mazour said. “It is our responsibility as citizens of the state to protect our land, and our water, and our rights, and our democracy, and no one should stand in the way of that.”
