IUC Filing – Comment on Notice of Conclusion of Exhibit H Filings – Dated 19 June 2025
Thank you Richard Brandau for this submission to the dockets for SCS Exhibit H – Landowners Parcels that HAVE NOT SIGNED!
Comment on Notice of Conclusion of Exhibit H Filings
Is this what the Commission expected?
On June 17th, 2025, the applicant filed a “Notice of Conclusion of Exhibit H Filings” on each subject docket1 in response to the Commission’s May 30th Order2 requiring an update of when Exhibit H filings would be complete.
On June 11th I filed a Comment3 listing counts of Exhibit Hs on each docket as of June 9th when the applicant filed a Response4 listing the counts of total parcels impacted by each lateral. At that time, I found a total of 1366 Exhibit Hs, or 78.42% of the 1742 impacted parcels. In the following week, the applicant filed an additional 131 Exhibit Hs, bringing the total to 1497 by my count, or 85.94% of impacted parcels. Twelve of the fifteen dockets have over 90% Exhibit H parcels.
How might these numbers inform Commission decisions on these dockets?
- A very reasonable conclusion might be that these counts are clear evidence that this entire project is unworthy of the Commission’s time and consideration.
- Or possibly, so many Exhibit Hs are needed because, contrary to the claim in the subject Notice, the applicant does not in fact “work with landowners in good faith to obtain voluntary easements” as they will “continue” to do.I submit, however, another possible interpretation of these numbers, that these Exhibit Hs are filed in malicious compliance with the Commission’s Order, and were cranked out, almost certainly with AI assistance, to conform only with the superficial letter of the Commission’s requirements.
If nothing else, the Commission should weigh the abuse that this “ready, file, aim” approach imposes on its staff. Each of the nearly 1500 Exhibit H’s filed by the applicant incurs substantial staff workload. See for example “Exhibit H Deficiency List – Webster Co.” filed5 June 12th reviewing only eleven Exhibit H filings made before April 17 on a single docket.
- As an Iowa taxpayer, I find the applicant’s exhibit filing practice offensive and abusive
- Further, it flagrantly mocks Governor Reynolds’ public statement6 that “…if eminent domainis used, it must be rare, fair, and a last resort”
- And it treats the Commission as the applicant’s lapdog.In the interest of its respect in the eyes of the public, the Commission would do well to suspend any consideration of the subject dockets until such time as the Exhibit H counts across all dockets have been reduced to some “rare, fair, and last resort” quantity, surely no larger than the percentage of Exhibit H parcels on Docket HLP-2021-0001 at a representative stage of the project’s Phase 1.Alternatively, Commission staff might be tasked with reviewing one Exhibit H per week until they are all completed, at which time it may be appropriate to schedule consideration of Phase 2 dockets. With the current Exhibit H list, that will be some time in 2054.Richard Brandau
Landowner, Floyd and Mitchell Counties
Images of filings above
