Iowa regulator recuses himself from Dakota Access Pipeline case

William Petroski | The Des Moines Register

Richard Lozier Jr., an Iowa Utilities Board member who has represented a pro-pipeline lobby group in court, said Wednesday he will recuse himself from regulatory matters involving the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.

Prior to joining the board on May 1, Lozier had been an attorney with the Belin McCormick law firm of Des Moines. One of his clients was the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now, known as the MAIN Coalition, which includes business, labor and farm interests that heavily promoted the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline project.

The Iowa Utilities Board has recently raised questions with the Dakota Access Pipeline about liability insurance issues. Even more significantly, a major court case involving the state's approval of the pipeline project and authorizing use of eminent domain for the pipeline are pending before the Iowa Supreme Court.

In May, Iowa Supreme Court granted a request by Lozier to withdraw as counsel for the MAIN Coalition, which has intervened in the court case.

In a statement posted Wednesday on the Iowa Utilities Board's website, Lozier said he will "not participate in any way in this matter" involving the Dakota Access Pipeline.

This means he will not discuss the matter with agency staff or other board members; participate in meetings, or review any files or documents related to the Dakota Access case before they are posted on the board's electronic filing system, Lozier said.

"By this statement, I am directing Utilities Board staff to ensure that I am screened from any information or communications relating to this docket," he added.

His recusal will remain in effect until the end of the docket and until all opportunities for further review have been exhausted and any required compliance filings have been finalized, Lozier said.

The Dakota Access Pipeline began transporting crude oil on June 1 from North Dakota's Bakken oil patch to a distribution hub at Patoka, Ill. The pipeline crosses through 18 Iowa counties and has a capacity to ship about 520,000 barrels of oil daily.

Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline, issued a statement in response to Lozier's recusal.

"We respect the process of the IUB and trust that their work will continue in a manner that follows all the applicable rules and regulations," Granado said.

Former Iowa legislator Ed Fallon of Des Moines, an opponent of the Dakota Access Pipeline, said Lozier made the right decision by recusing himself. But he believes former Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, never should have appointed Lozier to the state regulatory board because of Lozier's conflict of interests.

Now, the three-member Iowa Utilities Board has only two members who can vote on matters involving the Dakota Access Pipeline, said Fallon, who heads Bold Iowa, a political activist group.

"If they disagree, nothing gets done, and matters involving the pipeline will continue to come before the board," he remarked

Jonas Magram of Fairfield, a leader of the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition, said his reaction to Lozier's statement is that the entire three-member Iowa Utilities Board shouldn't have been making decisions about the pipeline project.

"The board's decisions all along have been purely political and not based in Iowa law," Magram said. He believes Lozier's appointment by Branstad had reinforced the perception of anti-pipeline activists that the former governor ignored the well-being of the people of Iowa.

In response to critics, Branstad has said he's no friend of oil interests in Texas. He strongly disputed allegations by opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline that his business-friendly appointments virtually assured approval of the Iowa section of the project.

"It is kind of laughable. There is probably no guy that Big Oil hates more than me," said Branstad, an advocate of renewable fuels like corn-based ethanol, during a news briefing in September 2016.

As a lawyer for more than 20 years with the Belin McCormick firm, Lozier had spent much of his time in a practice that involved regulated utilities, including telecommunications, wind energy development, electric transmission, water, and gas and oil pipelines, according to the Iowa Utilities Board.

He is a former president of the Polk County Bar Association and was a special agent with the FBI after graduating from the University of Iowa College of Law.