Domina Law Group Managing Lawyer Brian Jorde was recently profiled in a special feature article published by the Nebraska Examiner.
As reported by the Nebraska Examiner, Jorde has led the charge in helping more than 1,000 Midwest landowners in the fight against controversial carbon capture pipelines.
Most recently, a legal strategy developed by Jorde proved successful in helping landowners secure an historic victory against Navigator CO2 Ventures, which announced last month that it was cancelling its proposed Heartland Greenway project, a multi-billion-dollar carbon pipeline that would have spanned 1,300 miles across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Jorde’s work has also been responsible for victories against another multi-billion pipeline project from Summit Carbon Solutions, which recently saw its permit application rejected by the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission in September.
In the wake of these victories, which have drawn celebration from landowners and our firm’s doubling down of commitment to continue the fight against Summit’s anticipated reapplication, Jorde has been receiving much-deserved recognition of his own.
The Examiner article, for instance, details Jorde’s journey to becoming a lawyer – from his early life growing up in Nebraska to his joining Domina Law Group shortly after earning his law degree. It was during his early years with our firm that Jorde learned how to handle tough cases. As Jorde told the Examiner, the experience taught him about being adaptable and able to think on his feet – skills that would prove invaluable in his work handling high stakes pipeline litigation:
“It’s kind of like ‘The Karate Kid,’” he said, referencing the 1980s movie franchise. And like the dojo operated in the movies by a character named Mr. Miyagi, Jorde added, “Our practice is always on the side of the less capitalized, less wealthy, less connected than our opponents.”
The article goes on to discuss Jorde’s introduction to pipeline cases in 2008 when he and our firm began representing landowners being threatened with eminent domain – a right typically reserved for the government and public-use projects – by the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The Keystone XL pipeline was ultimately cancelled when President Biden revoked a key permit and, as Jorde noted:
“We outlasted three presidents. Every other state had fallen, and the work we did in Nebraska kept the fight alive until the end.”
Following his work in the Keystone XL litigation, Jorde soon found himself fighting for landowners across the Midwest who were facing similar problems posed by controversial carbon capture pipelines. Jorde now represents over 1,000 landowners spread out among multiple Midwest states and provides them with a voice to air their concerns, which range from concerns about impacts to farmland, ranches, and geologic stability to issues involving the private companies’ attempts to use eminent land to gain access to their properties.
The Nebraska Examiner article provides great insight about Jorde and his tireless efforts to help landowners protect their rights against immensely powerful and well-resourced corporations – and our team at Domina Law knows that it is well-deserved recognition of his abilities as a lawyer and advocate.
You can read the Nebraska Examiner’s full article on Brian Jorde and his carbon pipeline work here.