A few dozen landowners and other activists gathered outside the Iowa Capitol last week, using a semi truck emblazoned with “No Hazardous Carbon Pipelines” as a backdrop.
They echoed a refrain they’ve been hammering all session: No eminent domain for private gain.
At a time when the state is deeply divided politically, Iowans across demographics are largely united in their opposition to private companies using eminent domain for carbon-capture pipelines, according to recent polling.
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A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted earlier this month shows a supermajority — nearly 80 percent — of Iowans oppose allowing private corporations to use eminent domain to build the pipelines. The opposition crosses party lines.
“I, personally, am a Democrat, and we’re working with folks on the ground that are staunch Republicans,” Food & Water Watch Senior Iowa Organizer Emma Schmit said.
The group has led rallies at the statehouse calling on lawmakers to pass legislation banning eminent domain for the pipelines.
“Despite these very different political ideologies, we’ve come together because we can recognize there’s power in uniting, even if we don’t agree on all things,” Schmit said.
The issue has forged unique coalitions of interest groups, and made for some strange bedfellows, in some cases joining together those that often find themselves on the opposite side of agricultural and environmental issues in the state, while splintering others.
The Iowa Farm Bureau, for example, has joined environmental groups and property rights advocates in support of a proposal that would restrict carbon dioxide pipeline companies’ ability to use eminent domain to force easements from unwilling landowners, including farmers. Meanwhile, organized labor has joined industry groups, including the state’s renewable fuels association, corn growers and ethanol producers in support of the projects, which will shuttle CO2 from ethanol plants to reservoirs deep underground, taking advantage of federal tax credits.
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Three pipeline companies are seeking permits to build C02 pipelines in the state: Navigator CO2 Ventures, Summit Carbon Solutions and Wolf Carbon Solutions.
A Flourish map
Navigator and Summit, the largest projects, are seeking eminent domain authority from the Iowa Utilities Board. Wolf is proposing a smaller pipeline, covering just four Eastern Iowa counties, and has said it will not seek eminent domain authority to build the pipeline.
Summit Carbon Solutions last week said the company has obtained voluntary easements for nearly 70 percent of its route in the state, and said the support shows landowners agree that the projects are vital to Iowa’s ethanol industry.
The thorny issue has divided lawmakers from both parties in trying to balance competing interests of protecting landowners’ property rights and also protecting the future of Iowa’s ag economy.
The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, which represents Iowa’s ethanol and biodiesel plants, released studies this month that warned that Iowa would lose up to 75 percent of its ethanol plants, and the value of Iowa corn would drop, should the projects not go through.
More than half of Iowa's corn is used to produce ethanol each year.
“The world is demanding low-carbon fuels,” said Monte Shaw, the renewable energy organization's director. “Our ethanol producers don’t have the luxury to taking a political stand on this issue. It is their economic reality.”
Others raise concerns about safety after a CO2 pipeline exploded in Mississippi in 2020, sending 45 people to the hospital, and worry about damage to farm fields. They question whether storing CO2 underground is the best way to reduce the impacts of climate change.
Iowa House lawmakers last week passed a bill that would require carbon dioxide pipeline companies looking to build in Iowa to gain voluntary easements for 90 percent of the pipeline’s route before employing eminent domain.
The bill, House File 565, passed 73-20, with nine Republicans and 11 Democrats opposed.
The bill now goes to the Iowa Senate, where the measure faces an uphill climb.
Several lawmakers have publicly questioned whether the Senate will consider the bill and whether Gov. Kim Reynolds would sign it.
Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Reynolds said last week she had not spoken with House leaders about the bill. She has previously said she’s open to tweaks to the eminent domain process but emphasized the importance of the CO2 projects to the ethanol industry.
Republican leadership in the Senate thus far has signaled an unwillingness to tackle the issue.
A range of bills seeking to restrict the use eminent domain for the projects failed to clear a legislative deadline earlier this month.
Sen. Jeff Taylor, a Republican from Sioux Center, filed five bills that would ban eminent domain authority for the projects, restrict surveying practices for the pipelines and require pipelines requesting eminent domain to disclose investors. None of the bills received hearings.
Taylor said while “weakened by amendment” on the floor, he remains a supporter of the House bill.
The bill originally placed a moratorium on pipeline construction until a federal regulator released updated safety regulations for the CO2 projects. It also originally required pipelines to receive all permits from other states and comply with all local zoning permits before being granted a permit in Iowa.
The provisions were removed in an agreement among stakeholders, according to Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, the bill’s floor manager.
A number of rules governing land restoration and compensation standards remain in the bill as does a provision creating a committee to study the procedures around eminent domain in Iowa.
www.thegazette.com
They echoed a refrain they’ve been hammering all session: No eminent domain for private gain.
At a time when the state is deeply divided politically, Iowans across demographics are largely united in their opposition to private companies using eminent domain for carbon-capture pipelines, according to recent polling.
Advertisement
A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted earlier this month shows a supermajority — nearly 80 percent — of Iowans oppose allowing private corporations to use eminent domain to build the pipelines. The opposition crosses party lines.
“I, personally, am a Democrat, and we’re working with folks on the ground that are staunch Republicans,” Food & Water Watch Senior Iowa Organizer Emma Schmit said.
The group has led rallies at the statehouse calling on lawmakers to pass legislation banning eminent domain for the pipelines.
“Despite these very different political ideologies, we’ve come together because we can recognize there’s power in uniting, even if we don’t agree on all things,” Schmit said.
The issue has forged unique coalitions of interest groups, and made for some strange bedfellows, in some cases joining together those that often find themselves on the opposite side of agricultural and environmental issues in the state, while splintering others.
The Iowa Farm Bureau, for example, has joined environmental groups and property rights advocates in support of a proposal that would restrict carbon dioxide pipeline companies’ ability to use eminent domain to force easements from unwilling landowners, including farmers. Meanwhile, organized labor has joined industry groups, including the state’s renewable fuels association, corn growers and ethanol producers in support of the projects, which will shuttle CO2 from ethanol plants to reservoirs deep underground, taking advantage of federal tax credits.
On Iowa Politics
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Three pipeline companies are seeking permits to build C02 pipelines in the state: Navigator CO2 Ventures, Summit Carbon Solutions and Wolf Carbon Solutions.
A Flourish mapNavigator and Summit, the largest projects, are seeking eminent domain authority from the Iowa Utilities Board. Wolf is proposing a smaller pipeline, covering just four Eastern Iowa counties, and has said it will not seek eminent domain authority to build the pipeline.
Summit Carbon Solutions last week said the company has obtained voluntary easements for nearly 70 percent of its route in the state, and said the support shows landowners agree that the projects are vital to Iowa’s ethanol industry.
The thorny issue has divided lawmakers from both parties in trying to balance competing interests of protecting landowners’ property rights and also protecting the future of Iowa’s ag economy.
The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, which represents Iowa’s ethanol and biodiesel plants, released studies this month that warned that Iowa would lose up to 75 percent of its ethanol plants, and the value of Iowa corn would drop, should the projects not go through.
More than half of Iowa's corn is used to produce ethanol each year.
“The world is demanding low-carbon fuels,” said Monte Shaw, the renewable energy organization's director. “Our ethanol producers don’t have the luxury to taking a political stand on this issue. It is their economic reality.”
Others raise concerns about safety after a CO2 pipeline exploded in Mississippi in 2020, sending 45 people to the hospital, and worry about damage to farm fields. They question whether storing CO2 underground is the best way to reduce the impacts of climate change.
House acts, will Senate?
Iowa House lawmakers last week passed a bill that would require carbon dioxide pipeline companies looking to build in Iowa to gain voluntary easements for 90 percent of the pipeline’s route before employing eminent domain.
The bill, House File 565, passed 73-20, with nine Republicans and 11 Democrats opposed.
The bill now goes to the Iowa Senate, where the measure faces an uphill climb.
Several lawmakers have publicly questioned whether the Senate will consider the bill and whether Gov. Kim Reynolds would sign it.
Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Reynolds said last week she had not spoken with House leaders about the bill. She has previously said she’s open to tweaks to the eminent domain process but emphasized the importance of the CO2 projects to the ethanol industry.
Republican leadership in the Senate thus far has signaled an unwillingness to tackle the issue.
A range of bills seeking to restrict the use eminent domain for the projects failed to clear a legislative deadline earlier this month.
Sen. Jeff Taylor, a Republican from Sioux Center, filed five bills that would ban eminent domain authority for the projects, restrict surveying practices for the pipelines and require pipelines requesting eminent domain to disclose investors. None of the bills received hearings.
Taylor said while “weakened by amendment” on the floor, he remains a supporter of the House bill.
The bill originally placed a moratorium on pipeline construction until a federal regulator released updated safety regulations for the CO2 projects. It also originally required pipelines to receive all permits from other states and comply with all local zoning permits before being granted a permit in Iowa.
The provisions were removed in an agreement among stakeholders, according to Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, the bill’s floor manager.
A number of rules governing land restoration and compensation standards remain in the bill as does a provision creating a committee to study the procedures around eminent domain in Iowa.
Iowans largely opposed to eminent domain for CO2 pipelines. Why aren’t lawmakers?
Recent polling has shown nearly 80 percent of Iowans oppose the use of eminent domain for CO2 pipelines. But the issue has divided Iowa lawmakers from both parties who are trying to balance competing interests of protecting landowners’ property rights and also protecting the future of Iowa’s ag...
www.thegazette.com
