No debate on eminent domain in Senate

Emotions high as Summit pipeline dispute unresolved as session winds down

By Tom Barton and Erin Murphy,

Gazette Des Moines Bureau

DES MOINES — Emotions ran high Friday in the Iowa Senate chamber as carbon capture pipeline opponents shouted at lawmakers — including chants of “Shame!” — as the senators concluded their work for the week without debating pipeline-related legislation as expected.

Activists opposed to the use of eminent domain for a proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline yelled from the gallery and were admonished by Iowa Senate President Amy Sinclair, who waved her gavel at them and warned they could be removed from the chamber.

It was the latest dustup over an issue that has created friction inside the Iowa Capitol and threatened lawmakers’ ability to pass a state budget and adjourn for the year after a session that began over 16 weeks ago.

The issue of property rights and eminent domain has percolated in the Legislature for the past four years, ever since three carbon pipeline projects were proposed to cross parts of the state. Since then, just one proposed project remains — from Summit Carbon Solutions, based in Iowa.

Summit Carbon Solutions has proposed a 2,500-mile CO2 pipeline through five states, including Iowa, to capture the greenhouse gas from ethanol plants and bury it in North Dakota. Defenders of the project say it will boost Iowa’s ethanol industry and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Iowa regulators approved a permit for the Iowa section, including granting Summit eminent domain powers. But regulators said construction can’t begin in Iowa until the Dakotas have approved it also.

North Dakota has. But Summit has faced challenges in South Dakota, which recently passed a law

banning the use of eminent domain for the project. And South Dakota regulators have twice rejected permits, though Summit says it will try again with a new route.

Summit, in June 2024, said 75 percent of Iowa landowners on the project’s proposed route had signed voluntary easements, and that the company was working to increase that number.

Last week, a dozen Iowa Republican senators signed a letter saying they would not vote to approve any budget bills until property rights legislation already approved by the House is called up for debate and a vote in the chamber.

The House passed two bills related to eminent domain, and one of them — House File 639 — was on the Senate’s debate calendar Friday.

But in an apparent sign that a final agreement on eminent domain policy remains elusive, the Senate adjourned Friday afternoon without debating the bill. Activists erupted when the Senate adjourned until Monday.

The House, which has passed eminent domain and pipeline bills in past years, passed two more this year.

House File 943 would simply prohibit the use of eminent domain for hazardous liquid pipelines on agricultural land.

HF 639 contains multiple provisions, including insurance requirements for pipeline projects, public meeting attendance requirements for state regulators, restricting when and how pipeline companies can sue landowners and prohibiting the renewal of a pipeline project’s permit after 25 years.

Sen. Mike Bousselot, RAnkeny, has advanced the latter bill in the Senate — but only after making significant alterations that the landowner activists say do not support their property rights.

Bousselot previously headed external relations for Summit Agricultural Group, which owns Summit Carbon Solutions.

Bousselot introduced another amendment Friday that was similar to his original amendment and added a provision that would ban the use of eminent domain for future hazardous liquid pipelines — but would carve out the current project proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions.

An amendment from Sen. Kevin Alons, R-Salix, would effectively turn the bill into HF 943 and ban eminent domain for hazardous liquid pipelines on farmland — regardless of when the project started.

‘WE WILL VOTE THEM OUT’

Dozens of pipeline supporters and opponents gathered Friday at the Iowa Capitol to lobby lawmakers on both sides of the issue.

Pipeline opponents briefly confronted Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, RGrimes, as he exited the Capitol on Friday evening.

“Property rights! Property rights!” the group said as Whitver walked by.

They also chanted “Bousselot must go!”

The group, speaking to reporters Friday evening, highlighted the personal sacrifices, legal costs and deaths of 14 landowners since their fight began four years ago. They vowed to continue their efforts and vote out uncooperative legislators in next year’s election.

Jess Mazour, an activist with the Sierra Club and a leader among landowners who have lobbied state lawmakers in recent years, said the Senate’s refusal to call up the bill was “disrespectful … to the people who have put everything on the line.”

“Everyone here has spent thousands of dollars on attorneys, on gas, sleepless nights, stress, health issues, you name it,” Mazour told reporters. “And then for them to tell us to come up to the Capitol, and then they don’t even hold the vote. That is so disrespectful. We will be back next year. We’ll be back next week, and next year is an election year. We will vote them out.”

James Norris, a Montgomery County landowner, accused “a few bought and paidfor politicians” of perpetrating “waste, fraud and abuse.”

“They’re wasting our time. They’re wasting your tax dollars,” Norris told reporters. “ … The landowners have been harassed, threatened, terrified. You know, it’s ridiculous what’s happened to these people and all because they want to stand up for one thing that’s constitutionally fundamental, and that is property rights. That’s a very simple, fundamental principal issue in our constitution that says that our property is ours and a forprofit, private company can’t come take it for their own profit and for their own use.”

‘WE NEED CHANGE’

Iowa farmers gathered earlier Friday for a news conference in the Iowa Capitol rotunda to highlight the importance of Summit’s proposed pipeline for Iowa corn growers and ethanol producers, and to lobby lawmakers not to pass CO2 pipeline restrictions.

Mark Wigans is a fourthgeneration farmer from Wright County who signed an easement agreement with Summit. Wigans also is president of the board of an ethanol plant in Goldfield that has partnered with Summit to capture, transport and deposit carbon dioxide generated at the plant to underground storage in North Dakota.

Wigans said he had a positive experience with Summit, and emphasized the potential “transformative impact of this project” on the ethanol industry and agriculture.

He said the project will open up markets and help Iowa’s struggling ethanol and agriculture industry — coming off the largest two-year drop in farm income and large layoffs throughout the agriculture sector from equipment makers like John Deere.

“Agriculture’s in terrible shape right now, and we need change,” Wigans said. “And this is going to give it to us.”

Supply outweighs demand for corn and soybean commodities, which has led to decreasing corn prices over the past two years. The trend is projected to continue for the current crop year. More than half the corn produced in Iowa is used to produce ethanol.

Ken Smith is chief executive officer of Innovative Ag Services, an ethanol plant in Steamboat Rock that represents more than 4,500 producers. Smith said the pipeline is critical to tap into new and emerging markets for low-carbon fuels, needed to grow corn demand and increase farm income.

“I was at the beginning of ethanol, and saw the beginning of what ethanol did,” Smith said. “It transformed row crop margins. It transformed ag land prices. It gave producers, you know, farmers a much different margin structure.”

Meanwhile, competitors in Brazil are expanding their capacity and investing in carbon capture and sequestration projects.

“The challenge is, if we don’t have the pipeline, that low-carbon fuel market is going to go somewhere else,” Smith said. “ … So it is so critically important for us in ag, especially in Iowa, where we have significant infrastructure built.”

He said the pipeline project “gives us the confidence to expand into that low-carbon fuel market that creates jobs for our union brothers.”

Kelly Nieuwenhuis, a farmer from O’Brien County, described his positive interactions with Summit’s land agents and surveyors, who accommodated his requests to lower the CO2 pipeline route to avoid tile lines.

He and Ryan Randolph, special pipeline representative with the International Union of Operating Engineers, emphasized the importance of carbon capture and sequestration projects for the future of Iowa farmers, the biofuels industry and rural America.

“CO2 transportation is more than just a pipeline. It’s a pathway to a viable future for American ethanol,” Randolph said.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com