A bill to limit a carbon pipeline company’s ability to seize private property along the pipeline route is on the Iowa Senate’s debate list today.
Dozens of Iowans affected by the project have traveled to the Capitol to lobby legislators. Nathan Hohnstein of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, one of many pipeline backers in the Capitol today wearing blue shirts, said the carbon pipeline is the best option to help a financially struggling ag industry.
“Really the few things out there is year-round E15 and is stuff like sustainable aviation fuel which requires ethanol to lower their carbon intensity,” Hohnstein said. “No matter what your opinion is, no matter what anybody’s opinion is, that’s what the market regulations and the market dictates our members to do.”
Cathy Stevens is lobbying senators on behalf of her 101 year old grandfather who does not want the pipeline on his farm in Hardin County, near the town of Buckeye.
“I want to do what I can to fight this because it’s dangerous and it’s taking people’s land. It’s scary and I think these people are greedy. They’re taking what should be ours,” said Stevens, who recently joined pipeline opponents who’ve been lobbying at the Capitol for years.
Last year, the Iowa Utilities Commission granted the company eminent domain authority to seize property from people who have refused to sign contracts allowing the pipeline on their property. The decision, though, requires Summit to get permits from other states along the pipeline route before construction in Iowa may begin. A new South Dakota law forbids the use of eminent domain authority for the pipeline project in that state.
According to Hohnstein, a carbon capture pipeline will soon be operating in Nebraska and a sustainable aviation fuel plant is in the works in Nebraska, too.”Iowa has always been where ethanol makes the most sense,” Hohnstein said, “and we have the potential to lose out on that position as being the number one place that it makes to have ethanol and corn grown.”
Stevens, one of the many pipeline opponents wearing red shirts at the Capitol today, said her grandfather’s private property rights are at stake. “No eminent domain. No carbon pipeline. No tax credit for the pipeline,” she said. “Leave our land alone. Leave our families alone. Be good humans.”
The Senate convened at 9 a.m., but senators spent hours in private meetings to discuss how to proceed and began debate at 2:30 p.m. — on a different policy bill. A dozen Republican senators say they will boycott voting on state budget plans until the senate votes on a bill to restrict the use of eminent domain for the pipeline.