Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, hopes to give lawmakers the power to review eminent domain requests. (Photo by Katie Akin/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
A bill that would allow state legislators to pause carbon dioxide pipeline permit proceedings and give landowners the opportunity to challenge eminent domain requests earlier in those proceedings was advanced by an Iowa House subcommittee Wednesday.
“I’m very frustrated that we even have to be here,” said Rep. Steven Holt, a Denison Republican who led the charge last year to limit eminent domain for the pipeline projects. “We have a Constitution. We have Iowa Code. And it’s in my party’s platform that eminent domain should only be used in very narrow cases for public use.”
He introduced House Study Bill 608 — the legislation under consideration that morning — which would allow groups of at least 21 state representatives or 11 senators to halt the proceedings of utility permit requests that involve eminent domain. Those proceedings would be allowed to resume after legislators conduct their own inquiry and more three-fifths of the total membership of the House and Senate agree that eminent domain is appropriate.
“This bill, if it becomes law, will restore some of the checks and balances by returning to the elected officials of Iowa — the membership of the General Assembly — the final decision on the propriety of the pipeline and public use, which is a keystone, a touchstone, of the constitutional permission for eminent domain,” said Rep. Charley Thomson, R-Charles City. “I think it’s important that elected people — not appointed people — make this decision.”
The legislation comes at a time when the Iowa Utilities Board is in the final stage of considering a hazardous liquid pipeline permit request by Summit Carbon Solutions. The company’s permit process has been ongoing for more than two years, and the board — the three members of which were appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds — is poised to make its final decisions about whether to grant a permit, the conditions of it, and whether the company can use eminent domain to obtain land easements to construct it.
In response to the proposed legislation, Summit issued a statement that said: “75% of Iowa landowners along our proposed route have signed voluntary easement agreements, demonstrating widespread support by those who are directly impacted by this pipeline.”
A bill Holt championed last year that was approved by the House but not the Senate would have required Summit to obtain easements for 90% of its route before being eligible for eminent domain. Holt has described carbon dioxide pipelines as “economic development projects” that do not serve a public purpose that is sufficient to invoke eminent domain.
Summit seeks to build an expansive pipeline system that would cost more than $5 billion and would connect to ethanol plants in five states. It would transport captured carbon dioxide from them to North Dakota for underground storage.
The company recently announced it will nearly double its number of ethanol plant partners in Iowa from 13 to 25. It’s unclear how many miles of pipe that will add to the initial 690-mile system that is under consideration by the IUB.
“It is time for our Senate leadership … and Gov. Reynolds to stop playing politics and stand up for the landowners and bring forth the bill in the Iowa Senate,” said Kathy Stockdale, a Hardin County farmer and outspoken opponent of Summit’s project. “Get a backbone and do what is right: protect private property rights.”
Stockdale was one of five landowners who spoke Wednesday in favor of the bill.
Another provision of the bill would allow companies like Summit or the landowners who are subject to eminent domain requests to seek judicial review of those requests before the IUB decides them.
Pete McRoberts, of the ACLU of Iowa, said his organization supports that provision because it has the potential to reduce the amount of time in which landowners are left to wonder and worry about the outcomes of the requests.
“Their land isn’t truly theirs for the duration of an IUB eminent domain process as a result of this unknown encumbrance and the unknown resolution,” he said.
The three-member subcommittee unanimously recommended the bill for further consideration in the House.
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