Iowa lawmakers, activists vow to revisit eminent domain use

One in an occasional series of articles about issues that are likely to return for debate in next year's session of the Iowa Legislature.

  Buy Photo

DES MOINES — For the third year in a row, Iowa House lawmakers passed a bill this year to restrict eminent domain use for carbon capture pipelines — but the legislation, proposing more court oversight of the projects, failed to advance in the Iowa Senate.

The bill was passed as activists opposing the controversial projects made frequent trips to the Capitol, pushing lawmakers to prevent the involuntary taking of land — with compensation — for construction. Those activists, and the bill’s supporters in the Legislature, say they expect to keep advocating to pass regulations next year.

Two companies — Summit Carbon Solutions and Wolf Carbon Solutions — have proposed projects that will capture CO2 emitted in ethanol production and send it underground for storage, benefiting from lucrative federal tax credits and low-carbon fuel markets.

A third company, Navigator CO2 Ventures, canceled its planned pipeline last year after facing regulatory hurdles.

A portion of landowners along the Summit pipeline’s route, opposed to the use of eminent domain, have pushed to shut down the project and pressured lawmakers to restrict or outright ban the projects.

Wolf Carbon Solutions, whose pipeline route would include Linn County, has said it does not plan to use eminent domain.

The Sierra Club environmental group has pushed to stop the projects, viewing them as an ineffective solution to climate change that prop up the use of fossil fuels.

Iowa has laws governing permits for carbon dioxide pipelines and allowing the use of eminent domain under certain circumstances. The Iowa Utilities Board has the final say in approving or denying projects. Opponents argue those laws should be changed because the pipelines are for-profit projects — not public utilities.

According to a March Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll, 78 percent of Iowans oppose the use of eminent domain to construct CO2 pipelines

Supporters of the pipelines, including ethanol and corn growers' groups, say the projects are necessary to respond to growing demand for low-carbon fuels and to allow Iowa ethanol to be used in sustainable aviation fuel.

House lawmakers passed a bill this year that would allow a landowner or a company involved in a carbon dioxide capture pipeline proceeding to petition a court to review whether eminent domain is warranted. The bill would also have allowed a person or group to challenge state regulators’ approval or denial of a pipeline permit without posting a bond.

That bill, House File 2664, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the House, 86-7. While it passed out of a subcommittee in the Senate, it was never taken up for consideration in the Ways and Means Committee. Republicans hold majorities in both chambers.

Rep. Charley Thomson, a Republican from Charles City who managed the bill, said the Senate’s inability to pass the bill was a “black mark” on the chamber. He said landowners who have held out from signing easements with Summit already have suffered harm as they’ve had to wait years to know if their land will be taken.

“We as a state need to step up and make this wrong, right," Thomson said. "I think it would benefit everybody, including the pipeline folks, to get a rapid determination of whether this is a legal proposal."

All but seven House Republicans voted for the proposal, and all Democrats supported it.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, a Republican from Grimes, has said Senate Republicans, who hold 34 of the chamber’s 50 seats, have varying opinions on the projects and whether eminent domain restrictions should be passed.

“There are people in our caucus all over the board,” he said in an interview before the session began. “Some very supportive of the pipeline, some that aren’t as supportive of the pipeline. So right now we’re kind of a split caucus.”

Ethanol industry leaders have said the pipelines are necessary for biofuels’ continued success, as more states and countries demand low-carbon fuels. Tax credits for the sequestration of CO2 have also been expanded under the last two presidential administrations.

Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, who ran the Senate subcommittee and supported the bill, said some senators support the projects because of that market potential.

“We have folks who are representing the position of renewable fuels and Iowa corn growers that this is absolutely important,” he said.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said in an appearance on "Iowa Press" on Iowa PBS last week that Democrats had been talking with voters in rural Iowa about eminent domain. She said the focus on CO2 pipelines has made it difficult to have a broader conversation about the right use of eminent domain.

“They are sick and tired of corporations coming in and using eminent domain to take their land and I think what we're seeing right now is sort of an uprising of a long brewing frustration with corporate interests taking over farmland in this state,” Konfrst said.

Activist: Elections could change tide

Kim Junker, a Butler County resident who owns land along the proposed Summit route, has been pushing lawmakers to restrict the projects for the last three years. She said she believes a bill would pass if it was ever taken up for a vote in the Senate.

This year’s elections could make a difference in how much support pipeline restrictions have, Junker said. Many of the activists opposing the pipelines are Republicans, and the issue has become a lightning rod in some GOP primary races.

Republican Doug Campbell, who is challenging Senate Commerce Committee Chair Waylon Brown in the Mason City area, has made the pipeline issue a central focus of his campaign.

“We're kind of hoping that there's going to be a little bit of a turnover and maybe that'll send a clear message to some of these legislators that we're not screwing around,” Junker said.

What’s next?

The Iowa Utilities Board is weighing Summit Carbon Solutions’ permit application. While there is no set date for a decision, the board could decide before the next legislative session begins.

Still, Republican supporters of the legislation say they plan to raise the issue again next year and are hoping they can make more progress. One proposal that initially was included in this year’s bill would have allowed about 20 percent of the members of either chamber to pause an eminent domain proceeding before regulators.

Thomson said that proposal may come up again, and he said there were other potential policies the House would consider.

“I refuse to accept that where such a supermajority of Iowans are against something, that their representative government is not even going to look at it, in the form of the Senate,” he said.