Eminent domain restrictions on pipeline projects pass Iowa House

DES MOINES — Iowa landowners could not be forced to accept a carbon dioxide pipeline on their land against their wishes under legislation approved Wednesday by the Iowa House of Representatives.

It is the first bill passed out of a full chamber in this young legislative session, which started last week, signaling the issue’s importance to Iowa House Republicans.

Modeled after similar legislation passed last year in South Dakota, House File 2104 would prohibit the use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipeline projects.

“The precedent we will set if we allow private property to be seized for a private economic development project will reverberate for decades to come and could render property rights safeguards in our constitution meaningless for our children and our children’s children,” Rep. Steve Holt, a Republican from Denison who managed the bill, said during floor debate Wednesday.

“The taking of land for a private economic development project is exactly the kind of abuse our founders sought to prevent when they penned the words ‘public use’ to severely restrict the wielding of eminent domain, this raw government power that steps in and intrudes on the freedom and liberty of those who dare to say ‘no’ to the powers that be,” Holt added.

The issue has percolated in the Iowa Legislature for the past five years, ever since the proposals of three carbon capture pipeline projects crossing the state. Since then, just one proposed project remains — from Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions.

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 pipeline project say it will boost Iowa’s ethanol industry and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Regulators on the Iowa Utilities Commission in 2024 approved a permit for the Iowa section, including granting Summit eminent domain powers.

In the years since the pipeline was proposed, state legislators — primarily Republicans in the Iowa House — have filed and debated multiple pieces of legislation regarding property rights, eminent domain and more. The Iowa Legislature passed sweeping legislation during the 2025 session, but it was vetoed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, who said it was too broad.

House Republicans were divided during Wednesday’s debate and 64-28 vote: two Republicans spoke on the floor against the bill, and eight Republicans voted against the bill. Ten Democrats joined the rest of Republicans in voting for the bill.

Landowner activists, who have been regulars at the Iowa Capitol during recent legislative sessions, watched the debate and vote from the Iowa House gallery.

Rep. Brian Lohse, a Republican from Bondurant, said he believes the legislation violates the equal protection clauses of the U.S. and Iowa constitutions because it treats certain pipeline projects differently from others.

Rep. Chad Ingels, a Republican and farmer from Randalia, spoke about the need to have carbon dioxide pipeline projects in order to provide markets and financial opportunities for corn farmers, including sustainable aviation fuel.

“If this was signed into law, it would block this (carbon dioxide pipeline) project and any similar project to acquire a new market like this,” Ingels said. “The Sierra Club’s going to cheer; big-time party. The farmers, not so much.”

That was echoed by Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw.

“(The bill) blocks Iowa farmers from participating in ultra-low carbon fuel markets just as demand for these innovative fuels takes off,” Shaw said in a statement issued after the bill passed the House. He urged the Iowa Senate to reject the bill.

Holt pushed back on that argument, saying he believes economic development is of critical importance, but that it should not come at the expense of landowners’ property rights.

“I think we all want economic development, but not at the expense of the constitutionally protected rights of our fellow citizens,” Holt said. “Those who want the pipeline, they can sign voluntary easements. Those who do not, have the constitutionally protected right to refuse, and the government has no right in this case to intervene.”

The House Republican bill is now eligible for consideration in the Iowa Senate, where majority Republicans touted their own property rights and eminent domain legislation earlier this week.

Senate Republicans’ proposal would allow hazardous liquid pipeline companies to amend planned and approved routes to enter into voluntary easements with landowners and avoid using eminent domain, if they wished.

The Senate Republican proposal would require carbon pipeline companies to “diligently exhaust” all alternatives and present “clear and convincing” evidence that they did so before requesting authorization by the Iowa Utilities Commission to use eminent domain.

Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh, a Republican from Spillville, said the legislation would balance the rights of landowners while creating new ethanol markets for struggling Iowa farmers as corn prices drop.

Reynolds did not mention the issue during her annual Condition of the State address to the Iowa Legislature at the start of the legislative session.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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