MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (KMTV) — Eminent domain requests could be challenged more easily by landowners, who don't want a pipeline on their property, if a bill passes the Iowa Senate and makes it to the governor's desk.
- Attorney Brian Jorde represents several southwest Iowa landowners whose property would be in the path of the Summit CO2 pipeline. He says it comes down to property rights.
- Harrison County farmer, Larry Buss, is on the Iowa Corn Growers board. The corn growers see carbon capture pipelines as critical to lowering the carbon intensity score of producing corn ethanol, making it globally competitive in the sustainable aviation fuel market.
- If the bill makes it to the Senate floor for a vote, State Senator Jason Schultz told the Iowa Capital Dispatch it will likely be amended to only address carbon pipelines and not other hazardous liquid pipelines.
- READ MORE | BOOST TO CORN GROWERS: Sustainable Aviation Fuel tax credit now includes corn ethanol
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
A bill that could make it harder for energy companies to use private land to build pipelines is still working its way through the Iowa legislature.
I'm your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter, Katrina Markel in Missouri Valley.
Landowners opposed to pipelines would have more opportunities to challenge those eminent domain requests from energy companies.
As of right now, the bill passed the House and is still in committee in the Senate. It includes pipelines for all hazardous liquids.
Attorney Brian Jorde represents several southwest Iowa landowners whose property would be in the path of the Summit CO2 pipeline. He says it comes down to property rights. This bill is a small change that would create a new legal pathway for his clients to challenge attempts to build pipelines on their properties, earlier in the process.
"One person or entity's economic gain isn't enough to trigger eminent domain rights,” said Jorde, who is based in Omaha. “it would be ludicrous if I thought my business could make more money if I just took what you have, right?"
Harrison County farmer, Larry Buss, is on the Iowa Corn Growers board. The corn growers see carbon capture pipelines as critical to lowering the carbon intensity score of producing corn ethanol, making it globally competitive in the sustainable aviation fuel market.
The organization doesn't believe there needs to be a change in the law.
"Iowa Corn was and still is concerned about property rights,” said Buss, outside his grain elevator in Missouri Valley. “But, there's also another thing about what is the overall good for the corn industry, for the farming industry, and we believe that sequestering the carbon is the way we need to go to increase the profitability."
If the bill makes it to the Senate floor for a vote, state senator Jason Schultz told the Iowa Capital Dispatch it will likely be amended to only address carbon pipelines and not other hazardous liquid pipelines.
