(Des Moines, IA) — As a proposed pipeline project from Ames-based Summit Carbon Solutions looms, a group of Iowa lawmakers is calling for legislation that would limit eminent domain to pass. The self-titled “Republican Legislative Intervenors for Justice” includes members of both chambers in the state legislature. Speaking in front of landowners on Monday, State Sen. Doug Campbell (R-Mason City) called on them to continue contacting their respective Senators.
“You will prevail,” Campbell says. “You can not disengage. You can not give up for any and every reason.”
The House has passed legislation on the topic the past three years, and lawmakers on that side say they intend to bring it up again. State Rep. Charley Thomson (R-Charles City) is a sponsor of many of them.
“We thought the law that we had was sufficient,” Thomson says. “It clearly was not. We need to make it clear that this is an abuse of eminent domain. It needs to be indisputable so that anyone who tries this again in the future will see it’s just not going to happen.”
Multiple bills on the topic are available for debate in the chamber on Wednesday, and bipartisan support is possible. Earlier in the session, State Rep. Brian Meyer (D-Des Moines) said his caucus mostly supports property rights.
“The Democrats have always been strongly supportive of property rights,” Meyer says. “We supported, for the most part in the past, some of those bills.”
House File 943 would specifically classify carbon dioxide pipelines as not for public use, while another would require pipeline companies to provide insurance to landowners who lose coverage due to the pipeline’s location. State Rep. Steven Holt says these will probably be consolidated.
“We may well again have to combine them into a couple of bills to send them over there,” Holt says. “And then hopefully the Senate will take them up.”
That sentiment stems from the fact the Iowa Senate has denied taking up the legislation in the past. Senators in attendance say they have had conversations behind the scenes to see what an agreement could look like, but they haven’t seen any legislation yet. Kathy Carter, a landowner present on Monday, says the people around her are exhausted.
“You tell us to continue to pursue with our senators, which we have been continually doing,” Carter says. “I’m not sure what else we can do, but we’re not going to give up.”
