~by Victoria Riley, GreeneCountyNewsOnline
“A partial victory for landowners” is how Greene County attorney Thomas Laehn characterized the approval of HF 639 by the Iowa Senate Monday night. Laehn has vocally opposed using eminent domain to acquire land for a liquified carbon dioxide pipeline.
Laehn drafted a pair of bills relating to the pipeline proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions to run diagonally across southeast Greene County, connecting the Louis Dreyfus ethanol plant at Grand Junction to the Poet ethanol plant in Coon Rapids.
The first bill, HF 943/SF 92 would have prohibited the taking of agricultural land for the construction of liquified carbon dioxide pipelines, he explained. Using eminent domain would not have been an option. The Sierra Club lobbied for passage of the bill.
That bill was approved in the House but never voted on by the Senate. Democrats tried to bring the bill on the Senate floor Monday as an amendment, “but it was blocked by Republicans more loyal to their party and its deep-pocketed donors than to the people of Iowa,” Laehn said.
The second bill drafted by Laehn provided a definition of a “common carrier.” He explained that Summit Carbon Solutions claimed to be able to use eminent domain because it planned to fill their pipeline to only 90 percent capacity, leaving space for any other company to transport liquid carbon dioxide in it to benefit from the federal government’s carbon capture tax credits. “Thus, according to Summit Carbon, their pipeline was like a passenger train. Anyone could buy a ticket and use it,” Laehn said.
HF 639, the bill passed by the House and Senate, includes a definition of a common carrier that makes it clear Summit Carbon Solutions would not qualify as one. “This language should have the effect of prohibiting Summit Carbon from using the power of eminent domain,” Laehn said.
“Hopefully, Governor Reynolds will respond to the will of the people of Iowa, 78 percent of whom oppose the use of eminent domain for the construction of this pipeline, and sigh HF 639 into law, rather than do the bidding of the wealthy elites who are attempting to wrest the legislative process away from popular control,” Laehn said. “We will see with whom Governor Reyolds’ loyalties ultimately reside.” The Greene County board of supervisors has supported Laehn in his efforts against the pipeline and registered as an intervenor to offer comments before the Iowa Utilities Commission. Board chair John Muir said following Monday’s Senate action, “This action will allow property owners to maintain their rights under much better defined circumstances.”
