North Iowa Property Owner Says Carbon Pipeline-Related Bill Offers Relief
A House-passed bill to give property owners resisting a proposed carbon pipeline a new legal option has cleared initial review in the Iowa Senate.
State Senator Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig, is working on adjustments to the bill. He says it’s time for the legislature to do something.
Under the bill, property owners along a proposed hazardous pipeline route could go to court after a permit application is filed for a ruling on whether developers would have eminent domain authority to seize land for the project.
Property owners, like Kathy Carter of Rockford, who don’t want the carbon pipeline on their land are urging senators to pass the bill to give them the relief they need
Jeff Boeyink, a lobbyist for Summit Carbon Solutions, says if the bill becomes law, it would have a chilling effect on Summit’s pipeline, as well as natural gas pipeline development.
Another lobbyist for Summit told senators the company has paid $158 million to over 12-hundred Iowa landowners who’ve signed voluntary easements for the pipeline — accounting for nearly 75 percent of the pipeline route through Iowa.
Sections of Summit’s proposed carbon pipeline would be built in Floyd, Chickasaw, Bremer, Mitchell, Butler, Fayette, and Cerro Gordo counties among others in north and northeast Iowa.
*Map picture from Summit website
