For the second year in a row, the Iowa Senate appears poised to kill legislation that would restrict the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines. To remain eligible this session, HF 565 must pass a Senate Committee by the end of March, or otherwise be placed as unfinished business. Senators with strong ties to Summit Carbon Solutions are holding up the bill, which would restrict the use of eminent domain for hazardous carbon pipelines until a 90 percent threshold of voluntary easements has been reached. The move comes despite overwhelming support from the public and state representatives for the bill.

HF 565 passed the Iowa House by an overwhelming bipartisan majority (73-20) just last week, while the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll found that fully 78% of Iowans oppose eminent domain for carbon pipelines. According to Food & Water Action polling, 80% of voters favorable to Kim Reynolds oppose eminent domain for the carbon pipelines.

In response, Food & Water Watch Senior Iowa Organizer John Aspray issued the following statement:

“From the start, Iowa’s hazardous carbon pipelines have been all about the money. As Bruce Rastetter parlays campaign cash into political favors, it is Iowans who are losing out. In a time of deep division, Iowans are united in opposition to these dangerous scams. For years, we have been demanding state legislators take a stand against private corporations’ attempts to run roughshod over our land, lives and livelihoods. But the legislative session isn’t over yet — there is still time for the Senate to side with their constituents over deep-pocketed donors. We will not stop fighting to keep hazardous carbon pipelines out of Iowa.”

HF 565 has been held up in subcommittee by Senator Mike Bousselot since Tuesday, and Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver and Senate President Amy Sinclair have yet to assign the bill to unfinished business. Senator Bousselot has worked for former Governor Branstad (now with Summit Carbon Solutions) and Summit Agricultural Group, of which Summit Carbon Solutions is a subsidiary; Senator Whitver took $37,500 from Summit’s Bruce Rastetter in support of his election bid last year.

Constituents have sent thousands of phone calls and emails to their legislators about this issue in the past two years; and the thousands of comments filed in the Iowa Utilities Board docket for the Summit, Navigator and Wolf carbon pipeline proposals remain staunchly opposed to the projects and the use of eminent domain to build them. This week, county supervisors from 36 counties wrote to Senate Leadership demanding passage of legislation to ban eminent domain for carbon pipelines.