Des Moines, Iowa — The Iowa House has voted to let landowners seek a court ruling now on whether carbon pipeline developers qualify for the government’s eminent domain authority to force unwilling property owners to let the pipeline on their land.
Republican Representative Charley Thomson of Charles City led the debate on the proposal.
Thomson says, right now, property owners are forced to live in limbo for years — waiting for the Iowa Utilities Board decision on the project as well as the resolution of lawsuits expected to challenge that decision.
Republican Representative Steven Holt of Denison says Iowa landowners are pleading with elected officials to do the right thing — while their land is in limbo.
Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, was the other lawmaker who spoke before the bill passed on an 86 to seven vote — and Kaufmann sounded as if he was speaking directly to Bruce Rastetter, an influential GOP donor who owns Summit Carbon Solutions.
Kaufmann says government doesn’t exist to make the confiscation of private property easier or cheaper for pipeline developers. The Iowa House has previously passed other proposals to set up pipeline regulations, but all have stalled in the Iowa Senate.
