(Des Moines)– A key lawmaker is drafting a plan to require that 70 to 75 percent of landowners agree to a carbon pipeline project before state regulators could approve seizure of the remaining property through eminent domain.
G-O-P Representative Bobby Kauffman of Wilton chairs the House State Government Committee and says he’s pro-landowner. Kauffman says,” I’m pro you deciding what to do with your farm or your business or your home unless you’re doing something stupid like commuting a crime or not paying your taxes and the process has worked so far, but someday it’s not.” In 2006, the Iowa legislature overrode Governor Vilsack’s veto of a law that has limited the authority of local governments to seize private property for economic development projects.
Kaufmann said current state law requires transmission lines and pipelines that ship electricity or products through the state to sign up a majority of landowners before the Iowa Utilities Board can grant eminent domain to seize the rest.
The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors recently signed off on a letter to the Iowa Utility Board expressing their opposition to any use of eminent domain for the proposed projects. Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator C-O-2 Ventures are proposing to build pipelines through portions of Dickinson and a number of other counties in northwest Iowa.
