Letters: CO2 pipelines trample on constitutional rights

To the editor:

While the first of many CO2 investment companies are poised to seek a permit from the Iowa Utilities Board, several Iowa lawmakers refuse to meet with landowners to discuss concerns about the misuse of eminent domain. Legislators say these projects are to be decided by the IUB and are not the purview of the Legislature.

They also point out that pipeline plans have been in the works for years and the rules should not change at the 11th hour. Doing so, they say, would be unfair to the companies that have invested a great deal of money. It would also send the wrong signal to future investors that Iowa cannot be trusted.

To all of this, landowners cry, “Foul!” Instead of changing the rules at the 11th hour, the behavior of our lawmakers is more akin to referees allowing a team to play by one set of rules without informing the other team. When the opposing team finally realizes there is a problem, the referees refuse to listen.

The companies may have worked on CO2 pipeline plans for years, but landowners were kept out of the loop. A few months ago, they were first informed that their property is on the proposed route. Consequently, landowners have had little time to consider their options.

The time and money invested in planning aren’t the issues lawmakers should consider. Instead, they need to look at the profit – the billions of dollars that investment companies stand to make in carbon credits when the CO2 reaches North Dakota. Eminent domain can only be enacted for public use, not personal profit, as per both the United States and the Iowa constitutions. Unfortunately, this state allows the Iowa Utilities Board to waive the public use requirement for permit seekers, and the pipeline investors will take advantage of that loophole.

It is within the Legislature’s purview to see that this law is properly defined. Landowners are not asking the Legislature to interfere with the IUB’s ruling on the permit. We are simply asking that eminent domain be properly and strongly stated to ensure that private property cannot be confiscated for personal profit.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) comes at a cost of billions of dollars to be funded by the new Infrastructure Law. Three investment companies are actively seeking voluntary easements from Iowa landowners, with more waiting in the wings. Once the easements are in effect – voluntarily or by eminent domain – they exist forever and can be leased, mortgaged, or sold to other entities. Additional pipelines may be added to the defined route.

This is a modern-day boondoggle. The investment companies will use public money to take private property for personal profit. If our state government allows investors to profit from obtaining private property through eminent domain, all private property owners will be in danger in the future. We need to send the signal to future investors that they are welcome in Iowa, but they cannot trample on our constitutional rights.

Our lawmakers must listen constituent’s concerns and take a stand and to protect private property from exploitation by venture capitalists looking to make a fortune through misuse of eminent domain.

Bonnie Ewoldt,

Milford