(Earling) A mostly red-clad audience at a barn in Shelby County on Sunday asked Republican candidates for governor about the carbon sequestration pipeline and associated concerns of eminent domain.
The event was also in support of Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, and featured state representatives who have been active in opposing the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline project.
Lawmakers spoke about their plans to continue opposing the pipeline that would transport sequestered carbon dioxide from ethanol plants in Iowa and surrounding states to underground storage in North Dakota.
”Let the words go out from this place in this day: No eminent domain for private gain in the state of Iowa,” Holt said, opening the event.
Holt, along with Rep. Charley Thomson, R-Charles City, have been central to proposing and pushing legislation aimed at limiting the abilities of carbon sequestration pipeline companies to use eminent domain.
In the spring, the duo sponsored several bills that were eventually wrapped into House File 639, which the Senate passed after significant debate on the floor. The bill, which Gov. Kim Reynolds vetoed, caused controversy and disagreement among the Iowa Republican Party.
Holt said all Republican candidates who have said they plan to run for governor were invited. Rep. Eddie Andrews, R-Johnston, former Iowa Representative Brad Sherman, and former Director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services Adam Steen, attended the event and spoke about their plans if elected governor.
U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra is also running for the Republican slot on the ticket and Sen. Mike Bousselot, R-Ankeny, launched an exploratory committee for governor but has not said if he is officially running.
Andrews says pipeline issue would end ‘day one’ if elected
Andrews, a Republican representing urban Polk County, where the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline would not cross, has also been a vocal opponent to the pipeline. While he spoke Sunday, Andrews had a slideshow of selfies he has taken over the years with various landowners at the capitol.
Andrews said he’s often asked why he cares about the issue — which pushed him to run for governor — even though it hardly impacts his constituents.
“When I raised my right hand to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa, it was to defend property rights and not to add to the pocket of Bruce Rastetter,” Andrews said, referencing the founder of the Summit Agricultural Group which founded Summit Carbon Solutions.
Andrews said he would support a bill, like one that was enacted in South Dakota, that blocks eminent domain for carbon sequestration pipelines. Andrews said he would also like to pass a constitutional amendment that would “really address property rights.”
He said he would also support reform for the Iowa Utilities Commission, including an effort to remove the utility’s authority over eminent domain.
“It disgusts me, quite honestly, that we’ve collectively allowed this to go on so far,” Andrews said. “This will end on day one , if I’m governor, if not before.”
Sherman calls for transparency, and principles
Sherman has been a pastor for more than 40 years and served in the Iowa House of Representatives from January 2023 through January this year.
He called the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline a “boondoggle” and said the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is regulated by the plants that convert it into oxygen and that carbon dioxide is “not hurting our atmosphere.”
Sherman said he would support a bill blocking eminent domain for CO2 pipelines, if he were elected.
Sherman said a major part of his efforts, if elected governor, would be to put the “founding principles” of the nation into the educational system.
“So the people know that rights come from God, not government, the purpose of government is to protect those rights, and that the people then understand how to preserve their own freedoms,” Sherman said.
Sherman also called for “total transparency” on government spending. For example, he alleged some big school districts spent taxpayer money to hire multiple diversity equity and inclusion directors.
“And of course, we know what DEI is,” Sherman said.
Sherman said total transparency in the government would alleviate some property tax issues.
“I think if people could see what’s going on, they would make some – demand some — changes,” Sherman said. “… If the government gets out of the way, business people will get it done. Government doesn’t need to tell people how to run a business, it just needs to get out of the way and get rid of regulations.”
Steen says it’s time for an awakening
Steen served as Reynolds’ director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services from 2021 until his recent resignation to pursue the Republican nomination for governor.
Steen was part of Reynolds’ staff when HF 639 was vetoed, but said the decision was outside his purview. Now no longer part of the staff, Steen said he was “shocked and surprised” by the governor’s veto.
Steen said he has three farms in his family and would “fight for the rights of Iowans every step of the way.”
“Ain’t no way a private entity is going to abuse eminent domain on my watch,” Steen said. “There’s no chance.”
Steen also said the pipeline issue and the other issues facing the state of Iowa are examples of “evil infiltrating politics in a way that we have never seen before.”
Steen, who has labeled himself as a “faith guy” running for governor, said he noticed this when he started living his life intentionally.
“I didn’t become woke, but I woke up and realized that America is under attack. Iowa is under attack,” Steen said.
He said Iowa needs someone who will say “enough is enough.”
Steen said the situation that led to the arrest and detainment of former Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts, is “insanity at its highest level.”
Roberts was detained by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement Sept. 26 and DMPS has since learned the immigrant from Guyana was in the country unlawfully.
“That doesn’t happen, that doesn’t happen unless it’s a DEI hire that has been infiltrated by the enemy,” Steen said.
Steen said his priorities if elected would include fixing property taxes, prioritizing skilled labor, “bringing the family back to the dinner table” and reaching up to “revitalize and shake up the local church.”
“You got somebody who knows how to work with the Legislature, you got somebody who’s going to be a champion for culture, and you got somebody who knows how to operate the state day one,” Steen said.
Steen said he believes Reynolds is the “best governor the state’s ever had,” but he said he is not “Governor Reynolds, 2.0.”
Pipeline fight continues for another year
At the Sunday event, Holt called on the Iowa Senate to pass a bill restricting eminent domain on CO2 pipelines and for the governor to support the bill. He said there were already a number of bills in the works for the upcoming legislative session.
Thomson called the Summit pipeline project a “dagger aimed at the heart of what it means to be an Iowan” and later a “parasite” on Iowa’s government.
Summit filed, in September, a petition to amend part of its permit from the Iowa Utilities Commission, and allow the company to explore a different ending location for the pipeline, which is currently slated to end in North Dakota.
Thomson said the filing has the “smell of desperation.”
Thomson said while the governor and certain members of the Senate did not act the way he had hoped, but said the previous session forced the “other side” to come “out of the bushes.”
Thomson said this will be an advantage moving forward.
Some of the dozen GOP senators who refused to vote on vital budget bills until the Senate debated, and ultimately passed, a bill related to restrictions for hazardous liquid pipelines and the use of eminent domain, were also present at the Sunday event.
Steve Kenkel, a fifth-generation Shelby County landowner who formerly served as a Shelby County supervisor, hosted the event at his farm.
Shelby County, along with Story County, passed county ordinances related to pipeline setbacks and other regulations in response to the pipeline. Summit sued the counties over the ordinances and federal judges sided with Summit in the case. The county supervisors filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.
Kenkel thanked the landowners, lawmakers and groups that have spent time opposing the pipeline, these people he said are the “protectors” of private property rights in the state.
“We can’t do this by ourselves,” Kenkel said. “So I’m putting a challenge out there to you and the entire state of Iowa … when you go to the polls this next year, and following years, you do your homework and you find out who the protectors are for property rights.”
Photo: Rep. Charley Thomson speaks at an event with landowners and politicians opposed to CO2 pipelines on Sunday. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
