(Iowa Capital Dispatch) Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, expressed hesitancy advancing the bill Tuesday during a subcommittee meeting on the proposed legislation, because of the Senate’s inaction on the similar bill last year and the governor’s veto.
Wilburn reiterated his concern Wednesday, noting that Reynolds was “silent” on the issue of eminent domain and property rights during her Tuesday Condition of the State address.
“So when I say nothing has changed, the political conditions around this have not changed,” Wilburn, who was one of two no votes on the bill, said.
Holt responded that neither the House nor the Senate can control what the governor does, nor can the two chambers control one another.
“What we do is, we do what is right and we move forward and who knows what dynamics might change,” Holt said.
In addition to bringing tax credits associated with the ultra-low carbon ethanol market, lobbyists for Summit argued in the subcommittee Tuesday the pipeline project would also be an economic opportunity for Iowa due to tax credits for enhanced oil recovery that were recently made available in the federal “big beautiful” law.
Ethanol producers would have access to 45Z tax credits for producing the low carbon fuel by sequestering carbon dioxide into the pipeline. The carbon sequestration pipeline would be eligible for 45Q tax credits as it transports the carbon to underground storage and now, as that carbon is strategically pumped underground to increase the efficiency of oil wells.
Holt said the Summit project is not a public use project, but “an economic development project.”
Holt said public use refers to infrastructure projects like roads, schools or essential energy projects that are “convenient and necessary.”
“The use of government power to seize property for a private economic development project is not constitutional,” Holt said.
Senate leadership has also indicated it plans to file a bill that would address the property rights issue by allowing pipeline operators to deviate from their state-approved routes in order to find willing landowners.
House Republicans appear to be united over the eminent domain ban, despite the differences from the Senate. The only other dissenting vote on the bill in committee Wednesday came from Rep. Rick Olson, D-Des Moines.
House Speaker Pat Grassley said in a Wednesday taping of “Iowa Press” that the House’s narrow eminent domain bill was rolled out early on to show that “it still is something that we really care about.”
Grassley said the fact that the Senate is working on its own bill is a “positive sign towards finding some level of resolution.”
“For the last several years, it’s just been bill after bill from the House’s perspective, heading over to the Senate,” Grassley said. “Regardless if we agree with one another, I think it’s a positive step forward … that there’s actual movement on both sides.”
House Judiciary Committee members, from left, Rep. Judd Lawler, Rep. Steven Holt, and Rep. Ross Wilburn discuss legislation banning eminent domain for carbon pipelines Jan. 14, 2026. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
