(Iowa Capital Dispatch) Landowners who oppose a carbon capture pipeline project in Iowa rallied outside of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office Wednesday, calling for action to restrict the use of eminent domain in these projects.
Organizers held signs with pictures of horses, telling lawmakers to “quit horsing around” and warning them “don’t back the wrong horse” in passing legislation on eminent domain — references to Senate Joint Resolution 2010, a measure advanced this session to designate the American cream draft horse as the official state horse of Iowa.
While the Senate voted to send this resolution to the House, advocates criticized senators for not bringing House File 2104 to the floor, despite the measure being eligible for debate since late January.
The bill, which passed the Iowa House in January with a 64-28 vote, was landowners’ and the Iowa House’s answer to Reynolds’ request in 2025 for a “clean, simple bill with (no) unintended consequences relating to carbon dioxide pipelines,” Peg Rasmussen, a landowner in Montgomery County said.
The bill as advanced through the House would have banned the use of eminent domain for the construction of carbon dioxide pipeline projects. But the measure was amended during the Senate committee process, including language similar to Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh’s proposals that would allow for the use of eminent domain in hazardous liquid pipeline projects, if the operator has “diligently exhausted” other possibilities to find willing land easements within a widened corridor.
There’s been no action on the bill since the Senate committee vote Jan. 28.
“Sen. Klimesh said (eminent domain) was a priority in this session, bringing House File 2104 to a full committee vote — yet, here we are today,” Rasmussen said. “Instead of bringing House File 2104 to the Senate for debate on the floor and a vote, Sen. Klimesh prioritized a horse. So it’s time to get back on track. We’ve led the Senate to water, now it’s time for them to take a drink.”
She and other advocates called for senators to vote on the bill language passed by the House rather than on the proposed amendment, saying the House proposal was a “compromise” from landowners, many of whom wanted to entirely ban carbon oxide pipelines from being built in the state.
“We have worked together collectively to step through this particular process, and have decided that compromising through the bill, language that allows carbon pipelines to built,” Rasmussen said. “So, build the carbon pipelines, just don’t do it with the heavy hand of government and the use of eminent domain. We want the state Senate and the governor to protect our property rights, to say ‘no,’ just as much as the state wants to protect those that want to say ‘yes.’”
The use of eminent domain in carbon capture pipeline projects have been a point of discussion for several years at the Legislature, driven by opposition by some to the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, which was granted a permit and the ability to use eminent domain by the Iowa Utilities Commission in 2024.
House Republicans have advanced several different measures, most which failed to move forward in the Senate. But at the end of the 2025 legislative session, the Senate debated and passed a measure related to pipeline projects after a group of 12 senators stated they would not vote on budget legislation until the eminent domain bill was debated.
Reynolds ultimately vetoed the legislation, pointing to the bill’s complexity and its potential impact on Iowa’s biofuel production industry as reasons why she would not support the measure.
The 2026 bill advanced by the House has survived the second “funnel” deadline, as it has received approval — with plans for an amendment — from the Senate Commerce Committee.
Klimesh’s office and a Summit spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
As lawmakers hit the first “funnel” deadline in February, Klimesh told reporters “conversations are ongoing” on the issue of eminent domain. He said these discussions include discussions on the proposed Senate amendment, both about the “up sides of that bill, if there’s room for improvement on that bill.”
“Sometimes it takes time to have those conversations,” Klimesh said. “A forced conversation, in my opinion, doesn’t usually yield the best fruit.”
Klimesh also told reporters in February legislation being discussed in the Senate providing continuing appropriations in years when the Legislature fails to pass a budget before July 1 — preventing a state government shutdown — was not related to the actions in 2025 when some senators said they would not vote on budget bills without eminent domain legislation being debated.
“We saw that conversation take place last year in the chamber, and I’m going to say — no,” Klimesh said. “You know, my thought process behind that is simply just to make sure that Iowans have dollars in the programs, that the Iowa government funds, and that we don’t have a breakdown in that system, and this provides that safeguard.”
Rasmussen said in her personal opinion, she was concerned the measure could be used “to potentially take away any power that legislators have to force something to come to the floor.”
Cynthia Hansen, left, a Shelby County landowner and Marjorie Swan, a Wright County landowner called for the Iowa Senate and Gov. Kim Reynolds to move forward a bill restricting the use of eminent domain in carbon capture pipeline projects at a March 18, 2026 rally outside the governor’s office in the Iowa Capitol. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
