House File 565 has now reached the Iowa Senate. It defines that 90% of the track of easements must be negotiated and signed over before eminent domain can be exercised on the remaining 10% of the track in order to construct a carbon pipeline.
Members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) are urging Senate Republican leadership to listen to the 78% of Iowans polled in the Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll who oppose the use of eminent domain for CO2 pipelines by supporting HF 565.
HF 565 passed the Iowa House of Representatives by a vote of 73-20 on March 22, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration. It was assigned to the Senate Commerce Committee, where it must pass both a subcommittee and full committee by the second legislative funnel this Friday, March 31.
The bill was then assigned to a sub-committee chaired by Sen. Mike Bousselot (R-Ankeny) late Monday by Sen. Waylon Brown (R-Osage). Bousselot immediately cancelled all of the sub-committees’ meetings for this week without giving a reason and that effectively killed the measure and prevented it from potentially going to the Governor’s desk.
Former U. S. Representative Steve King who is now a part of GoEvents 101 that is working to fight against CO2 pipelines eminent domain efforts in Iowa, felt that the move by Bousselot was wrong.
Iowa CCI member Jan Wann joined with other constituents of Brown on Sunday to deliver a letter and urge Brown to assign HF 565 to a subcommittee.
“Waylon Brown sure didn’t respond to his constituents’ emails or phone calls, but it appears he finally heard us,” Wann said. “Now the ball is in Bousselot’s court, and he needs to move swiftly to schedule a meeting and move a bill supported by an overwhelming majority of Iowans forward.”
King feels very frustrated that local private property rights may not be respected.
