Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley says she favors development of pipelines that could make the ethanol industry carbon neutral, but Haley says landowners who don’t want the pipelines on their property should not be forced to sign easements.
Pipeline backers say ethanol sales will expand if the fuel is carbon neutral and that will benefit corn farmers. Haley says ethanol production is part of a strategy to ensure the US never has to buy oil from places like Iran or Venezuela.
Last Friday, Haley visited a farm near Grand Mound in Clinton County. Clinton is one of the five Iowa counties where the proposed Wolf Carbon Solutions pipeline would run through. Unlike two other pipeline developers, the company is not seeking eminent domain authority from Iowa regulators and has indicated it will acquire property along its route voluntarily. Haley, who served as US Ambassador to the United Nations for two years, has called China the most disciplined enemy of the US and she says Chinese ownership of the world’s largest pork producer is a big concern. A Chinese tycoon bought Smithfield Foods a decade ago and 80% of the US farmland now under Chinese ownership was part of that deal.
China increasingly depends on imported food and purchased a record $41 billion worth of US food and agricultural products in 2022. Haley, who is 51 years old, served as governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017. She entered the presidential race in mid-February and has argued the GOP should choose a presidential nominee who’s from a new generation.
