(Radio Iowa) – Action this week in the legislature has advanced a plan that would give carbon pipeline companies more flexibility to find a route around landowners who won’t voluntarily agree to let the pipeline on their property. Senate Republican Leader Mike Klimesh says his proposal is an extension of conversations in the capitol over the last four years. “It provides us a solution and a path forward,” Klimesh said.

Carbon pipeline opponents say it does not protect all landowners because if Summit Carbon can’t find alternative properties, it could still use eminent domain to seize land along the current route. Cynthia Hansen’s family farm is in Shelby County. “This bill opens up a larger pool of landowners for the companies to choose from,” she said, “but it does nothing to protect unwilling landowners from the threat of or the use of eminent domain.”

Jake Ketzner, a lobbyist for Summit Carbon, says the company has requested a clean corridor expansion bill. “While the bill does expand the corridor, we oppose the parts that create new processes because this will raise costs and extend timelines,” Ketzner said. The bill would require Summit to show state regulators it tried everything possible to find alternatives before the company could use eminent domain to seize property along the proposed pipeline’s path.

Ketzner says the company currently has signed contracts that give Summit voluntary access to 74 percent of the land along phase one of the project. In late 2023, Summit submitted an application to the Iowa Utilities Commission for phase two of its project, to expand the pipeline to POET and Valero ethanol plants.