(Radio Iowa) – A proposal making its way through the Iowa Senate would set new state standards for the extraction of hydrogen from rocks and underground reservoirs. Senator Mike Bousselot, a Republican from Ankeny, says initial tests indicate there’s a large pool of hydrogen sitting underneath Iowa soil.
“Updating our laws to account for that fact and to make sure we protect landowners, we protect the rights of Iowans and also allow for the development of this resources that can lead to great economic gain for our state…is important.” The plan would establish a state tax on any hydrogen that’s extracted from Iowa and would give companies pumping hydrogen out of the ground up to five years of confidentiality about the operation.
Leon Aden, a geologist who’s worked in the oil and gas industry since the 1980s, says that way above the standard time frame, will close Iowa off to many investors and therefore reduce payments to Iowans. “For a landowner/mineral interest owner to reap benefits from an emerging, but unproven industry is reduced with this bill.” Brittany Lumley is a lobbyist for Koloma, a hydrogen exploration company that’s been operating in the state since 2022. Lumley says the bill draws on what other states have done.
“So that companies understand what they need to have in place when they come into the state…what they need to pay landowners, what the timelines are,” Lumley said, “…landowners understand what to expect when a hydrogen company comes into this state…and the state knows in order to oversee everything.” Roxana Bekemohammadi is executive director of the U.S. Hydrogen Alliance, a non-profit trade group for the hydrogen industry. She says Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the major investor in Koloma.
“This is actually a special interest bill run by one company in an anti-competitive way that will hurt Iowans,” Bekemohammadi said. If the bill becomes law, Iowans who own the property on top of a pool of underground hydrogen would be compensated, but in order to drill for hydrogen, a company would only need approval for 25 percent of the people who own land above the hydrogen pool. Iowans who’ve been unwilling to let the proposed carbon pipeline run through their land lined up to speak during a hearing on the legislation.
Jess Mazour is conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter. “Worse than eminent domain of your mineral rights, it’s just theft of your mineral rights and what’s below your ground,” Mazour said.
The bill has cleared two Senate committees and is eligible for debate in the full Senate.
