Republicans in the Iowa Legislature have rarely publicly disagreed with Gov. Kim Reynolds during her eight years in office. Even when they didn’t support her position on an issue, they would downplay any differences. That all changed on Wednesday, when Gov. Reynolds vetoed HF 639, a bill that would have added new requirements on projects to build pipelines transporting hazardous liquids, and limited the ability of companies building those pipelines to use eminent domain to seize land for the project.
“Kim Reynolds has failed the state of Iowa,” Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, the Republican who represents Cedar County in the Iowa House, told Radio Iowa. “Kim Reynolds has soiled her legacy and her legacy is now spitting in the face of landowners and being Bruce Rastetter’s errand girl.”
Rastetter, a dominant figure in Iowa agribusiness, is a major donor to the Iowa Republicans and his donations have given him substantial political influence. He’s a top donor to Reynolds, just as he was to Terry Branstad. Rastetter is also the founder of Summit Carbon Solutions, the company building a 2,500-mile-long pipeline across five states to transport carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to an underground storage facility in North Dakota.
The project is designed to lower greenhouse gas emissions from the plants, making them more eco-friendly, resulting in more federal tax credits that can be sold to corporations with bigger pollution problems. Proponents also believe that carbon sequestration will create new sales opportunities for ethanol in ultra-low-carbon markets. Groups that lobby for the ethanol industry and the large-scale corn farming operations that produce the corn ethanol is made from, contend that carbon sequestration projects like this are needed to guarantee the ethanol industry’s future viability.
Construction on the Summit pipeline has not yet begun, because the company has not been able to secure the necessary permits in South Dakota. Regulators in that state have rejected the company’s applications twice. Iowa officials have been more accommodating.
The Iowa Utilities Commission (IUC) has repeatedly siding with the company over the objections of Iowans who own property on the pipeline’s planned route. Last year, the IUC granted Summit the right to eminent domain, to condemn property and buy it at market rates if the owners won’t sell, for the first phase of its pipeline project.
Four years ago, there were three companies seeking permission to build CO2 pipelines across parts of Iowa. Two of those companies have since abandoned their plans, leaving Summit with the only active project.
The company says it has secured the cooperation of the owners of 75 percent of the land in Iowa it needs for its pipeline, and the company wants to use eminent domain to force the remaining owners to sell the remaining property it needs for the project. For four years, a group of landowners along the pipeline’s route in western Iowa have mounted a determined effort to prevent Summit from using eminent domain to force the sale of their property.
Members of the group say they are worried about the impact of pipeline construction and maintenance on their farmland, the possibility of it lowering property values and potential damage from leaks or explosions, and they resist the idea that a private company should be able to use a government power like eminent domain just to generate profits for itself and other private companies. “No eminent domain for private gain,” has been a rallying cry for the group.
Those landowners took their opposition to the Iowa Capitol, and held protests and lobbied lawmakers for the past four years. The Iowa House has passed bills limiting the ability of pipeline companies to use eminent domain to take property three times, but Republican leaders in the Iowa Senate leadership have always opposed the bills, letting them die. The governor remained silent on the issue, beyond making occasional, vague comments about the need to balance all the interests involved.
During this year’s legislative session, it appears inaction by Senate Republican leaders would kill this year’s bill, but at the end of the session, a group of 12 Republicans joined all 16 Senate Democrats in refusing to advance other bills until there was a vote on HF 639. The bill passed 27-22.
The main provisions in HF 639 increased the amount of liability insurance hazardous liquid pipelines are required to carry, limited CO2 pipelines to one nonrenewable permit that expires after 25 years, and changed definitions in state law to limit the ability of private companies to use eminent domain for projects that benefit private interests rather than the general public. In her veto message, Reynolds called the bill “too broad.”
“It combines valid concerns with vague legal standards and sweeping mandates that reach far beyond their intended targets,” the governor said.
Reynolds cited the 25-year permit limit on carbon pipelines as an example of her concerns, saying it would affect a non-Summit pipeline built with cooperation from all landowners involved and without the use of eminent domain.
According to the governor, HF 639 “threatens” Iowa’s “economy and reputation as a place where businesses can invest with confidence.”
Reynolds said she shared the bill’s goal of “protecting landowners” and wants to work with legislators to “strengthen landowner protections, modernize permitting and respect private property.”
“Really?” Rep. Steve Holt, chair of the Iowa House Judiciary Committee, wrote on Facebook after Reynolds issued her veto statement. “Where have you been for the last three plus years? Where are your ideas? Where are your bills? Where has been your leadership if you share the goal of protecting landowners?”
“I have been front and center in this fight for over three years,” the Dennison Republican continued. “I alerted you over three years ago about the importance of this issue after attending a landowner meeting in Shelby County. I sent you pictures. Discussed it in a phone call.”
“During the three years and four bills advanced by the House to protect landowners I never heard from you or your office.”
“This veto is a major setback for Iowa,” House Speaker Pat Grassley said in a statement. “It is a setback not only for landowners who have been fighting across Iowa, but for the work the House of Representatives has put in for four years to get legislation like HF 639 passed. We will not stop fighting and stand firm on our commitment until landowners in Iowa are protected against Eminent Domain for private gain.”
Grassley said he had “sent a request to all members to sign a petition to reconvene the legislature in a special session to override the Governor’s veto.”
Two-thirds of the members of each chamber must agree in order to convene a special session, unless the governor calls for it. Grassley may well succeed in getting House members to agree, but Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver is confident his colleagues won’t go along.
The Grimes Republican has helped kill every previous bill to limit the use of eminent domain by pipeline companies, and said in a statement on Wednesday that he supports Reynolds’ veto of HF 639.
“I expect that [the] majority of our caucus would not be interested in any attempt to override her veto,” Whitver said.
Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner of Iowa City said she was “disappointed” by the governor’s veto, “but, unfortunately, I cannot say I’m surprised.”
“There is simply no amount of political posturing or legislative stonewalling that can deny the fact that Iowans’ right to private property should never be infringed upon for private gain.”
Even though a special session to override the veto stands little chance of happening because of Senate Republicans, Reynolds may still pay a price for her veto next year during her final legislative session as governor.
“I vow today to work against and kill every single bill she comes up with because I no longer trust her judgement,” Rep. Bobby Kaufmann said during his interview with Radio Iowa. Kaufmann is the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
It is exceedingly rare for the Iowa Legislature to override a governor’s veto. In 2006, the legislature held a special session in July to override a veto by Gov. Tom Vilsack. It was the first time in 40 years such a session had been held. Both Republicans and Vilsack’s fellow Democrats voted overwhelmingly to override his veto.
The bill in question involved property rights and the use of eminent domain.
“Eminent domain being used as a tool in the economic development toolbox is like going duck hunting with a bazooka,” then-Rep. Jeff Kaufmann said during the session. “You might get the job done but it’s not right. It’s not fair and it’s not Iowa.”
Kaufmann is the father of Bobby Kaufman, who holds the same House seat his father did. The elder Kaufmann is now the chair of the Iowa Republican Party. Neither the party nor Kaufmann has issued a public statement yet on Reynolds’ veto.