KDSN RADIO News
Governor Reynolds vetoes carbon pipeline bill, calls it ‘too broad’
Governor Kim Reynolds has vetoed a bill that would have made it harder for Summit Carbon Solutions to seize land along the pipeline route from unwilling property owners.
In a lengthy veto message, Reynolds said she “respects both sides in the debate” over the use of that eminent domain authority, but Reynolds said the bill is “too broad” and affects other types of energy infrastructure. The ethanol industry and the Iowa Corn Growers Association have been urging Reynolds to reject the legislation. “The governor did a really good job explaining there’s a lot of problems with this bill,” Iowa Renewable Fuels Association executive director Monte Shaw said during an interview late this afternoon.
Shaw said the bill would have diminished Iowa’s ethanol industry as well as prospects for Iowa corn farmers. “Carbon capture and sequestration is the key to unlocking almost all of the new markets for biofuels demand and for corn demand,” Shaw said.
House Speaker Pat Grassley, the top Republican in the House, issued a statement this afternoon calling for a special session of the legislature, to override the governor’s veto. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton who helped craft the bill, spoke with Radio Iowa moments after the veto was announced.
“Kim Reynolds has failed the state of Iowa. Kim Reynolds has soiled her legacy,” Kaufmann said, “and her legacy is now spitting in the face of landowners and being Bruce Rastetter’s errand girl.”
Bruce Rastetter is the founder of Summit Carbon Solutions. Kaufmann said Reynolds had been steadfast in her defense of constitutional rights over her tenure as governor, and he’d expected her to sign the bill into law.
“Clearly she has chosen special interests and Bruce Rastetter over private property rights,” Kaufmann said. “I vow today to work against and kill every single bill she comes up with because I no longer trust her judgement.”
Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, led House debate on each piece of pipeline-related legislation over the past few years and spoke by phone with Radio Iowa. “The governor had three years to weigh in on this,” Holt said. “The governor could have given us her suggestions. She continues to say she wants to protect landowner rights, but she’s done nothing in three years to do that. The landowners have pleaded to meet with her. She didn’t meet with them until recently. She’s had ample opportunity, like the Senate had, to weigh in and protect landowners and they didn’t, so I’m profoundly disappointed.”
Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver issued a written statement, saying he supports the governor’s decision to veto the bill and he “expects a majority of Senate Republicans would not be interested in any attempt to override her veto.” Whitver said a “significant majority” of Senate Republicans “support a better policy to protect landowner rights.” Shaw, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association’s executive director, said the industry is open those discussions.
“We stand ready to work with people who want to improve the system, but not kill the carbon capture project,” Shaw said, “and if people are wanting to do that, we stand ready.”
Reynolds, in her written veto message, says the debate has “highlighted areas were real progress is possible.” The governor said she wants to work with lawmakers to “strengthen landowner protections, modernize permitting and respect private property.”
