KDSN RADIO News
Group of Iowa GOP lawmakers on pipeline push back in 2026
A group of lawmakers pressing to prohibit Summit Carbon Solutions from seizing land along its proposed carbon pipeline route says they’ve got new ideas for the 2026 legislative session.
The group’s also calling for an apology from top Senate Republicans who publicly criticized 12 GOP colleagues who refused to vote on budget bills this past spring and forced a Senate vote on a bill with pipeline restrictions. Republican Representative Steven Holt of Denison hosted an event this weekend that four of those senators attended. “Their leadership put them through hell,” Holt said. “Their leadership said things on the floor that I have never heard and I’m embarrassed as a Republican to have ever heard, but they stood fast.”
One Senate Republican called the group of 12 “naive.” Another called the bill “a nuclear bomb.” Senator Kevin Alons of Salix said it took “a lot of courage” for the 12 senators to stick together. “It was a line in the sand that I just couldn’t let go of,” Alons said. “We took our stand and here we are, and we’ve got a distance to go yet.”
Republican Representative Charley Thomson of Charles City helped draft the bill that the Senate passed and Governor Reynolds vetoed in June. Thomson said seeing which Senators voted against that bill is important. “We know who’s on the other side. They’ve identified themselves. We’ve forced them out of the bushes. That’s who the problem people are,” Thomson said. “That is a huge tactical advantage.”
Senator Jeff Taylor of Sioux Center, one of the 12 Republicans who joined Democrats to pass the bill in May, said 70% of Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate voted for the bill. “We were in step not only with the party platform, not only in step with Iowa law — including the Iowa Constitution, but we were part of a Republican legislative super majority,” Taylor said. “We were in step with our political party. The senators who voted no were not.”
Holt suggested that if Senate Republican leadership is looking for a quick compromise on the issue, they can vote on a bill the House passed last year to forbid Summit from seizing agland from unwilling property owners. “This issue is not going away,” Holt said, to applause from a crowd at a Sunday afternoon rally in Shelby County.
The event was held on former Shelby County Supervisor Kevin Kenkel’s farm near Earling. The county’s current board of supervisors voted last month to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the lawsuit Summit filed to block Shelby County’s pipeline ordinance. A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of Summit and against the county’s ordinance that established no-go zones around homes, schools, and other structures.
Thomson told the crowd he is working on new legislation on the pipeline issue, but isn’t ready to share the details.
