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Iowa Senate’s GOP leader plans to offer pipeline plan again in 2027
Iowa Senate’s GOP leader plans to offer pipeline plan again in 2027
Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh offered a pipeline-related plan in January that did not come up for a vote during this year’s legislative session. He plans to offer it again next year.
“It didn’t just deal with Summit Carbon Solutions…It dealt with all the linear infrastructure being built in the state…We want to make sure we have good policies in place so the next pipeline that’s built — maybe it’s an oil pipeline, maybe it’s a natural gas pipeline, so the next company that’s looking to build infrastructure in the state can follow those same guidelines,” said Klimesh, a Republican from Spillville.
The main part of Klimesh’s bill would widen the corridors for pipelines by five miles on either side of the proposed route. Klimesh has said that would give developers the flexibility to adjust the pipeline’s path and avoid landowners who refuse to grant a voluntary easement on their property. It also prohibits pipeline representatives from making in-person contact with a landowner who’s said they don’t want the pipeline on their property. “Those things are all important,” Klimesh said. “In the future they’re important so, yeah, I intend to continue to try to move that piece of policy because from our perspective, it’s important to try provide those safeguards to property owners.”
Klimesh made his comments during taping of the “Iowa Press” program which is available online now. It will be broadcast Friday at 7:30 p.m. on Iowa PBS.
