Iowa House advances eminent domain bill, unclear if Senate will take action

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa House passed an eminent domain bill with bipartisan support on Wednesday. Only seven Republicans voted against it.

The controversial issue now heads to the state Senate. The proposal would allow landowners and companies to ask a Polk County judge whether an eminent domain claim is constitutional.

Most importantly, I have a message for those, again, not in this room, who would choose to use their money to influence this vote, who would attempt to use their money to prevent this vote," State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann (R-Wilton) said. "My message is: take your money and shove it."

The bill is a result of a lot of landowners spending the last three years fighting companies who want to use eminent domain to build carbon capture pipelines through their properties.

The Sierra Club has been representing unhappy landowners and they're in support of the bill.

"So this bill kind of alleviates some of that stress, and some of that time, and some of that money by allowing us to speed up the process and seek an order from a judge," Jess Mazour, the conservation program coordinator for the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, said.

Summit Carbon Solutions' $8 billion pipeline remains in limbo as they wait on the Iowa Utilities Board to make a decision to approve or deny their request to build.

The company didn't respond to a request for comment, but the bill's manager State Rep. Charley Thomson (R-Charles City) said establishing an answer sooner rather than later on whether they can use eminent domain may not be a bad idea.

"I'd look at this bill as not a bad idea," Rep. Thomson said. "They've spent massive amounts of money, tremendous amounts of political capital in pushing their pipelines forward."

However, the fate of the bill remains unclear. In previous legislative sessions, the House advanced bills dealing with eminent domain and carbon capture pipelines, but they end up stalled in the Senate.

"We had a challenge with Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver who is adamant on making sure our bill does not come up for a vote," Mazour said. "And as well as commerce chair Waylon Brown who has had the bill in his committee for the last three years in one shape, way, or form, and he has not even scheduled a committee meeting on that."

The eminent domain issue also impacted legislative races. Republican Sen. Waylon Brown's primary opponent Doug Campbell said a vote for Campbell is a vote for private property rights.

Iowa's News Now reached out to both Sen. Whitver and Sen. Brown for a response but haven't heard back.