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DES MOINES — State policy regarding private property rights, government use of private land, and hazardous liquid pipelines has created legislative drama between some Iowa Republican state lawmakers and their party’s leaders.
That drama has increased exponentially as legislators have neared the end of their work for the year.
In the past seven days in which the Iowa Senate has met, eight Republican senators have taken the floor to call on their party’s leaders to allow for a debate and vote on legislation that would address property rights, eminent domain and carbon capture pipelines.
And this week, a dozen Republican senators signed a letter that said they will not vote to approve any budget bills until House-approved property rights legislation is called up for debate and a vote.
The growing and increasingly public pressure from within the majority party in one chamber of the Iowa Legislature and toward its leaders is an uncommon sight at the Iowa Capitol.
“We believe addressing eminent domain is more important than the budget or any other priority for the 2025 session and pledge to vote against any remaining budget bill until a floor vote occurs on the clean (House-passed) bill,” the letter reads.
If all 12 signees stick to their pledge, Senate Republicans — of which there are 34 in the chamber — would not have enough votes on their own to pass a budget bill. And the minority party, Democrats in this case, often disagree with and thus vote against budget bills drafted by the majority party.
Meaning the property rights and pipelines debate could delay lawmakers’ ability to set state spending levels for the budget year that begins July 1 and the Iowa Legislature’s ability to finish its work for the 2025 session.
Lawmakers already — on Friday — surpassed the 110-day mark, the day when legislators’ per diem payments run out. The expiration is designed to motivate lawmakers to conclude their work on or around the date.
Legislative leaders in the Republican-led Iowa House and Senate — primarily but not exclusively House Speaker Pat Grassley of New Hartford and Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver of Grimes — will spend the coming days and, possibly, weeks negotiating various budget and policy items.
Meantime, Whitver also must contend with the division within the ranks of Senate Republicans over property rights and pipeline projects.
The letter was signed by Republican Iowa Sens. Kevin Alons of Salix, Doug Campbell of Mason City, Rocky De Witt of Lawton, Lynn Evans of Aurelia, Dennis Guth of Klemme, Mark Lofgren of Muscatine, Mike Pike of Des Moines, Dave Rowley of Spirit Lake, Sandy Salmon of Janesville, Dave Sires of Cedar Falls, Jeff Taylor of Sioux Center, and Cherielynn Westrich of Ottumwa.
Eight of them — Alons, Campbell, Evans, Guth, Salmon, Sires, Taylor and Westrich — have spoken on the Iowa Senate floor in support of property rights and called for a debate and vote on the House-passed bills.
“Let (Senate Majority Whip Mike Klimesh, R-Spillville) know where you stand on this,” Evans said on the Senate floor on April 22. His was the first of many floor remarks by Senate Republicans on the topic over the next week-plus.
“Look (Klimesh) in the eye and say, ‘I don’t care. Let’s get something to the floor. Let’s vote on it and let’s protect the rights of property owners in our state,’” Evans said.
Eminent domain a four-year debate at Iowa Capitol
The issue of property rights and eminent domain has percolated in the Iowa Legislature for the past four years ever since three carbon capture pipeline projects were proposed to cross the state. Since then, just one proposed project remains, from Summit Carbon Solutions.
Summit Carbon Solutions has proposed a 2,500-mile CO2 pipeline through five states, including Iowa, to capture the greenhouse gas from ethanol plants and bury it in North Dakota. Defenders of carbon capture pipeline projects say they will boost Iowa’s ethanol industry and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Summit, in June of 2024, said 75 percent of Iowa landowners on the project’s proposed route had signed voluntary easements, and that the company was working to increase that number.
A Summit spokeswoman said the company has invested four years and nearly $175 million into negotiating voluntary easement agreements in Iowa, signing agreements with more than 1,300 landowners, or 75 percent of the proposed route.
“We are committed to building this project, committed to Iowa, and remain focused on working with legislators — including those with concerns,” Summit spokeswoman Sabrina Ahmed Zenor said.
The Iowa Utilities Commission last year approved Summit’s pipeline permit request in Iowa. It said construction could not start in Iowa until Summit received approval from the Dakotas. While North Dakota has approved the project, South Dakota has not — and in March adopted a law outlawing the use of eminent domain for CO2 pipelines in that state.
Republican lawmakers in the Iowa House have approved a series of bills over the past four years related to property rights, eminent domain, state regulation, and pipeline projects. The bills have ranged from placing limits on eminent domain usage to bills designed to effectively kill the proposed pipeline projects.
But the Republican-led Iowa Senate has not, prior to this year, advanced any of those House-passed bills.
“It is way past time that this chamber finally does address this issue,” Alons said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “I do commit to not voting for a budget and I think it’s important we have this debate.”
Iowa legislators considering two bills this year
There are two House-approved bills in play this year: House File 943 would ban the use of eminent domain for hazardous liquid pipelines, while House File 639 contains multiple provisions, including insurance requirements for pipeline projects, public meeting attendance requirements for state regulator meetings, restricting when and how pipeline companies and sue landowners, and prohibiting the renewal of a pipeline project’s permit after 25 years.
Both bills passed the House with broad, bipartisan support: House File 943 was approved on an 85-12 vote and House File 639 on an 85-10 vote, both on March 26.
Senate Republicans did advance House File 639 through the chamber’s Commerce Committee. But Sen. Mike Bousselot, a Republican from Ankeny, significantly amended the bill in ways that prominent property rights activist Jess Mazour said “doesn’t address property rights.”
Bousselot is a previous head of external relations for Summit Agricultural Group, which owns Summit Carbon Solutions.
That is why some of those Republican senators speaking out have called for a debate on a “clean” version of House File 639, meaning the version of the legislation as it passed the House, before it was overhauled in the Senate. The letter signed by the dozen Republican senators also calls for a voted on the “clean” version of House File 639.
“I’d like to see the bill brought clean, brought up for vote, put to rest, have a voice in this issue,” Alons said on the Senate floor.
Whitver issued a statement this week saying Republican senators still are working on property rights and pipeline issue as the session nears its end.
“A number of Republican Senators are working on policy surrounding eminent domain and pipeline issues and I am optimistic we will find a legislative solution,” Whitver said in the statement.
Iowa Republican senators speak out
In their Senate floor remarks, many Republican senators have described the issue as a matter of constitutionality. They say hazardous liquid pipelines do not meet the definition of a public use project and thus should not be allowed under the U.S. and Iowa constitutions to use eminent domain — the process of the government acquiring private land for use in an infrastructure project — and that because of that they believe state regulators’ decision to approve Summit Carbon Solution’s permit request was erroneous.
“The utilities board made the wrong decision when they granted that permit to Summit and I think it’s up to the State of Iowa to try to correct that mistake,” Taylor said this week on the Senate floor. “And if we’re able to do that by voting on those House bills, I’d like to see that happen.”
Campbell said he campaigned on the issue of property rights and eminent domain. Campbell ran in the 2024 Republican primary election against former Republican Sen. Waylon Brown, of Osage. Brown had been seen as one of the Republican senators opposed to eminent domain legislation.
Brown narrowly defeated Campbell in that 2024 primary election, 53 percent to 47 percent, then resigned weeks later to take a job in the private sector. Campbell earned the party’s nomination for the general election and in November was elected to the Senate.
“I ran on this issue,” Campbell said this week. “This is what (the people in Campbell’s district) want, and they will get it. They have persevered.”
Sires, on April 23, said, “At its core, government exists to protect the individual rights of citizens, not to surrender (those rights) to the private corporations under the guise of economic development. Yet over the past few years Iowa officials have repeatedly failed to defend the property rights of everyday Iowans. We are witnessing the dangerous misuse of public power for private gain.”
Iowa Senate Democrats also speaking up
Five Senate Democrats also have spoken on the floor in support of debating and voting the House-passed property rights bills. Sen. Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, has on multiple occasions challenged Senate Republicans and their leaders.
In March, Senate Democrats attempted to change the chamber’s rules to allow for floor debate and a vote on property rights legislation, or any other topic. While the Senate considered a batch of rules that govern the chamber’s legislative procedures, Democrats proposed an amendment that would allow for discharge petitions, in which a majority of legislators could require a bill to be brought up for debate and a vote. Discharge petitions are designed to give legislators a tool to force a vote on bills that legislative leaders have declined to advance.
The Democrats’ proposal failed, with a majority of Republicans voting it down. Alons, Campbell, De Witt and Salmon voted with Democrats in support of the attempt.
“Who is going to stand up over there and move this bill to the floor,” Bisignano asked Senate Republicans during his remarks from the Senate floor this week. “The time has come. Four years. Stand up (for) how you believe. Stand up for the Iowans (advocates) who have been here for four years, who call you, who text you, who email you.”
Mazour and her group of landowner activists have been at the Capitol throughout the 2025 session to lobby lawmakers. Mazour said that by her group’s count, there are 28 Iowa senators — those 12 Republicans and all 16 Democrats — who support the House-passed bills.
Mazour said she is pleased to see the momentum growing among Senate Republicans, but that she and her fellow activists want to see a bill passed and sent to Gov. Kim Reynolds for her consideration.
Reynolds has not taken a public stance on eminent domain legislation.
“I am thrilled that we’re finally important enough to them to be talked about on the (Senate) floor, but then I’m so frustrated because actions speak louder than words, and you can talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, but if you don’t get it passed, and you don’t bring it up, then you haven’t actually done anything for us,” Mazour said this week. “So we want champions that … practice what they preach.”
The Iowa Legislature returns to work Monday, but most lawmakers are not expected at the Capitol while leaders negotiate the final deals of the 2025 session.
Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com
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