By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)
Three Republican candidates for governor appeared at a rally on a western Iowa farm this afternoon and each promised to defend the private property rights of Iowans who’ve been fighting to keep a carbon pipeline off their land.
Candidate Adam Steen of Runnels, an entrepreneur and former state agency director, said he’d sign a bill that would bar Summit Carbon Solutions from using eminent domain to seize land along the company’s proposed pipeline route. “Ain’t no way a private entity is going to abuse eminent domain on my watch,” Steen said. “There’s no chance.”
The candidates were each given 15 minutes to speak to the crowd and then answered questions from the audience. Steen brought up Congressman Randy Feenstra, who’s expected to formally launch his campaign for governor soon.
“Why isn’t Randy Feenstra here? Why isn’t he answering these questions? Where is he?” Steen said, to applause. “I’d be getting more animated, but I’m going to fall off the stage because it fires me up. He’s hiding in D.C., he’s hiding in his basement and he’s going to come out with millions of dollars in his campaign. Where do you think those millions of dollars came from?”
A spokesman for Feenstra was not immediately available for comment.
Today’s event featured several state legislators who worked to pass a bill that would have established new regulations for the proposed pipeline. Candidate Eddie Andrews of Johnston said “I love Governor Reynolds,” but Andrews said she was “dead wrong” to veto that bill in June. “What happened in Iowa is like throwing a middle finger to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States,” Andrews said.
Andrews has been a state representative since 2021. “When I raised my right hand to defend the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of Iowa, it was to defend property rights and not to add to the pocket of Bruce Rastetter,” Andrews said, to applause and cheers.
Rastetter owns Summit Carbon Solutions, the company that has proposed building a pipeline through five states to collect carbon from ethanol plants. Candidate Brad Sherman of Williamsburg, a pastor who served one term in the Iowa House, told the crowd there’s no need to build a pipeline to sequester carbon.
“It is a boondoggle that is based on a false premise…I’m for clean water and clear air and all the issues that go along, you know, with it. I mean we’ve got the highest rates of cancer. These are all issues that need to be addressed, but folks — CO2 is not causing cancer in anybody. This is life gas that makes our farms work,” Sherman said.
Sherman, without naming names, offered these closing comments on the subject: “Everybody’s going to claim they’re for property rights…I won’t be bought. Government is not for sale, period, absolutely not.”
The forum was held on a Shelby County farm and the crowd was encouraged to donate to the campaign of local State Representative Steven Holt of Denison. Holt has led Iowa House debate of several pipeline-related bills over the past few years.
