By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

A lead sponsor of a bill that would set new regulations for proposed carbon pipelines projects says there may be changes in the bill when it’s debated in the House.

The main part of the bill would require that developers get voluntary access to 90 percent of the miles along the pipeline route before state officials could grant them eminent domain authority to seize the rest. “It’s a big issue for my landowners who do not believe that the blunt force of government should be allowed to be used to take their land for what is a private economic project,” Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, said, “because that’s what we’re talking about here.”

Holt indicated he’s confident the House will vote on the bill before month’s end. “If private property is going to mean anything in the United States of America, eminent domain cannot be based on seizing property for economic development,” Holt said during a weekend appearance on Iowa Press on Iowa PBS.

Bills in the Senate that outlined new rules for carbon pipelines never made it past an earlier deadline. Representative Lindsay James, a Democrat from Dubuque, said the concern is the bill will die in the senate. “In the House, we are rightfully starting a conversation and hopefully we will continue that conversation and hopefully the governor will take that seriously,” said James, who was also a guest on the Iowa Press program this weekend.

Last month, Governor Reynolds said she’s watching to see what happens with the House bill. While saying there could be areas where pipeline regulations could be tweaked, Reynolds told reporters she’d be having conversations with lawmakers about how new regulations could impact the ethanol industry. The pipelines are touted as a way to make ethanol carbon free and therefore expand markets the corn-based fuel.

By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

The State Patrol says there’s been an increase in distracted driving on the open roadways — and the DOT says it’s become an issue at train crossings as well. Kris Klop oversees the installation of warning devices at rail crossings for the DOT and says accidents started changing around the time of the COVID pandemic.

“For some reason, they’re now running into the side of trains, rather through the gates into the side of the trains, rather than trying to go around the gates and then getting hit by the trains,” he says. “I definitely have a suspicion that involves distracted driving.” Klop says racing to beat a train through a crossing is a conscious decision, but it’s hard to see how someone can just drive through gates into a train.

“Between the train through the middle of the roadway and the flashing lights and the gates, I don’t know how people can miss that and run into the train,” Klop says. Klop says there’s a yearly program to assess rail crossings and the need for warning devices or upgrades — but that doesn’t mean anything if the driver isn’t paying attention.

“Nationwide, 47 percent of the accidents are at crossings that have lights and gates. So putting lights and gates at a railroad crossing does not completely eliminate the chance of there being an accident there,” he says. Klop says the number of accidents at crossings in Iowa has dropped from 300 a year in 1987 down to about 15 a year more recently.

“If everything is working properly and motorists are heeding the warning devices and not paying attention to their phone, they should be safe. If motorists are heading what’s there to warn them of the railroad crossing, they should heed that, and if everything is working properly, then they will be safe,” Klop says. Klop says Iowa has just under five-thousand railroad crossings with 2,264 that are passive and have no signals. There are 1,128 crossings with gates, 702 with just flashing lights, and 742 where the railroad track goes over or under a bridge. He says any crossing where a car has to drive over the track has some sort of advanced warning for drivers.

“At a bare minimum, it’s federally required that they have a crossbuck sign on either side with a yield sign attached to it. Or in some cases, if an engineering study determined it was necessary, they can put a stop sign there in lieu of the yield sign,” Klop says. Of course, you can have a higher level of safety devices, you have flashing lights and gates or cantilevers over the roadway, with flashing lights on them. Klop says they have 15 to 18 rail signal projects during a typical year, and one to three cases each year where they close a crossing.

By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board yesterday approved the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railroads — a move that eventually will triple train traffic through parts of eastern and southern Iowa.

Board chair Martin Oberman talked about the decision in an online news conference. “One of the underlying factors that we found in this merger is that putting these two small railroads together, will actually provide a stronger competitive landscape in the rail industry visa vie these much larger railroads,” he says.

Oberman says there has been much discussion about the consolidation of the industry — but the board found this to be a unique circumstance.  “One of the key aspects of this merger, which is different from all past mergers that I’m aware of, is that it is end to end. The the roots of CP and KCS do not overlap, they do not serve the same origins and destinations. So there will be no loss of a parallel competitive route by putting these two railroads together,” Oberman says.

He says there are many gateways in the rail system that overlap and give shippers an option and this agreement will protect that.
“This decision imposes a requirement that all of those gateways remain open on the same open terms that exists today without the merger,” Oberman says. “And we imposed a very stringent supervision of that requirements so that it is complied with.”

Oberman says the benefits to the economy from the merger will be substantial. “Single line service between Canada through the United States and Mexico will enhance trade enhanced productivity, enhance shipper opportunities to expand their own businesses. That was one of the key factors that led us to find that this merger is in the public interest,” he says. Oberman also says safety was a factor as he says despite recent events — rail transportation has far fewer accident issues when shipping dangerous materials than shipping on the highway system.

There were hearings in Iowa on the merger and that included people opposed to the increased traffic, noise and plans to shut off some rail crossings. Several cities agreed to settlements with Canadian Pacific to finance improvements around the tracks. Davenport approved a ten million dollar settlement, while Muscatine and Bettendorf each approved three million dollar settlements with the Canadian Pacific.