By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)
Senate Republican Leader Mike Klimesh is proposing a bill to let Summit Carbon redraw its proposed pipeline route to avoid land owned by people who will not sign voluntary easements. He’s introducing another bill that would tax the liquid carbon flowing through the pipeline, too.
“I’d like to get this done as soon as possible. We have a lot of other important work to do this year and this is very important…and that’s why we’re introducing it early on in the session,” Klimesh said this morning during a news conference. “I don’t want this to be an issue that lingers. I want us to come to consensus with the House, find a path forward, open up access to different markets for Iowa farmers who are desperately looking for relief right now and put this behind us in a meaningful way that benefits all landowners.”
Klimesh predicts corn prices could go up by as much as a dollar per bushel if the pipeline is built and the carbon is used to extract oil in Wyoming. “230 miles of pipeline was built through Kansas and Colorado to bring jet fuel to the Denver International Airport and that whole pipeline projec was built without using eminent domain once,” Klimesh said, “and that’s because those states have policies similar to the one I’m proposing in Iowa.”
Key House Republicans have criticized the idea, saying it would still let Summit Carbon use eminent domain authority to seize some land along the pipeline route. House Republicans have introduced legislation that would block Summit Carbon from using eminent domain. The tax Klimesh proposes would be a fee for each metric ton of carbon that flows through a pipeline in Iowa.
“States that have natural resources, underground resources, place a severance tax on that and typically it’s by the barrel, so Wyoming for example places a severance tax on every barrel of oil they draw from the ground and that severance tax has allowed those states to go to zero income tax,” Klimesh said, adding that’s his goal, using a severance tax that would eliminate Iowa’s income tax.
