Guest post by former United States Representative Steve King (R-IA)
Did I miss it? Did I do a Rip Van Winkle and wake up to a Governor Rastetter?
I submit Bruce Rastetter deserves not more power but less than any one Iowa Representative or Senator.
They are all elected and accountable to We the People. Rastetter is not, yet all indications are that he holds a grip on governors, top legislative leaders, and Members of Congress across the Dakotas and Iowa.
Summit Carbon Solutions’ Boondoggle scheme proposes to construct 2500 miles of high-pressure CO2 pipeline across five states. Then collect the CO2 from 57 ethanol plants, pipe it to near the oil fields in North Dakota, and pump it into a 6000 ft deep landfill.
This Boondoggle would be funded by hundreds of billions of our tax dollars and admittedly never show any measurable results.
Rastetter’s Boondoggle was originally conceived by the Swiss-based World Economic Forum (WEF).
Some of the collaborators there are Klaus Schwab, Larry Fink, and George Soros. After selling the scheme all across Europe, the WEF turned to the United States.
Much of America’s Left bit onto the scheme—hook, line, and sinker. Twenty-five years ago, the American Left tried to sell the grandiose plan as “Cap and Trade.”
It was sold into the Biden Administration as AOC’s “Green New Deal” and signed into law in Joe Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act.”
Contained within the Act are hundreds of billions in carbon tax credits. Chief among them is the 45Q credit which pays out $85 per metric ton of CO2 for pumping it into a geological “sand bucket” where it commingles to form hundreds of millions of metric tons of carbonic acid.
Corn Belt ethanol plants emit millions of tons of CO2, a necessary plant food which is released into the air in a very pure form, then returned to the ethanol plants the next year in the kernels of the new corn crop.
Released CO2 from our ethanol plants is likely the largest mass of the purest form of CO2 known anywhere in the world—the lowest of low-hanging fruit.
Hundreds of billions of Boondoggle dollars pumped into a very deep landfill are an awful waste of our tax dollars.
Worse yet, Rastetter’s Summit Carbon Solutions has been unable to negotiate easements through 2,500 miles of the best farmland in the world and for good reason.
They are a private company who has never built a pipeline, let alone the largest of its kind ever proposed. The few who would profit are the elite investors. Hundreds of landowners have refused to sell their property rights to Summit.
That is their God-given and Constitutional right. The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution states, “…nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”
The Summit scheme is demonstrably not a public use. There is no provision for any private company or private person to have the right to condemn the private property of another—none.
Yet, as the various statutes and regulations were shaped over the years, the Iowa Utility Commission (IUC) has assumed the right to confer eminent domain authority on the recipients of the IUC’s pipeline construction permits.
The conditions under section 479.B of the Code of Iowa require every pipeline proposal to be both “convenient and necessary.”
Of course, Summit’s proposal is neither. In order to qualify for eminent domain, Summit would also have to prove they are a common carrier and in the business of transporting a commodity. As a matter of law, Summit would qualify on none of the above requirements.
The South Dakota Supreme Court has ruled that Summit is not proven to be a common carrier or to be transporting a commodity. Summit has recently conceded the case and withdrawn rather than appeal.
Further, South Dakota has just passed a law that prohibits eminent domain for CO2 pipelines. They also restrict survey activities that are necessary prior to pipeline routing design.
In short, practically speaking, it is now nearly impossible to construct a CO2 pipeline in South Dakota. Charting a path to North Dakota around South Dakota is nearly as impossible.
In short, Rastetter’s Boondoggle is effectively dead. In spite of Governor Reynolds hand-picking all three members of the Iowa Utilities Commission.
In spite of some of Iowa’s legislative leadership blocking every piece of new legislation that protects the Constitutional property rights of Iowans. In spite of the Iowa Congressional Delegation being all in for “Governor” Rastetter.
In spite of the myriad of lawsuits that Rastetter has brought against the citizens and governments within the affected states. In spite of the millions in campaign donations to key officeholders and deciders. In spite of the millions of “dark money,” donations slipped into untraceable PACs.
In spite of the full court press of the Terry Branstad political machine. In spite of the unmentionable Chinese investments in Summit’s Boondoggle, perhaps facilitated by Trump’s former ambassador to China.
In spite of Summit pushing to pass legislation in three states, all while claiming “you can’t change the rules in the middle of the game.”
In spite of Summit succeeding in killing almost every piece of legislation brought forward designed to protect the rights of citizens in the affected states…
The voices of We the People have been heard. In Iowa, at least 80% oppose the private company’s overreaching attempt to capture Boondoggle dollars. In South Dakota, the people rose up and repealed the Summit passed attack on the rights of landowners.
Fourteen incumbent Republicans who voted for Rastetter’s agenda were dumped in the June primary and replaced by legislators who are now upholding their oaths of office, having passed into law the ban on eminent domain for CO2 pipelines.
In summary, Bruce Rastetter has a strong ego. He has led an elite group of investors down the primrose path.
The death of his grandiose scheme is a huge blow to his finances and to his ego. He will not go quietly, nor will he go willingly.
It’s up to us to make the declaration and call upon our governor and legislative leaders to step aside and let the agenda of We the People receive votes on the floor of the House and, especially, the Iowa Senate.
There is no doubt property rights legislation will pass in both chambers with as strong a vote as it did in South Dakota. No eminent domain for CO2 pipelines.
Landowners have been under the great stress of the threat of the condemnation of their land for private gain for nearly four years. That is a taking in and of itself. There has to be an end. Let it be now.
South Dakota drove a stake into the heart of Rastetter’s Green New Deal Boondoggle. It’s time for Iowa to put Bruce Rastetter and Summit out of their misery.
Steve King is a former U.S. Representative from Iowa who served in Congress from 2003 to 2021. King had served as chairman of a House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution.
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