We were pleased to learn that the proposed carbon dioxide pipeline through wide areas of the Midwest was dealt a serious blow when South Dakota voters rejected a law passed earlier this year to ease the path of that pipeline’s construction.
Had the law remained intact, Summit Carbon Solutions, an Iowa-based company planning to build the largest carbon sequestration pipeline network in the U.S., and other developers would have been able to supersede all local and county rules, regulations and ordinances that would restrict where they can build a permitted pipeline, according to multiple news articles.
The company’s Midwest Carbon Express pipeline is estimated to cost $8 billion and would run about 2,500 miles, several hundred of which would run through eastern South Dakota and large swaths of Iowa to North Dakota for underground storage.
This pipeline is a blatant money grab for green-energy related monies and tax credits from the federal government under the guise of trying to preserve the ethanol industry.
“South Dakota voters have spoken: South Dakota is not for sale,” said landowner Ed Fischbach in a statement. “Summit and its big-moneyed partners thought they could buy the votes as easily as they bought the Legislature. They outspent us by over tenfold, but voters saw through their lies.”
There are conflicting messages regarding whether or not this repeal of the law in South Dakota will stop Summit from continuing its efforts across the Midwest.
To be clear, we aren’t necessarily opposed to the use of pipelines, but we are opposed to private companies acquiring private land through eminent domain, which had been approved by the Iowa Utilities Commission earlier this year. That is a reckless overreach that has no place in the Midwest or across the U.S.
The point should be made, however, that lawmakers and policymakers in states like Iowa who push through ill-advised policies that compromise property rights may ultimately get rejected like the law in South Dakota.
Goodbye Toyota Financial
At its peak, Toyota Financial Services had 600 employees in Cedar Rapids. The remaining 54 positions still in Cedar Rapids are being relocated to other Toyota locations across the country after the company recently filed a notice of its pending action with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the Iowa Workforce Development.
This loss of jobs and wealth in the community is just another example of the changing economic landscape and the need for communities and regions to continually have their foot on the economic development pedal.
Fortunately, Cedar Rapids is still on an economic development hot streak, and this minor speed bump shouldn’t be too painful.
