South Dakotan voters have won the final say in a controversial carbon pipeline bill.
The campaign to repeal Senate Bill 201 needed 17,508 signatures to force a statewide vote on the legislation this November. On Monday, they turned in over 34,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office.
“South Dakota Is Not For Sale”
For months, a proposed carbon pipeline project has created conflict in the upper Midwest, pitting landowners against corporate interests. Ignored by their Republican House, Senate, and governor, a group of South Dakotans decided to fight back.
“What were they trying to accomplish with Senate Bill 201 if it wasn’t to take control and give power to this pipeline project?” Jim Eschenbaum, chair of the South Dakota Property Rights and Local Control Alliance, told Dakota News Now. “We think SB201 is bad legislation, it’s authoritarian government, it’s just a bad idea.”
SB201, dubbed the Landowner Bill of Rights, was among a handful of pipeline bills signed into law by Governor Kristi Noem, a Republican, from South Dakota’s most recent legislative session. Opponents say these bills paved the way for a privately-owned carbon pipeline company to seize land across the state.
Among other provisions, SB201 would allow the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to override any county ordinances interfering with Summit Carbon Solutions’ pipeline plans, essentially bulldozing local wishes in favor of corporate interests.
“As a county commissioner, I will say I’m not against the pipeline if all our landowners are on board,” said Mr. Eschenbaum, though noting that he personally thinks the project is “hooey.” “But I will stand up for that last landowner who says they don’t want it. I’ve said from the start, they make elbows for pipes for a reason. Go around it.”
Despite pushback, Governor Noem signed SB201 into law. This referendum effort was voters’ last opportunity to kill the contested bill.
Ranchers Say SB201 Strips Property Rights
“SB201, wrongly titled the ‘Landowner Bill of Rights,’ is a bait-and-switch bill pushed forward by our politicians who want to grease the wheels for one private, out-of-state Green New Deal carbon sequestration project,” Amanda Radke, a leading organizer for the campaign to repeal SB201, told UNWON. “Using the cover of ‘economic development’ and ‘value-added agriculture,’ SB201 is really a land grab and a bill of sale, trampling on our private property rights and stripping away local governance.”
Ms. Radke, an author and cattle rancher, warns that the bill would be a dangerous model for other states.
“What’s even scarier, is it sets an awful precedent for more to come. We the people of South Dakota have a strong message for these politicians — we may be open for business in this state, but we are not for sale; we will not yield our private property rights, and we will not bend to the big brother nanny state seizing control from communities.”
28,000 Signatures Gathered to Force a Vote
Despite what officials referred to as “unprecedented flooding,” South Dakotans turned out en masse to provide enough signatures to force the vote, which many see as a handout to big money interests at the expense of citizens’ rights.
This November, South Dakotans will have the chance to decide for themselves whether they want to allow eminent domain for the pipeline.
Summit Carbon Solutions plans to build a pipeline that will collect CO2 from 57 ethanol plants in South Dakota and neighboring states, transporting it to North Dakota where it will be stored underground. Iowa has granted authority for the pipeline project and associated eminent domain action, but the company has yet to secure approval from North and South Dakota.
The company plans to resubmit their application for the project to the SD PUC sometime next month. The PUC denied their application last year.
