Thirty-seven Republicans who serve in the state legislature are filing lawsuits in state and federal courts that challenge the Iowa Utilities Commission’s decision to grant Summit Carbon Solutions a permit for its proposed pipeline. Representative Charley Thomson of Charles City, an attorney, is a spokesman for the group.
Summit’s pipeline would qualify for billions in federal tax credits for capturing carbon and storing it permanently underground. Thomson says he’s happy for people to make money, but when state regulators approved the project, Thomson argues the property rights of Iowa landowners who object to the pipeline were violated.
Thomson says there’s a chance the group’s federal lawsuit might wind up in the U-S Supreme Court and lead to overturning a 2005 opinion on the use of eminent domain. The so-called Kelo decision approved the use of eminent domain to seize private property for economic development.
In his dissent, US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas criticized the majority’s decision on eminent domain — saying it meant that while citizens are safe from the government in their homes, the homes themselves are not. State Senator Dave Rowley and Representative Henry Stone, who represent Kossuth County, have signed on to the lawsuit.
