MITCHELL, S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) As we go to the polls on November 5th, let’s vote NO on Referred Law 21. Our no vote will push back against an out-of-state company that has captured the state legislature. Summit Carbon Solutions is the sole reason behind our struggle to preserve our local control. We must fight to keep it.

During the past several years, Iowa-based Summit failed to convince South Dakotans that its proposal for a massive 2,500-mile carbon dioxide pipeline would be beneficial. This pipeline would collect carbon dioxide from ethanol plants in five states and transport it to North Dakota. The pipeline will run through our fields, next to our homes and schools, and along the roads we, and our children, travel each day. The CO2 will be highly pressurized, and some of the lines will be 24 inches in diameter and only buried 4 feet deep. Pressurized CO2 is an asphyxiant; a rupture would be catastrophic for a community.

When Summit failed to convince landowners to allow easements for risky pipelines, they threatened to seize the land through eminent domain. To no-one’s surprise, except perhaps Summit’s, that tactic was not well-received. When their land grab got contentious, South Dakotans started fighting back in their local communities and passing county setbacks.

Summit then failed to convince the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of its readiness to build this pipeline. Because of their failure to obtain easements and inability to meet our reasonable county ordinances, Summit wasn’t able to get their permit from the PUC last fall.
Most recently, they also failed to convince the South Dakota Supreme Court that they should be allowed to use eminent domain to obtain easements because they have been calling themselves a common carrier, like railroads and utility transmission lines. The court disagreed and sided with landowners. That’s a pretty poor track record.

Summit realized that if it couldn’t fool the people of South Dakota, they would simply fool some legislators into doing their bidding. Surely the rest of us would fall in line, right? Wrong again, Summit.
The company hired some South Dakota lobbyists, cozied up to a handful of legislators, and managed to get Senate Bill 201 introduced during the last legislative session. The bill strips local control from the counties over these types of projects and hands all that power to the state PUC, a three-person commission. No matter what your county has decided, it will be overruled by the PUC. People were outraged and descended upon the state capitol to protest its passage.

Rather than just killing the bill, legislators kept trying to tweak the bill into something that the people would swallow. And who else was present at these backroom meetings – Summit’s attorneys. That answers the question of who benefits from the bill, and it’s not us.

The legislature passed the bill, now touted as a “landowner bill of rights,” and the governor signed it. I’m sure Summit was relieved with their successful capture of our state government. However, a group of folks got together and started a petition to refer this egregious law to a vote of the people. They collected over 31,000 signatures, and now we have a say on Election Day.

We didn’t ask for this law; we don’t want it. On Nov. 5th let’s stand up for our rights and local control and vote NO on Referred Law 21.

Ed Fischbach

Ed Fischbach is an impacted landowner initially crossed by the pipeline route in Spink County and a board member of Dakota Rural Action.