DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Television Iowa Capitol Bureau) – A group of landowners, lawmakers, and local governments say the Iowa Utilities Commission made the wrong call when it gave the green light for a carbon capture pipeline. The IUC granted Summit Carbon Solutions the power to access unwilling landowners’ land to build it.

Republican State Rep. Charley Thomson of Charles City is leading three dozen republican state legislators’ appeal to the Iowa Utilities Commission.

Thomson says the IUC made its ruling on the project with unanswered questions about the project’s safety and benefit to the public. “The whole thing is written as if they had a conclusion they wanted to reach and then they had certain things they wanted, points they wanted to make sure that they had touched on,” Thomson said.

Summit says its project will eliminate enough carbon to equal taking 4 million cars a year off the roads, but Thomson doubts that. “It’s a little like very slowly like trying to drain Lake Michigan or Lake Superior into a mason jar using a tablespoon,” Thomson said.

The pipeline will run more than a third of the counties in Iowa.

Thomson says not everyone who will be impacted got to talk to the commission before the decision. “If you had a house in proximity but not over the pipeline route, even though you are at risk safety wise of something happening with this and you getting killed, they didn’t want to hear from you,” Thomson said.

Local governments are also asking the commission to take another look.

While Summit says the total project across multiple states will bring an investment of $8 billion to the region, Steve Kenkel with the Shelby County Board of Supervisors says it could hurt their economic development. “The new residential, the new commercial property out there, that’s our tax base. That’s how we grow down the road and if that starts erode, who’s going to want to build around this?,” Kenkel said.

Summit says 75% of landowners have signed voluntary agreements with the company to allow the company to build under their land. Despite that, Thomson says it’s still fair to ask everyone to go through the project approval process all over again. “Keep in mind our constitution is designed to protect the people with unpopular opinions or unpopular positions in litigation,” Thomson said.

The IUC has 30 days to review the request to reconsider. If they decline to revisit the matter, Thomson says they’re exploring their legal options through the courts.

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Conner Hendricks covers state government and politics for Gray Television-owned stations in Iowa. Email him at conner.hendricks@gray.tv; and follow him on Facebook at Conner Hendricks TV or on X/Twitter @ConnerReports.

Copyright 2024 KCRG. All rights reserved.

MILWAUKEE — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned Iowa’s delegation to the Republican National Convention to be prepared for Democrats to push President Joe Biden aside and name a new presidential candidate ahead of November’s election.

“I hope and pray that they don’t take that nomination away from him,” DeSantis told the group Wednesday. “We want him to be the Democratic nominee. And I will be rooting for him.”

DeSantis said Biden’s shaky debate performance in late June showed he is not fit for office.

He warned Iowa Republicans that “the knives are out” for Biden among Democrats.

Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., became the most prominent Democratic lawmaker so far to publicly push Biden to step aside. In a statement Wednesday, Schiff said he has “serious concerns” about Biden’s chances in November.

“I think we need to prepare that something can happen, and something probably will,” DeSantis said. “Democrats usually don’t just cede power. You know, they usually go down kicking and screaming. So be ready.”

He said he expects the media to prop up a new candidate with “hundreds of millions of dollars in positive coverage” in an effort to beat Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump.

The Florida governor, who campaigned in Iowa aggressively ahead of the 2024 Republican caucuses, addressed the delegation on the third day of the national convention his well-received primetime convention speech Tuesday night.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa was also on hand, and she too gloated over Biden’s dismal political outlook.  

“Oh my gosh, folks,” she said. “He is on a nosedive. And the sad thing is they’ve dug in so deep at this point, how on earth did they get rid of him?”

She said Republicans are feeling so confident that they’ve “started measuring curtains” for the Virginia Senate office.

“While I don’t want to say we’re going to waltz into the White House with Donald J. Trump this fall, we can’t take it for granted,” Ernst said. “I don’t want you to take it for granted. But I can tell you with the enthusiasm and the excitement that we have felt during this convention, and what we will feel leading up to the election, we are going to sweep this election not just for President Trump, but we’re going to see a majority in the United States Senate.”

The Iowa delegation gathered for lunch Wednesday on a veranda overlooking sailboats on an expansive Lake Michigan at the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum just outside of downtown Milwaukee.

More: 2028 presidential hopefuls seek to make their mark at Republican National Convention

The early chatter about the 2028 presidential cycle hovered over the group, which was also visited by 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas on Tuesday.

Iowa Republicans expect to once again hold the state’s traditional first-in-the-nation caucuses to launch the 2028 presidential nominating contest. And their delegation events are historically well attended by those with future White House aspirations.

DeSantis finished a distant second place in the 2024 Iowa caucuses behind Trump. But at 45, he still has a long political runway ahead of him.

Those ambitions may be clouded by the selection of Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance as Trump’s running mate, making Vance the heir-apparent to Trump’s powerful MAGA legacy and an instant 2028 contender.

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. She is also covering the 2024 presidential race for USA TODAY as a senior national campaign correspondent. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (KCRG) – Iowa attorney general Brenna Bird got her moment in the RNC spotlight on Tuesday night.

She spoke about what she said are efforts by the Biden Administration to defund the police.

“Never forget, the Democratic Party is the party of defunding the police,” Bird said. “They said it, they mean it, and they can’t wiggle out of it. Republicans get justice for victims, and we put criminals where they belong, in jail.”

Bird also commended Trump in her speech for attending the wake of a fallen New York Police Officer.

Copyright 2024 KCRG. All rights reserved.