North Dakota
Doug Burgum’s support for carbon pipelines could spell presidential campaign trouble in Iowa
FARGO — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has spent a good portion of his time on the presidential campaign trail in Iowa, where he’s been able to leverage his small-town Midwestern roots and familiarity with agriculture.
Of all the Republican presidential candidates, Burgum may be uniquely qualified to campaign in Iowa, which is home to the first contest in the presidential primaries. But his position on one issue of particular importance to rural voters could pose a challenge for his campaign.
Disputes surrounding the construction of carbon dioxide-carrying pipelines are a hot-button issue in Iowa, and Burgum is a big supporter of one of the projects, which could be key for offsetting North Dakota’s climate change-linked greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2021, Burgum made an unusual move for a Republican governor of a top oil-producing state:
He called for North Dakota to become carbon neutral by 2030.
How does a state that produces more than a million barrels of oil a day aim to offset its emissions? By piping in CO2 from other states.
Projects to do just that are happening in Iowa, where three companies are seeking to build pipelines from Iowa ethanol plants to carry liquefied CO2 out of state for storage in an effort to combat climate change.
Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions is in the process of developing a 2,000-mile pipeline that would carry emissions from ethanol plants in Iowa across five states to be stored in underground rock formations in North Dakota. Permit discussions with regulators in states along the route are ongoing.
Burgum is one of the project’s biggest cheerleaders. In the past, he defended using eminent domain to make landowners sell access for pipelines to developers. He
defended the practice
at an Iowa campaign event in July, the Des Moines Register reported.
“We wouldn’t have an interstate highway system. We wouldn’t have the transcontinental railroads. We wouldn’t have just about anything in this country (without eminent domain),” the newspaper quoted Burgum as saying. “It’s very difficult to get 100% of people to agree. The important thing is that they have an opportunity in that process to be heard and be fairly compensated.”
Pipeline projects are highly controversial in rural Iowa, and polling suggests the vast majority of Iowans are opposed to the use of eminent domain to build them. A 2023
Des Moines Register poll
found more than 3 in 4 Iowans oppose eminent domain use in carbon-capture pipeline projects.
There’s also been a push in that state’s Legislature to ban the use of eminent domain for those projects. A bill passed in the state’s House earlier this year but never got a hearing in the Senate.
At a campaign event earlier in September,
Burgum clashed with a group of voters
on the pipeline issue, according to an NBC report. One voter accused Burgum of being a supporter of eminent domain, a characterization the governor disputed.
Pipeline opposition has led to unlikely alliances between landowners and environmental activists. Less than 10 years ago, both Iowa farmers and the Sierra Club found themselves opposing the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline through the state. Now, they’re working together again to oppose the construction of pipelines carrying carbon dioxide out of the state.
Environmentalists oppose the disruptions caused by pipeline construction and see carbon-capture projects as wishful thinking or a ploy by polluters attempting to continue greenhouse gas-emitting activities.
But it’s Iowa farmers and landowners, who tend to lean conservative, whom Burgum needs to worry about in the nation’s first presidential primary next year. According to the Des Moines Register, 72% of Iowa Republicans oppose eminent domain for carbon projects.
Some farmers don’t want their land dug up for pipeline construction, and there’s a chance government approval for projects would give the developers eminent domain rights, allowing them to build without permission.
That hasn’t happened for the carbon pipeline projects in Iowa, but it has in the past for other pipelines, including Dakota Access, and developers could do that again. Summit has told Iowa lawmakers it will need eminent domain to complete the project.
While carbon pipelines don’t run the risk of spilling thousands of gallons of a hazardous substance like oil pipelines do, they aren’t 100% safe. A carbon pipeline explosion in Mississippi sent more than 40 people to the hospital in 2020.
Although there are not many safety incidents with CO2 pipelines, opponents say what happened in Mississippi shows the public should exercise caution. With
billions in federal dollars available for CO2 capture
and storage projects and Biden administration support for thousands of miles of pipeline, networks could grow.
Burgum has downplayed safety concerns about the pipelines in the past, telling the editorial board of The Bismarck Tribune that North Dakota has had pipelines operate safely for decades.
He
told the board
that critics of pipelines are “Trying to turn carbon and CO2 into the devil element on the periodic table,” and that carbon sequestration could actually help solve major environmental problems.
North Dakota
Sen. Kevin Cramer says competition is 'better for all of us’ as he runs for reelection
GRAND FORKS — Running as a United States senator is very different from running for the U.S. House of Representatives, according to U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer.
“In the House, we did it all the time, because you’re up for election every two years, so you’re always both campaigning and working,” he said. “The Senate, after six years of not campaigning, it’ll be interesting now just to have a month to do exactly that.”
Cramer, a Republican, is running for reelection for another six-year term. He was first elected to the Senate in 2018, ousting then-incumbent Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. This year, Cramer faces
Democratic candidate Katrina Christiansen
. The pair will debate on Oct. 2 on Prairie Public.
Cramer won his primary,
competing unopposed during the June primary,
and said that now, with roughly a month to Election Day and voting already underway, he’ll be ramping up his campaign.
“I’ve been very intentional about — and I’ve generally done this throughout my career — setting specific benchmarks and key darts starting when ballots go out,” he said. “I started my advertising on the first day that ballots could go out for absentee (voters).
“Too many candidates that I’ve watched over my career start advertising really early in the year, and they spend a lot of money before Labor Day, which is almost like not spending at all,” he continued.
Ballots for overseas and military North Dakota voters were sent out Sept. 20, but the vast majority of absentee ballots become available Sept. 26. In-person early voting where available generally starts two weeks to a week before the general election, depending on the county.
Cramer said some of his Senate colleagues, like Sen. Jon Tester of Montana and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who are also running for reelection, have been advertising for well over a year. He doesn’t view that as being as helpful as focusing on the month before the election.
“We’ve got a pretty complete plan that is already fully funded and now in motion for the next six weeks,” Cramer said.
This is Cramer’s first reelection for the Senate seat. Cramer was first elected to federal office in 2012 and served three terms in the House as North Dakota’s sole representative. Being in the Senate allows him to do more work that focuses on the state, he said.
“In North Dakota, we have the great blessing of being a small state with two senators, rather than a very large state with two senators,” he said. “That affords people like me that for six years, you do your job, and if you’re transparent and you’re able to talk to the media and talk to your constituents, it makes campaigning a lot easier.”
Having some competition in the race is a good thing, Cramer said.
“She seems to be better prepared — and you would be,” he said, referring to the fact that Christiansen has run multiple campaigns now. “I lost three elections before I started winning them, and so you do get better each time. She dives real into the deep end, and I think it makes for a much more interesting campaign. I think it’s better for all of us.”
Voigt covers government in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.
North Dakota
Illinois State vs. North Dakota State channel, time, schedule, live stream to watch Week 5 college football game | Sporting News
Ella Morrissey is a freelance writer for The Sporting News ‘Watch’ team, covering all major North American sports carried on streaming services such as Fubo, Sling, Paramount+, DAZN, Apple+ and more. She is a graduate of Lehigh University, where she served as the sports editor of her college newspaper. Prior to joining The Sporting News, Ella worked in media relations with the New York City Football Club and currently helps to cover the WNBA for Winsidr. When not writing articles for TSN, Ella enjoys going to concerts, live sporting events and reading mystery novels.
North Dakota
Plain Talk: Proponent and opponent debate North Dakota's Measure 5 legalization of marijuana
MINOT — Steve Bakken is the former mayor of Bismarck, and the chair of the committee backing Measure 5, which seeks to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota.
Pat Finken is a longtime advertising professional and political activist. He’s a part of the coalition opposing Measure 5.
These gentlemen came together on Plain Talk to make their respective cases. The contrasts in their arguments, as you might expect, were sharp.
Bakken says Measure 5 is a “very conservative” legalization that gives state officials plenty of latitude to regulate lawful use of the drug. The measure “gives all the power to the state,” he said.
But Finken painted the measure as exacerbating North Dakota’s existing problems with substance abuse. “The marijuana of today is not safe,” he said. “It’s 10 times more powerful” than what Americans may have been smoking in past decades. He rejected the argument that marijuana legalization is inevitable, saying that even if North Dakota were the last state in the union without legal access for recreational use, he wouldn’t mind it.
“I’m perfectly content for North Dakota to remain an island,” he said.
Bakken, for his part, argued that Finken’s alarmism is out of date. “That reefer madness mentality goes back to the 50s.”
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