Republican State Sen. Dave Sires spoke in support of private property rights on Wednesday and against the use of eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines.
Sires said his father always said to think and do things in the order of their importance.
He then went through a brief timeline of Summit Carbon Solutions be given authority to use eminent domain for its carbon capture pipeline project.
But Sires said that is an abuse of government power and an abdication of the government’s role of protecting the individual rights of its citizens.
“At its core, government exists to protect the individual rights of its citizens, not to surrender them to private corporations under the guise of economic development,” he said. “Yet over the past few years, Iowa officials have repeatedly failed to defend the property rights of everyday Iowans. We are witnessing the dangerous misuse of public power for private gain.”
Sires said Iowa senators should stand with their constituents, not corporations.
“I call on this body to reject the abuse of eminent domain and to pass meaningful protections for Iowa landowners,” he said. “Let us be the voice for those who feel ignored. Let us be the check on government overreach. And let us restore the principle that, in Iowa, private property still means something.”
