LETTER: Who, what are Senators, Gov. Reynolds afraid of on protecting private property rights

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As a Summit Exhibit H landowners  we have heard over and over again from Summit, Senate Leadership and Governor Reynolds that:

“It isn’t fair to change the rules in the middle of the game”

I wish this applied to us as landowners who have had our lives in turmoil since we heard we were to be affected by a Hazardous C02 pipeline.

We had not planned on having to defend our farms from a Privately owned company with foreign investors

We had not planned on spending countless hours talking to and writing letters to Legislators, only to have it fall on deaf ears.

We had not planned on having to pay lawyer fees to help us protect our property rights.

We had not counted on all of the sleepless nights and stress.

We had not expected all of the harassing phone calls from land agents trying to bully us into signing an easement.

We had not expected Security guards coming with survey crews, who carried no form of identification with them, even after telling Summit they could not survey until  they brought an injunction

We did not plan on Summit threatening to sue our counties, if they tried to write ordinances to protect the landowners in their counties.

We did not plan on having two new members to the IUB after a year and a half dealing with the other board.

We did not plan on a new Consumer Advocate, who did not help us and only rarely showed his face at the IUB hearings.

We did not plan on the IUB hearing being moved to August, when we had requested not to have it that soon, but after harvest. Even board member Josh Byrnes was originally against the August hearing date.

We did not plan on having to go through such strict security measures at the IUB hearing. Only 3 allowed in at a time, women having to empty their purses and being wanded. Even a canine unit greeted us one day. Yet IUB members and those with  Summit came through a different door without security and had their own area behind the black curtain to meet and have food catered in. At the beginning we were not even allowed to bring in water, cell phones or laptops.

For the first time in my life I felt like what it must feel like to live in a Communist country. We were made to feel like criminals.

We did not plan on the same security company, OVERWATCH, that Summit has used in North and South Dakota and Iowa with their survey crews, would be the security company the IUB would hire for the hearings. They were just at our farm the month before.

We did not know that our neighbors, some of whom live closer to the pipeline than we owners would not be allowed to testify. My neighbors have never been told about the pipeline from Summit. Many tenants have also not been notified by Summit.

We did not know the difference between landowner testimony, intervenor testimony, and intervenor testimony with a lawyer. We all had a designated area we were to sit during the hearing. We were not allowed to get up and walk around, although some Ethanol managers were standing in the back for over half an hour while testimonies were going on.

We did not expect Board Chair Hellend to run the hearing. We expected a non-partisan Administrative law judge to be there, since that’s what the IUB had discussed earlier.

We did not expect IUB board members missing during the hearings. I myself was scheduled 3 different times to testify. Board member Byrnes had brought up our alternative route with one of Summit’s witnesses and I had hoped to explain it to Board Member Byrnes, but he had already left for the day.

We did not know exactly when we would be scheduled to testify until the Thursday before the next week. We never knew when they would start or end the day. My testimony started at 5 p.m., they took an hour break at 5:30 and then I resumed testimony at 6:30  One landowner had to quickly book a flight to be able to testify the next week.

WE DID NOT EXPECT THAT OUR SENATE LEADERSHIP AND  OUR GOVERNOR WOULD NOT DEFEND US AS LANDOWNERS AND OUR PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS WHEN IT IS IN OUR REPUBLICAN PLATFORM AND WHAT YOU HAVE DEFENDED IN THE PAST.

We do not understand how a political donor and his private company can hold so much power over our Governor and our Senate leadership. This reminds me of the bully on a playground.

Or much like David and Goliath in the Bible.  It is time to take a stand against the bully and stand up for landowners and private property rights.

What and who are you afraid of?

• Kathy Stockdale

Author: Letter To the editor