The proposed Bakken pipeline is one of the most urgent issues facing Iowa’s environmental community. The Texas-based company Energy Transfer Partners wants to build the pipeline to transport crude oil from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to Illinois, crossing eighteen Iowa counties in the process. Governor Terry Branstad has made clear he won’t support any legislative action to stop the pipeline. That will leave the initial decision up to the Iowa Utilities Board, though approval by other state and federal agencies would be needed later; more details on that are below.
Two dozen non-profit groups have formed a coalition to fight the pipeline. You can keep up with their work on Facebook or at the No Bakken website. I’m active with several of the coalition members and enclosed the full list after the jump. The Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter outlined some of the key concerns concisely and explained how members of the public can submit comments.
Former state legislator Ed Fallon, who ran for governor in 2006 and for Congress in 2008, is kicking off a 400-mile walk along the proposed pipeline route today, starting from southeast Iowa and heading northwest over the next several weeks. I’ve enclosed below an excerpt from his first e-mail update about the walk, in which Fallon recounts a conversation with Lee County farmers whose land lies along the proposed pipeline route. Click here to view upcoming events, including a public meetings for residents of Lee County this evening, for Van Buren County residents in Birmingham on March 5, and for Jefferson County residents in Fairfield on March 6.
The latest Iowa poll conducted by Selzer & Co for the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics found that a majority of Iowans support the Bakken pipeline, but a larger majority oppose using eminent domain to seize land for the pipeline. Excerpts from the Iowa poll findings are at the end of this post.
Any relevant comments are welcome in this thread.
P.S. – The company that wants to build the pipeline has claimed “the project would have an Iowa economic impact of $1.1 billion during two years of construction, creating enough work to keep 7,600 workers employed for a year.” Economist Dave Swenson explained here why such estimates are misleading.
Although the three current Iowa Utility Board members are considered corporate-friendly, they might not approve the Bakken project a key pipeline opponent explained to the Des Moines Register a few weeks ago.
Wallace Taylor of Cedar Rapids, a lawyer for the Sierra Club, said he strongly rejects implications by some pipeline supporters that approval by the Iowa Utilities Board is a foregone conclusion. The proposed pipeline is an unprecedented project for Iowa because, unlike electrical generating plants and many other projects proposed by the energy industry to the Iowa Utilities Board, the Bakken pipeline would not serve Iowa utility customers, he said.
“This project has no benefit to Iowa, and in fact damages our land, our water and our people,” Taylor said.
There are many hurdles that Dakota Access must clear before receiving authorization to construct the pipeline, including environmental approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Taylor said. He made it clear the Sierra Club will fight the project every step of the way, and before every state and federal agency.
Member organizations of the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition:
100 Grannies for a Livable Future
1000 Friends of Iowa
Allamakee County Protectors
Citizens’ Climate Lobby (Ames Chapter & Des Moines Chapter)
Drake Environmental Action League
Des Moines Student Activism Network
Food & Water Watch
Iowa Audubon Society
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
Iowa Climate Advocates
Iowa Farmers Union
Iowa Interfaith Power & Light
Iowa Ornithologist’s Union
Iowa Pipeline Abatement Group
Iowa Renewable Energy Association
Iowa State University ActivUs
Iowa State University Sustainable Agriculture Student Association
League of Women Voters of Iowa
No Bakken Here
Occupy the World Food Prize
Science & Environmental Health Network
Sierra Club (Iowa Chapter)
Women, Food & Agriculture Network
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Des Moines
Excerpt from Ed Fallon’s e-mail to supporters on March 2:
I’ve not even taken the first step of my walk and I’m already meeting landowners opposed to the Bakken Oil Pipeline. Last night I had dinner with Hughie Tweedy at a Lee County farmhouse. Hughie is a colorful, fiercely independent farmer whose homestead is just a few farms west of the Mississippi River – and directly in the path of the pipeline. A forest that Hughie and his Dad before him planted and cared for would be torn to pieces if the pipeline were built. Hughie considers his land sacred, and cannot understand how anyone would condemn it for an oil pipeline.
Hughie informed the pipeline company that, in no uncertain terms, his land was not for sale, not for a million bucks. His neighbors don’t want a pipeline coming through their land either, but many feel helpless, resigned to the notion that “you can’t beat City Hall.”
Last night, I told Hughie about some of the nearly two dozen eminent domain battles I was involved with back in the 1990s and 2000s. I told him how farmers and landowners banded together to stop developers who wanted to take their land. Often it was for a lake or an airport, sometimes for a mall or a four-lane highway. When people in the path of these projects stood firm – and got others to stand with them – more often than not, they won.
Hughie is one of several Iowans featured in a documentary focused on Iowans fighting against the misuse of eminent domain. Last night, our evening went late as the documentary crew filled the living room with cameras and equipment and captured much of our conversation.
Today, I head down to the Mississippi River for the first leg of my journey. I’ll take with me cedar, sage and sweet grass given to me by my Native American friend from Earlham, Robert Knuth. Following Robert’s instructions, I’ll offer a prayer of protection for the land threatened by this pipeline, and a prayer that Hughie Tweedy and all caretakers of the land will continue to stand strong.
From the March 2 Des Moines Register:
Fifty-seven percent of Iowans favor the proposed Bakken oil pipeline, which would cross 343 miles through Iowa while transporting North Dakota crude oil to Illinois. Thirty-two percent are opposed, and 11 percent are not sure.
The proposed Rock Island Clean Line, which would cross about 375 miles through Iowa while carrying electricity generated from wind turbines into Illinois, is backed by 64 percent of Iowans. Twenty-four percent are opposed, and 12 percent are not sure.
But Iowans firmly oppose eminent domain being used for the projects. The companies seeking to build the underground pipeline and the overhead transmission line are both asking the Iowa Utilities Board for the right to use eminent domain. This would allow a company to take private land for right of way over a property owner’s objections, after paying fair market compensation.
Only 19 percent of Iowans favor allowing the use of eminent domain to build pipelines or transmission lines, while 74 percent are opposed and 7 percent are not sure.
Selzer & Co interviewed 807 Iowans between February 15 and 18, producing a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.