A House Republican proposal to extend federal eminent domain power to developers of oil, hydrogen and carbon dioxide pipelines would rewrite decades of oversight — and likely anger a swath of rural voters.
The proposal was rolled out as one small part of the GOP party-line megabill that the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced this week.
Easing regulatory requirements on pipelines has already drawn the ire of environmental groups, who oppose new fossil fuel projects. The fate of the reconciliation bill remains up in the air, meaning the pipeline provision could still be altered or deleted.
But moving to broaden companies’ ability to take property from unwilling sellers stands to upset rural Republicans who have increasingly protested the use of eminent domain by private pipeline builders. In particular, landowner opposition in Iowa and South Dakota has derailed a 2,500-mile carbon dioxide pipeline network proposed for six states in the Midwest. Opponents see the reconciliation proposal as an effort to revive the project from Summit Carbon Solutions.
