Des Moines, IA (Radio Iowa)– A bill in the Iowa House that would set new rules for carbon pipeline development has cleared the subcommittee level.

As written landowners along 90 percent of a pipelines route would have to grant voluntary access before developers could get the okay from state officials to seize the remaining land.

Kevin Kuhle (Keel), a lobbyist for the Iowa Farm Bureau says the organization backs this bill and that “infrastructure projects and property rights can coexist”.

Devon Mogler who represents Green Plains, the company that operates the ethanol plant in Dickinson County, sides with the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association in saying this bill would likely kill the pipeline project intended to make ethanol carbon neutral.

Jake Ketzner, a lobbyist for Summit Carbon Solutions, agrees saying it would be devastating for Iowa is the pipelines do not get built.

Representative Steven Holt of Denison is the lead sponsor of the bill. He says it is not the pipeline itself that he is arguing against.

Three companies have proposed pipelines through the Midwest to capture carbon from ethanol plants and store the material underground in North Dakota.