Bill switcheroo would delay eminent domain for pipelines

In an 11th-hour gambit to give more bargaining power to landowners in the path of proposed carbon pipelines, Republicans in the Iowa House converted a cosmetology bill into a one-year moratorium on the use of eminent domain for the pipelines.

“The reason we are addressing eminent domain today is because landowners who are potentially impacted want certainty,” said Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, chairperson of the House State Government committee that narrowly advanced the amended bill. “I am not anti-pipeline.”