Horowitz: Why is Kristi Noem not standing with South Dakota landowners against green energy eminent domain?

Power and water lines are public needs. Oil and gas pipelines are public goods. Pipelines attempting to capture and store carbon are not a public good. They should be dead on arrival in every red state. Yet it is the red states that hold most of the land and are therefore the battleground for the future of natural energy vs. the Agenda 2030 goal of “net zero” energy. Sadly, not only have GOP governors supported this agenda, but in South Dakota, the governor is declining to fight private-use eminent domain being implemented to steal land for these absurd pipelines subsidized by Biden’s Green New Deal.

Kristi Noem ran for governor on property rights. Last month, she testified before the House Natural Resources Committee about the importance of property rights for farmers and ranchers, stressing the fact that God isn’t making more land. Yet we have the Super Bowl of property rights taking place in her state, with a company tied to many of her donors and former staffers stealing people’s land for a carbon pipeline, and she remains silent.

Last year, Noem told one landowner, Jared Bosley, targeted for eminent domain by Summit Carbon Solutions, "It's out of my hands. ... Am I supposed to fight all your battles?" But what she refuses to say is that the flaw in South Dakota’s law, which allows a carbon pipeline to be designated as a common carrier, thereby bypassing the Public Utilities Commission process, is emphatically in her hands. She is the single most influential Republican in a Republican state. She can propose legislation, and she can make it clear to the legislature that she supports bills removing this carve-out.

This past session, conservatives introduced House Bill 1133, which takes away that favored status being used by shady companies like Summit. It passed 8-5 out of the State Affairs Committee and passed the House 40-28, but was killed in the Senate Commerce Committee. Now, the governor doesn’t always take a side on every bill, but something this big is impossible to ignore. The clear presumption of the GOP senators was that the governor did not support the bill, which is why they were able to kill it. With Noem’s popularity, there is no way her public support for this bill wouldn’t put the bill over the top in a 31-4 GOP Senate.

We have ranchers like Jared Bosley who are now facing restraining orders, while he helplessly watches Summit come onto his land to do surveys for Agenda 2030. This bill could have passed months ago, yet Noem acts as if there is nothing she can do. Are you kidding me? She can call a special session today and demand passage of HB 1133. She could speak out about the injustice of private-use eminent domain for a product that brings zero benefit to the public and actually greases the skids for the “transition” to carbon neutral, which is an agenda no Republican should support in the first place. She could call the local sheriff’s offices and tell them to stop harassing landowners.

Last week, Noem told a Sioux Falls radio show host, “State law needs to change if they want to stop this, and that’s something legislators haven’t been on board with yet.” Well, gee, RINO legislators in a party whose top officials are tied to Summit will not be on board if they think the governor is on the other side. The House already passed the bill, but the more liberal Senate will not move without the governor. Moreover, as people’s homesteads of five generations are destroyed, the legislature won’t be in session until next year, after it’s too late. Only one person can stop that by calling a special session.

Thanks to the pressure, Noem has finally spoken up. “Well, I’m with the landowners and always have been,” Noem told KWAT’s Mike Tanner last week. “I’m a very pro-property rights governor and always have been with all the actions I have taken. I’m shocked at some of those images and things that I’m seeing that’s happening to these farmers and landowners that these pipelines going on. That’s not how the process is supposed to work.”

But again, Noem acts as if this issue just came up after the session and that there was no legislative fight during the session that she tuned out. Moreover, she acts as if she doesn’t have the authority to call a special session and even introduce legislation. In fact, she had a legislator introduce a lockdown bill on her behalf on March 30, 2020.

Thankfully, the House rebuffed it 50-17, and she now takes credit for it, but the point is that she can actually force legislation when she wants. She can easily have someone introduce a bill ending private-use eminent domain in a special session. Conservatives in the legislature badly need her voice.

“Farmers and landowners are pleading for a special session to defend their private property rights from this foreign intrusion,” bemoaned state Rep. Jon Hansen in an interview with Blaze Media. “With a stroke of her pen, Governor Noem can call a special session and demonstrate that she stands with our landowners. For elected officials, talk is not enough. Actions speak louder than words. We need Governor Noem’s leadership to call a special session and help pass a bill to defend private property rights now.”

Hansen, an attorney representing Dell Rapids in the state house, believes there is no greater issue threatening the sovereignty of South Dakotans, especially given that the governor has touted the state as a refuge for those seeking freedom. “Honest, hardworking farmers and South Dakota landowners’ rights are being seized in the name of ‘eminent domain.’ Summit Carbon Solutions, a China-backed company, act like they own South Dakota. They walk onto people’s property, into their buildings, trample over crops with complete disregard, drill 90 feet into the ground and survey the place like they own it. Not to mention bringing armed guards with them. For our farmers and landowners whose rights are being trampled on — this is not freedom.”

On July 6, landowners are hosting a rally at the Capitol, promoted by the South Dakota Freedom Caucus, demanding a special session to make South Dakota sovereign again. The thing is that unlike with most policy issues, this one truly is in the hands of Noem and South Dakota Republicans. If ranchers lose their farms to this green energy scam, we won’t be able to point the finger at Biden, the Democrats, or the media.