Well Anons, it looks like the Swamp runs deep in North Dakota too. Anon has been a big fan of Gov Kristi Noem, but she may just be another Sanctimonious. As Q said,,, ‘those you trust the most.’
South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem is silent as out-of-state corporations seize constituent land by eminent domain.
More than 100 South Dakota landowners are faced with eminent domain lawsuits as a major carbon capture company constructs a more than 2,000-mile pipeline spanning the upper midwestern plains.
The pipeline is a project by Summit Carbon Solutions, with the goal of extracting CO2 emissions from midwestern ethanol plants and injecting the liquified gasses deep underground in North Dakota. A process known as carbon sequestration, the pipeline is an effort from the ethanol industry to capitalize on tax incentives offered by reducing corporations’ carbon footprint.
Litigation over the pipeline’s encroachment on private property is now underway across nine counties in the state as rural residents object to the project on their land. Surveyors with Summit Carbon Solutions, however, are reportedly showing up on property while lawsuits remain pending. And the state’s Republican governor, Kristi Noem, is nowhere to be found.
The company is now exploiting the controversial process of eminent domain to strip landowners of their rights to protest the project on their own ground. South Dakota lacks protections for residents to keep companies such as Summit Carbon Solutions off their property until lawsuits are settled. In February, a committee in the Republican-controlled State Senate shot down legislation passed in the House that would have prevented the firm from using eminent domain to capture land rights.
The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution dictates: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” South Dakota has no clear guidelines for utilities to be granted access by eminent domain. Pipeline projects are decided by the circuit courts under the existing state regulations.
The pipeline proposed across five states has provoked a political uproar among farmers in South Dakota who are opposed to the project crossing their property. For months, farmers have organized and protested the corporate exploitation of eminent domain processes to orchestrate an aggressive land grab. Meanwhile, their governor, who campaigned on property rights in her first election to become the state’s chief executive, has remained absent.
Noem’s office did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
“We haven’t heard anything,” said South Dakota State Rep. Karla Lems, who proposed the legislation that would have prevented the weaponization of eminent domain by corporate conglomerates.
“In a normal world with everything Kristi Noem has said and done, you would think she would be standing hand in hand with us on this issue. You would think she would be saying, ‘not on my watch,'” Lems told The Federalist. “Yet she was on Capitol Hill a week-and-a-half ago saying all of the same things [about a federal land grab] all of us have been saying about this project.”
Noem was in Washington D.C. last week to testify alongside GOP Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon before the House Natural Resources Committee against the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed public lands rule. The new regulations establish a framework for conservation leases to preserve federal land and eliminate the bureau’s multiple use mandate.
“In my world, everybody matters,” Noem told lawmakers. “Doesn’t matter if you’re big or small or important or not important. You should listen to them, especially if they’re making a living off the land.”
When it comes to farmers protesting the carbon sequestration pipeline, however, Noem has blown off every rally.
Family Ties
An examination of Noem’s inner circle, which includes close relationships with the state’s chambers of commerce, might reveal why the governor is silent on the corporate land grab in South Dakota.
Summit Carbon Solutions, an Iowa-based firm backed by South Korean investors, was a “Platinum Sponsor” of Noem’s second inauguration.
(SWAMP ALERT:)
Noem’s son-in-law Kyle Peters is also a registered lobbyist for Gevo, a “Colorado-based renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company.” Last summer, Gevo bought 245 acres near South Dakota’s Lake Preston to build a jet fuel plant. In February, the company partnered with Summit Carbon Solutions to handle the new plant’s CO2 emissions. Peters published a post on LinkedIn celebrating a legislative day at the state capitol five months ago, around the same time lawmakers in the upper chamber torpedoed legislation to protect farmers from eminent domain.
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https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/22/where-is-kristi-noem-as-her-corporate-sponsors-take-over-constituents-land/