To the editor:

A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll in March showed that nearly 80% of Iowans oppose the use of eminent domain for a carbon pipeline. I hope the Iowa Utility Board follows the wishes of nearly 80% of the Iowans and votes against eminent domain.

In my opinion the laws pertaining to eminent domain were not written for a few investors to enter personal property against the owner’s will for their own personal financial gain. The use of eminent domain by a carbon pipeline company is not the American way.

What Summit Pipeline proposes to do is an invasion of the owner’s property rights. Our country was founded on respect for property rights and following the will of the majority of the people. The almost 80% who oppose eminent domain have been kept in the dark.

The Summit Pipeline people have the potential to receive about $18.4 billion dollars of federal taxpayer dollars over 12 years. The farmers whose land will be damaged and their tile lines busted up “receive peanuts” compared to the 18.4 billion the owners of the pipeline have the potential to receive.

There are newer and better ways to get rid of carbon than putting it in a hazardous pipeline. We certainly do not want another carbon pipeline break like they had in Mississippi. Any carbon pipeline in the near future will be obsolete before it is completed. New technology is being introduced that is better and safer than a carbon pipeline.

Some of the politicians, who represent the voters, have not been totally open about what is going on. The Iowa House brought up the pipeline issue and had a vote, but the Iowa Senate did not bring the pipeline issue up for discussion. This was a planned program. They did not bring up the issue as they did not want the people who elected them (to) know how they stood on the issue. Some of them did not want to vote on the issue as that would show if they supported or did not support the pipeline issue and they did not want the voters to know if they supported eminent domain.

The risks and damages caused by the pipeline exceed the benefits of the pipeline in my opinion. This is why I oppose the pipeline.

Bob Van Diest

Webster City