Speaker Jon Hansen@SpeakerHansen
Property rights are under attack again.
A House Energy and Commerce proposal for the budget reconciliation bill would override state laws that protect landowners’ private property rights from being taken by Green New Deal carbon sequestration pipeline companies.
The proposal (in the photos below) blocks any state or local law that requires approval for a carbon pipeline’s location.
By taking away our right to approve or disapprove a carbon pipeline’s location, our people’s God-given private property rights and the landowner protections we’ve fought hard to put in place are dismantled. It strips our state of the power to ensure that these projects follow the law and do not pose a serious risk to health or safety. It infringes on our constitutional right to self-governance.
In South Dakota—and across the Midwest—our people have poured out their blood, sweat, and tears to defend private property rights. We’ve endured threats, intimidation, lawsuits, big money deceptive political campaigns, and a fake “landowner rights” bill drafted by carbon pipeline lobbyists that was really just a tool to take away local control.
We’ve said NO to these companies and this project again and again. We’ve passed landmark laws protecting landowner rights. But apparently, “no” doesn’t mean “no” to them—and now it looks like politicians in Washington are trying to give them federal power to take what isn’t theirs, for a project the people do not want.
The photo of the armed guard in the post below was taken on the land of a friend and fellow patriot who was made a prisoner on his own property—while a foreign-backed, out-of-state company brought armed guards to survey his land and force a dangerous carbon pipeline onto it. A pipeline he never wanted. That is not American freedom.
And now, some in Washington, D.C. want to force that on us again.
Why? Because some politically connected company cut a check to their campaign? Because they’ve never met a snake oil salesman lobbyist they didn’t want to pour out your tax money to? Because they stand to rake in billions in tax credits—funded by your hard-earned dollars? Because they’ve actually bought into the Green New Deal scam?
Enough is enough.
Make no mistake: we will stand up for the constitutional rights of our people—and our state’s constitutional right to make our own laws.
Congress, do the right thing: Kill this proposal, and then repeal the 45Q tax credit that’s funding this scam with our tax dollars.
Call Congress and demand it.
