Iowa Landowners React to So-Called “Landowners First” Legislation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 20, 2026

Iowa Landowners React to So-Called “Landowners First” Legislation

Landowners called Sen. Klimesh’s industry-supported bill an unnecessary distraction that does not protect landowners from eminent domain

Des Moines – Today, Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh (R-Winneshiek) introduced legislation claiming to protect the rights of landowners, drawing ire from landowners threatened by eminent domain. Landowners claim legislation introduced in the Iowa House last week (HF 2104) provides the legitimate solution to concerns regarding the abuse of eminent domain.

“We’ve heard what’s in Sen. Klimesh’s bill and it’s not what landowners have spent five years asking for. Nor is it what Governor Reynolds asked for after vetoing our last piece of legislation. We’ve delivered a clean bill, HF 2104, that protects the property rights of Iowans while still allowing the development of carbon pipelines,” said Mike Henning, targeted landowner in Greene County.

“Carbon pipelines are not a utility, they provide no public benefit, public use or public convenience and therefore should not be eligible for the use of eminent domain. HF 2104 does what Sen. Klimesh’s bill does not – protects property rights and puts family farms and the free market first,” said Bonnie Ewoldt, targeted landowner in Crawford County.

“The bottom line is that our bill, HF2104, protects property rights and Senator Klimesh’s does not. Iowans deserve the right to say yes or no,” said Jess Mazour, Sierra Club Conservation Program Associate.

“We should not allow the heavy hand of big government to pick winners and losers with threats of eminent domain. In Iowa, we believe in free and fair markets, not in gaming the system by taking from landowners, farmers, and small business owners. We do not need the government telling us what is best for our farms and our futures like Sen. Klimesh’s bill allows. If the project being sold is truly a net benefit, it can succeed on its own merit with voluntary support, not a strong-armed undermining of our property rights,” said Emma Schmit, Bold Alliance’s Pipeline Fighters Director.

About Bold’s Easement Action Teams:
The Easement Action Teams are a project of the Bold Education Fund. The EATs work with local communities to provide immediate legal representation to landowners facing pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Our first priority is to protect landowners’ property rights and water. We believe landowners should have the ultimate right of what does and does not happen on their land. We stand against the use of eminent domain for private gain. (https://easementLLC.org)

About Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub:
The Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub, a project of the Bold Education Fund, provides technical, legal, story telling and organizing assistance to any community fighting pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, with the goal of protecting the land and water. (https://pipelinefighters.org)

About Bold:
The Bold Alliance and Bold Education Fund are coordinating state-based groups with our Pipeline Fighters Hub and landowner legal groups called the Easement Action Teams to stop carbon pipelines from using eminent domain for private gain. We believe that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is unproven and overly expensive and wastefully incentivized approach to climate change, and that the carbon pipelines needed for CCS are poorly planned, under-regulated, and risky infrastructure. These huge and complex projects should not move forward until counties, states and the federal government prove first that they are a better climate solution than renewable energy, and second that safety, planning, and routing standards are in place to avoid inefficient chaotic development driven by wasteful federal spending. (https://boldalliance.org)

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