Grassroots Conservatives In South Dakota Rally Against New Green Scam

Will the Green agenda take a loss here?

Residents of South Dakota are currently involved in a critical fight for the right to own property and maintain local governance. 

Major out of state, corporate interests with wads of cash have tried to pass SB201, which is now Referred Law 21, that would attack property rights and local sovereignty.

South Dakota is part of a chain of states that will connect a carbon pipeline to Iowa. This project is called Summit Carbon Solution. The pipeline is projected to rake in billions of dollars.

Owing to how the company is an Iowa-based entity and most of the carbon transported from South Dakota is going towards Iowa, environmental and state sovereignty concerns have emerged. Environmental concerns consist of the pipeline potentially releasing hazardous carbon gas, thereby damaging local properties.

Because of the controversial nature of this proposal, a petition was carried out to set up a ballot issue for South Dakota residents to vote on. After the petition picked up the necessary 17,508 signatures in order to be passed, the ballot measure is currently being referred to as Referred Law 21. Referred Law 21 outlines the following, “[to] Uphold or repeal Senate Bill 201, a law that provides statutory requirements for regulating carbon dioxide pipelines and other transmission facilities, and allows counties to impose a surcharge on certain pipeline companies.” 

This initiative RL 21 is a clear infringement on the constitutional mandate that bans the legislature from implementing special laws that regulate county and township matters. This bill would pre-empt local land-use zoning and building regulations, thereby ending a well-established tradition of local control in South Dakota that has existed for roughly 135 years, according to the South Dakota Property Rights and Local Control Alliance.

Furthermore, the South Dakota Constitution mandates the following: “No law shall cover more than one subject, which must be clearly stated in its title.” 

The South Dakota Property Rights and Local Control Alliance noted that RL21’s title spans three distinct and different subjects, whereas the bill’s content incorporates several additional topics that its title does not even reflect. 

RL21 is also a danger to local control. This legislation changes current South Dakota law by making it obligatory for transmission facility regulations to be subject to Public Utilities Commission (PUC) directives, effectively undermining local communities’ decision-making powers.

On top of that, the bill restricts local government’s ability to impose fees. Above all, it limits local governments’ ability to impose fees for sensitive emergency responses. In effect, this shifts the financial burden of potential pipeline incidents onto South Dakota taxpayers.

“This highly promoted land owner rights bill did not address our constitutional rights and it did not address eminent domain. We lost out to corporate interest,” Joy Hohn stated, the candidate for South Dakota’s 9th Senate district. ​​State Representative Scott Odenbach declared that this bill would have South Dakota “rolling over for Biden’s Green New Deal.”

In November, South Dakota voters will have the ability to prevent this measure from becoming law of the land. For South Dakotans who want to preserve private property rights and the integrity of local governance, voting against RL21 is of the essence.