(Radio Iowa) – The speaker of the Iowa House and 21 of his G-O-P colleagues have introduced a bill that could delay or possibly even derail proposed carbon pipeline projects in Iowa. Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, is a lead sponsor. “I am standing up for landowners that were there first,” Holt says. If the bill becomes law, pipeline developers would have to get voluntary access to 90 percent of the pipeline route through Iowa before state utility regulators could grant the companies eminent domain authority to seize the rest.

The bill also says the Iowa Utilities Board could not issue permits until new safety guidelines for carbon pipelines are issued by the federal government AND developers secure permits from the neighboring states that the pipelines would pass through. “All of these things, again, are designed to provide some protections for our property owners that are going through this situation,” Holt says. “Some of them do not want the pipeline to come through their property.”

Legislators began discussing new pipeline specific rules last year, but took no action. Pipeline backers have said it’s unfair to change regulations after project development is well underway. Holt says it’s not the concept of capturing carbon from ethanol plants that’s the issue, it’s the use of eminent domain to seize private property for these projects that’s the concern. “Let’s talk about the landowners. Let’s talk about the Century Farms that have been there for over 100 years. Let’s talk about these property owners that don’t want this pipeline under their farms,” Hotl says. “What about them? What about the rug being pulled out from under them?”

A Republican senator has introduced five different bills to address pipeline issues, but it’s unclear what the G-O-P majority in the Senate would support. The House bill has the backing of the top Republican in the House as well as the chairmen of House committees that deal with taxation and legal issues. Holt, who chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, says the bill would set up a process for landowners to file complaints with the Iowa Utilities Board about inadequate land restoration along the pipeline route.

“The bill expands damages that can be compensated for…This includes soil compaction, damage to soil or water conservation structures and damage to irrigation or drainage systems,” Holt says. “The bill further expands the claims a landowner can bring to include any identifiable loss due to pipeline activity and then finally it allows that a landowner may file a claim of relief in either small claims or district court.” Holt says the pipelines are major issue in his district, which includes Shelby County.

The Shelby County Board of Supervisors has established local zoning rules for the pipelines — and is being sued by Summit Carbon Solutions. “It’s a huge issue for landowners that believe as I do that the use of eminent domain should be for highways, it should be for essential government services and infrastructure that meets the public good,” Holt says, “and this is a very different project that does not meet those requirements.” Holt made his comments late this (Thursday) morning during an online news conference.

A spokesman for Summit Carbon Solutions says the company announced its carbon capture project two years ago and is hopeful that legislators will not change the regulatory rules in the middle of the game.

Ingredients

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 3/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup sour milk
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 2 cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

Directions

Cream shortening and sugar in a large mixer bowl. Add eggs and vanilla; blend well. Combine flour, soda, and salt; add alternately with sour milk and mashed bananas to creamed mixture. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. (Dough will be soft.) Drop by teaspoonful onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes about 7 dozen.

You can make sour milk by adding 1 tablespoon real lemon juice to sweet milk. Let stand a few minutes to curdle.

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour milk
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 2 cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

Cream shortening and sugar in a large mixer bowl.  Add eggs and vanilla; blend well.  Combine flour, soda and salt; add alternately with sour milk and mashed bananas to creamed mixture.  Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.  (Dough will be soft) Drop by teaspoonful onto a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Makes about 7 dozen.

You can make sour milk by adding 1 tablespoon real lemon juice to sweet milk.  Let stand a few minutes to curdles.

(Bev Mendenhall from Eleanor Robson)

Jim Field speaks with Krista Hartsook, Small Farms Program Coordinator for Farm, Food, and Enterprise Development with ISU Extension, about rising egg prices leading to increased interest in backyard chickens.

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(Lewis, Iowa) – The 31st Annual meeting for the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research & Development will be held on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, at the Learning Center in Lewis, Iowa*. Registration begins at 9:00-a.m., followed by the program with two speakers, at 9:30-a.m.

Lunch will be served at 11:30 followed by the Annual meeting of the Foundation. This year’s speakers  include Tony Mensing a Field Agriculture Engineer for ISU Extension and Outreach. He will be speaking on Soil Compaction. And, Mark Licht, Assistant Professor and Extension Cropping System Specialist in the Dept of Agronomy at Iowa State University. He will be speaking on farming in Urkaine: Warzone or breadbasket of the World. His extension, research and teaching program is focused on how to holistically manage cropping systems to achieve productivity, profitability, and environmental goals. His research is centered around varied aspects of soybean, corn, and cover crop management.

The Program-is open to the public and there is no fee for attending. The day will conclude with the Wallace Foundation Membership Annual Business Meeting.

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*The Armstrong Research Farm is located approximately 12 miles southwest of Atlantic, IA on Highway 6, south on 525th Street, east on Hitchcock Avenue.

(Radio Iowa) – A northeast Iowa livestock company and four managers have been sentenced in federal court in a scheme to defraud livestock producers throughout Iowa and the Midwest. Fifty-one-year-old Joe Wickham of Waucoma, 65-year-old Charlie Lynch of Waucoma, 60-year-old Leland “Pete” Blue of Fredericksburg pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud. While 31-year-old Tyler Thoms of Fayette pled guilty to one count of causing a livestock dealer to keep inaccurate accounts and records.

The charges came from their work with Lynch Livestock, where they were accused of downgrading cattle and manipulating scales to defraud customers during nearly two decades. Wickham and Lynch were fined three-thousand dollars and Blue one thousand. Wickham was sentenced to six months in prison, and the others were each given probation. The company was fined 196-thousand dollars and ordered to pay more than three million dollars in restitution.

Chris Parks speaks with Cass County Naturalist Lora Kanning about an upcoming snowshoe event and how to get involved with the 2023 Great Backyard Bird Count. Great Backyard Bird Count – Join us each February when the world comes together to watch, learn about, count, and celebrate birds.

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(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association has released an economic study that says using carbon dioxide pipelines at ethanol plants will increase profits and keep most of the industry from leaving the state.

Dave Miller of Decision Innovation Solutions wrote the report which says taking advantage of federal tax credits for reducing carbon in ethanol would dramatically improve margins. “We built the industry on operating margins in the 20 to 30 cents a gallon range on gross operating margins. Our estimate is that with a 45-Z tax credit that gross operating margin basically doubles,” he says.

The carbon dioxide has to be taken out to make ethanol more carbon friendly to compete with other fuels. Miller says without carbon sequestration, the ethanol production in Iowa would move out to another state who would take advantage of the tax credits. “From about 2007 to 11, we built the Iowa ethanol industry, and in about that same period, that whole industry could move, probably not far beyond the borders of Iowa,” Miller says.

Monte Shaw. (IRFA photo)

Iowa Renewable Fuels Association president, Monte Shaw, says Iowa farmers could still sell their corn to ethanol plants but would have to pay to ship it. “When you are shipping corn instead of adding value to it where you are dropping it off — you are not going to get the same money — about ten billion dollars in lost revenues,” Shaw says. Miller says pipelines are the best way to ship the carbon dioxide to keep the costs down and allow the plants to expand.

Dave Miller. (IRFA photo)

“It is an additional $2.16 billion a year that would flow into the state. We have not done an economic impact study on what all the secondary and tertiary effects are of that,” Miller says. But he says the second impact would exist and stimulate substantial economic activity within the state.

Shaw says other carbon capture options for ethanol plants take time to develop and Iowa could lose 75% of its plants without the pipelines. “You know, we’re in a competition to produce low-carbon transportation options. And so this technology — this carbon capture and sequestration technology is the single biggest and best tool we have to keep liquid fuels like ethanol, competitive with electric vehicles going forward,” Shaw says.

Shaw says he understands the concerns about pipelines but says overall pipelines have an incredibly safe track record. And when it comes to payment for easements — Shaw says the pipeline companies are willing to negotiate. “I have yet to run into a landowner who has a pipeline, proposed to go across their land, who has engaged with one of the companies. And then who I’ve talked to, that said, ‘you know, they really just weren’t offering a fair price’.” Shaw says.

Shaw says he’s familiar with one negotiation near his hometown and wishes the pipeline was running across his land because it would have been about the best way for his farm to make money for the next five years. Shaw says landowners should see what they can get for their easements.”We’re not saying hey, ram these things through, we’re saying ‘fair and equitable’. So we urge landowners not to listen to some of the misinformation that’s definitely been put out there about these pipelines. But to sit down and talk, bring your list of questions, bring your list of concerns,” he says.

Shaw says if we can’t have low-carbon biofuels, we’re going to be stuck with no choice other than electronic vehicles, and he says there should be competition and options for consumers.

KJAN News Director Ric Hanson catches up with Iowa State Patrol Trooper and Public Information Officer Ryan DeVault about their “High 3” enforcement project this year.

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Cass County: Corn $6.66 Beans $14.91
Adair County: Corn $6.63 Beans $14.94
Adams County: Corn $6.63 Beans $14.90
Audubon County: Corn $6.65 Beans $14.93
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $6.69 Beans $14.91
Guthrie County: Corn $6.68 Beans $14.95
Montgomery County: Corn $6.68 Beans $14.93
Shelby County: Corn $6.69 Beans $14.91

Oats $3.54 (Same in all counties)