A trio of pipeline bills passed the House and Senate Wednesday shortly after being amended by a conference committee.
The bills mark the first landmark legislation regulating carbon pipelines since companies began developing potential projects in the state over two years ago.
Each bill saw several amendments throughout session before a conference committee ironed out compromised versions that were sent to the House and Senate floors.
Senate Bill 201 provides new requirements for carbon pipeline companies wanting to build in the state and attaches a surcharge those companies must pay to individual counties.
It also includes a section laying out a so-called “landowner bill of rights.”
Rep. Will Mortenson is the Republican Majority Leader for the House and a prime sponsor of each bill. He said those rights are evidence of landowner support.
“The South Dakota way is that we look after our farmers. And we provide them with the strongest landowner protections of any state in the nation. And I tell you, these bills do that. It’s easy to find problems and hard to find solutions. These bills contain solutions. They are one hundred percent pro property rights,” said Mortenson.
House Bills 1185 and 1186 were also accepted in their amended forms. One bill regulates the surveying of private property on private land, the other outlines how carbon pipeline easements can be granted.
Opponents of the bills said they don’t provide additional landowner protections that don’t already exist under the state’s constitution.
Rep. John Hanson spoke against Senate Bill 201 directly.
“To say that this bill, provides the citizens of this state with the strongest landowner protections in the United States of America, is just wrong. And we have failed in our duty, to protect the landowners in this state from having their land rights deprived. By an out-of-state, foreign-backed company," said Hanson. "Who is coming in and laying this pipeline across people’s land, whether they want it or not.”
Hanson said the trio of bills are built to solve a problem that does not exist.
The bills passed both the House and Senate floors and now head to the governor’s desk for final approval.
