Commission stands ground on need for local control

Moody County Commissioners know that a new resolution they passed last week likely won’t stop Senate Bill 201 from making its way to the Governor’s desk.
But if it helps to send a message, that’s the intent.
Moody County Resolution 202402202 passed locally this past Tuesday morning after quite a bit of discussion between Commissioners and a few citizens there to weigh in, including former Moody County Commissioner Rick Veldkamp.
“It might not do any good,” Veldkamp said, speaking specifically to Commissioner Randy Hemmer.
Hemmer pressed everyone in the room for why the Commission would consider the Resolution when it already had such a strict setback ordinance in place.
“But it doesn’t hurt, and I think it sends a message. The more counties that pass these resolutions, I think the stronger the case Representatives can make to keep local control,” Veldkamp replied.
Veldkamp had never been a fan of such resolutions when he was serving Moody County. His change of heart on this one, he told former colleagues, wasn’t about the pipeline.
It was entirely about the loss of local control.
Dozens of other counties and townships have already drafted and approved similar resolutions.
SB 201, for those who perhaps haven’t been following, is the bill that would “provide new statutory requirements for regulating linear transmission facilities, to allow counties to impose a surcharge on certain pipeline companies.”

In other words, it is the bill that sponsor Casey Crabtree of Brookings, Kingsbury, Lake and Miner Counties believes needs to pass to essentially green light the construction of controversial carbon capture pipeline networks across South Dakota.
The controversy, for the opposition anyway, is on any number of levels — but where SB 201 is concerned, a primary concern is over the use of eminent domain to get the pipelines built.
Eminent domain legally refers to the power of the government to take private property and convert it into public use. The Fifth Amendment provides that the government may only exercise this power if they provide just compensation to the property owners.
SB 201 would now give a private company or companies in South Dakota that right.
Hundreds of South Dakota landowners, including many from Moody County, have been fighting the pipelines coming across their land.
The bill will also strip counties and townships of the right to establish setback rules for carbon pipelines within their borders. Moody County currently has one of the most strict set of setbacks for pipelines in the state and region. Local setbacks were responsible for two massive carbon capture pipeline projects in South Dakota being denied construction permits in 2023.
Perhaps softening the blow is a provision in SB 201 for counties to obtain up to $1 per foot from carbon pipeline companies as long as the 45Q federal tax credits are available.
“SB 201 is called a compromise bill but really, what I read is, ‘we’ll let you tax it but you can’t regulate it.’ We’ll buy you off, basically,” said Veldkamp.
SB 201 passed the Senate in a 23-11 vote last Wednesday.
Senator Tom Pischke, who represents the 25th District and Moody County, was among the 11 to vote nay.
The proposed legislation went before the House Commerce and Energy committee early Monday, around the same time this issue went to print.
A clause in the bill to “declare an emergency” means it would go into effect immediately if Governor Noem signs it.
HB 1185 and HB 1186 are two other related bills locals are closely watching.
Ethanol and corn industry leaders, silent this past year on the matter, are now largely responsible for and out in front of multiple bills addressing eminent domain and pipeline-related legislation this year. And they continue to face off in hearings with state and local residents concerned about how and where the pipelines will be built and wary of the technology.
Residents, concerned about potential ruptures, fear what adjacent pipelines will do to the health and safety of their families and livestock along with property values.
Farmers especially want to know how the lines will be buried and at what depth given the explosive and potentially deadly danger should a carbon capture pipeline rupture or experience a leak.
“I understand it might feel fruitless to approve a resolution because there are so many heavy hitters in the opposition,” local resident Gwen Reker told Commissioners this past Tuesday. Her husband, Dave, among them.
“But I also believe that if Moody County doesn’t stand up to this issue in some open way, it might seem like we are agreeable to the position of the proposed legislation. So I respectfully ask that this Commission approve a clear and unquestionable resolution to support local control,” she added.