Relating to easements for hazardous liquid pipelines, including negotiation requirements, eminent domain authorization, and contract execution, and including effective date, applicability, and retroactive applicability provisions

Under current law, a pipeline company seeking a permit for a new hazardous liquid pipeline must give notice of the informational meeting to each landowner affected by the proposed project and each person in possession of or residing on the property. The notice must contain certain information. The bill provides that, in addition to the currently required information, a copy of the template easement to be used for acquiring land for the project, a description of the methodology to be used in determining the value of the easement for initial offers, and a statement of the policy for claiming damages must be included in the notice. The bill allows any person to file comments with the commission regarding the template easement or valuation methodology within days of the filing, and allows the pipeline company to respond to the comments within days of the company’s filing. The bill requires the commission to issue an order accepting, rejecting, or requiring modification of the template easement or valuation methodology within days of the filing. The bill provides that the process of evaluating the template easement and valuation methodology must not delay the informational meeting or the company’s ability to negotiate with landowners, but stipulates that no easement can be finalized until the template easement is approved. The bill allows a pipeline company to communicate for easement negotiations with landowners within the county where an informational meeting is held or within a five-mile corridor of a proposed pipeline following a public information meeting regardless of whether the landowner received prior notice by mail. The bill states individual notice to landowners prior to initiating communication is not required by a pipeline company. The bill requires the pipeline company to provide landowners who did not receive notice of the informational meeting by mail copies of the informational meeting materials presented by the commission, the consumer advocate, and the company. The bill requires a pipeline company to provide a written description of the opt-out procedure during the initial communication between the company and the landowner. The bill requires the pipeline company to provide landowners who did not receive notice of the informational meeting by mail copies of the informational meeting materials presented by the commission, the consumer advocate, and the company. The opt-out procedure allows a landowner to decline further communication with the company. To initiate this opt-out procedure, the landowner must inform the pipeline company through verbal or written notice and send the Iowa utilities commission (commission) a communication through mail or by electronic means indicating the landowner’s intent to opt out. The bill requires the notice to be sent within seven days from the time the landowner is provided with a written easement offer. The bill directs the commission to forward the communication from the landowner to the company. Once the pipeline company has received notice by the landowner of the landowner’s intent to opt out, the bill prohibits the pipeline company from initiating any further contact with the landowner for the purpose of an easement transaction, except that the company may send one or more letters by certified mail to the landowner making an offer or soliciting further communication. The opt out may be rescinded by the landowner by notifying the pipeline company and the commission and must be received within seven calendar days after the notice of refusal. The bill provides that unless the landowner rescinds the refusal, the landowner’s land is deemed unavailable for an easement agreement. The bill provides that certain requirements are only applicable to a hazardous liquid pipeline for which a pipeline company requests authority to use eminent domain to acquire interests in land. The bill requires a pipeline company proposing a hazardous liquid pipeline exceeding miles in length within the state of Iowa to make a diligent effort to assemble a route made exclusively of voluntary easements. A company will not be eligible to request the authority of eminent domain unless a diligent effort is shown to the commission. The bill requires a pipeline company to provide to the landowner a description of the proposed project and the easement rights the company seeks to acquire, and request permission to conduct a civil survey after initiating communication with a landowner to acquire an easement. If a civil survey is conducted and the land is found unsuitable for the pipeline, the bill requires the company to provide the landowner written notice of the finding and file a copy of the notice with the commission. Otherwise, the bill allows the company to submit to the landowner a written offer for purchase of an easement within business days after completion of the civil survey. The bill directs that before filing an application requesting eminent domain, the pipeline company must submit such offer to the owner of the land that might be used to assemble a route not including that land for which eminent domain is requested. The bill requires any offer to include customary terms and conditions of conveyance of easements, along with a statement of relevant requirements under state law and commission rules, a statement that the landowner and the pipeline company may agree to different terms that will be expressly stated in the contract, and an offer of cash compensation, which may differ from those offered to other landowners. The bill requires a pipeline company to seek execution of contracts for voluntary easements within one year of the initial communication with the landowners within a particular county. If after no less than six months the company has been unable to execute sufficient easement contracts to assemble a route, the bill directs the company to file with the commission a notice that must include the parcels for which no agreement was reached and for which eminent domain is sought, or that would, if an easement were granted, provide an alternative to each eminent domain parcel, the names of the owners of the parcels, a list of contacts made relating to each previously identified parcel that includes the date and method of each contact and a brief description of the issues causing an impasses for that parcel, and either a request for extension to further negotiate or a statement that no agreement can be reached for each parcel. The bill directs this data to be held confidential and such data is not subject to disclosure in response to a request under Code chapter 22. For any easement the pipeline company seeks to acquire using eminent domain, the bill requires the company to file with the commission evidence establishing that the company diligently exhausted all alternatives to assemble a continuous route for the project exclusively through voluntarily conveyed easements and a statement setting forth why the company requires an easement on the specific parcel for which the company seeks eminent domain. The bill allows the commission to extend deadlines established in the bill upon a showing of good cause. The bill takes effect upon enactment.16(4) apply retroactively to the construction of pipelines designed for the transportation of liquefied carbon dioxide for which a petition was filed under Code chapter 479B on or after January 1, 2022. Otherwise, the bill applies to the construction of any hazardous liquid pipeline for which a petition is filed on or after the effective date of the bill.