Fedora Sutton-Butler is a Democratic candidate for District 7 in the South Dakota Legislature.

Referred Law 21 is a veto referendum on Senate Bill 201 (SB 201) — “provide new statutory requirements for regulating linear transmission facilities, to allow counties to impose a surcharge on certain pipeline companies, and to establish a landowner bill of rights.” This bill passed in the Senate and the House (a “yes” by both DeGroot and Hermann, representatives of District 7) and was signed by the governor on March 7.

SB201 is not a landowner bill of rights. It ties pipeline issues to establishing a landowner bill of rights. Do not let the Legislature manipulate you into thinking that a “yes” will afford you a Bill of Rights.

SB201 defines “pipeline company” as “a person or entity who is the owner of a project or holds a permit from the Public Utilities Commission for a project.” SB201 Section 19 states: “An operator of a pipeline facility carrying carbon dioxide shall be liable…”

Precisely who will be liable? Is the operator the “pipeline company”? Who holds the permit from the PUC? Without such clarifications, you, the landowner, could be “up a creek without a paddle.” For who will pay for your losses?

Safety issues: In Satartia, Mississippi, on Feb. 22, 2020, a carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline erupted, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. According to NPR’s May 21, 2023, story (Carbon Capture: Carbon Dioxide Pipeline), as the plume of CO2 spread through the community, over 200 people evacuated, and at least 45 were hospitalized. Cars stopped working, hobbling emergency response. People lay on the ground, shaking and unable to breathe. First responders didn’t know what was going on. “It looked like you were going through the zombie apocalypse,” says Jack Willingham, emergency director for Yazoo County.

According to NPR, along with the plume of CO2, there was evidence of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) released during the CO2 pipeline rupture. First responders reported seeing a “green cloud,” which indicates high levels of H2S.

The Centers for Disease Control has stated that H2S levels of 300 ppm or higher are “immediately dangerous to life or health.” The World Health Organization reports that “Satartia is the world’s first known example of mass outdoor exposure to piped CO2.” (For details, search the Pipeline Safety Trust’s CO2 Pipeline Backgrounder report from March 2022).

My fellow citizens, existing federal regulations do not allow for the safe transportation of CO2 via pipelines. The Pipeline Safety Trust has called on the U.S. Department of Transportation and its pipeline safety agency, PHMSA, to update CO2 pipeline regulations as quickly as possible.

Alternative: As a scientist, I have researched safer, doable alternatives to pipeline transmission. For example, we could consider “carbon farming.” Carbon farming or natural CO2 sequestration stores carbon in the crop roots, soil, wood, and leaves. Plants naturally sequester CO2 via photosynthesis. Global warming mitigation is doable by carbon farming. Increasing plant roots and root depth can: “increase the lifetime of the average carbon molecule deposited in the soil; allow access to deeper soil layers that can contain more moisture; facilitate the capture of nitrate that leaches deeper into the soil. Thus also increasing crop yield. Most importantly, carbon farming does not endanger our communities, livestock, land, water, and air on which we depend for survival.

Vote “no” to Referred Law 21. Request that the Legislature consider the safety and well-being of South Dakota above their political party and flawed financial dealings.

Vote now at the Brookings City & County Government Center or your polling station on Nov. 5.

Thank you for your attention to this most critical matter.