Senate Denies South Dakotans Chance to Vote on Restricting Eminent Domain; Anti-Carbon Pipeliners Losing Steam

In 2024, opponents of carbon-capture pipelines referred a law favoring pipeline companies over property owners to a public vote and rode public outrage against the Legislature’s tilt against property rights to largely right-wing oustings of GOP mainstream legislators.

That cadre of property-rights insurgents may be losing its momentum. Yesterday the full Senate killed House Joint Resolution 5001, which offered voters a chance to write stronger protection against eminent domain into the state constitution. As amended by Senate State Affairs, HJR 5001 would have said the “public use” for which the government may condemn and seize land “does not include an increase in the tax base, tax revenues, employment, or general economic health.” That amended version creaked out of committee last Wednesday on a 5–3 vote, but HJR 5001 failed yesterday on the Senate floor on a 14–19 vote.

The Senate nays included one of the top opponents of carbon-capture pipelines and one of the insurgents who rode that issue to her Senate seat, rookie Sen. Joy Hohn (R-9/Hartford):

Hohn’s property has been condemned twice by companies running pipeline projects through the state, the first being the Dakota Access oil pipeline, the second being Summit.

“Different products, different politics, same reality: private companies pursuing profit were allowed, at least initially, to initiate condemnation proceedings against our land,” she said.

Hohn was nonetheless one of 19 senators to vote against the resolution, which had previously passed the House 62-5.

Hohn raised concerns about water and electric utility projects, among others.

“We must assure ourselves that what we propose is the very best we can offer the people of South Dakota,” Hohn said, adding, “I am not convinced this is the best we can do” [Makenzie Huber, “South Dakota Senate Declines to Put Eminent Domain Restrictions on the Ballot,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.03.02].

Nationally, environmentalists and other advocacy groups are fighting for the repeal of the 45Q tax credits that make the carbon-capture pipelines that have threatened Hohn’s land economically attractive. But in Pierre, the failure of HJR 5001, combined with the GOP mainstream’s vigorous backlash against the demonstrated unseriousness of members of that insurgent caucus, signals that the folks who rallied around the narrow combination of carbon dioxide pipelines and property rights aren’t translating their initial momentum into ongoing Legislative power.