The members of SD Property Rights and Local Control Alliance, SD Citizens for Liberty, and Dakota Rural Action commend the Senate for resisting the passage of HJR 5001.
Our coalition has members from all across the political spectrum, yet we have worked powerfully together these past years on issues related to CO2 pipelines because of a shared love for our communities, lands, and constitutional rights. In the years leading up to 2025, many of our members were actively involved in pipeline-related processes with their counties, the state legislature, the PUC permitting proceedings, legislative referendums, and court cases that went as far as the SD Supreme Court.
In 2025, we celebrated the successful passage of HB 1052, which banned the use of eminent domain for CO2 pipelines. HB 1052 was a clean bill, approved by the coalition, and was never amended through all four of its legislative hearings.
Much attention has been paid to the unfriendly amendment of the word ‘solely’ into HJR 5001 on the House floor, which created a massive loophole for corporations. Less attention was given to the fact that ‘solely’ was in the original version of the resolution, and had to be amended out in the House committee. In the Senate committee hearing, the resolution was significantly changed again with an amendment published after business hours the night before.
HJR 5001 has not had a clean journey, nor has it had the same support of our broader property rights coalition. With the latest amendment on the bill, our organizations were condemned to either support language that we did not have time to vet, or blindly offer support based upon the intent of the bill – not a legal consideration of the actual impact it would have.
We should not shoot from the hip at our state constitution. We applaud the victories our entire coalition has won in the past years, including the sponsors of HJR 5001, and while we did not support this attempt to change the state constitution, we will continue to work together to preserve and protect the rights of South Dakotans against corporate abuse.
Signed,
Dennis Feickert, SD Property Rights and Local Control Alliance, Chairman
Tonchi Weaver, SD Citizens for Liberty, President
Chase Jensen, Dakota Rural Action, Interim Executive Director