Bluestem Prairie: June 2023

Commentary: Governor Noem’s actions speak louder than words on eminent domain

My home repairs and house painting are done, and I'll be back to full-time research and blogging, as well as gardening and lawncare in the next couple of days. While I catch up on research for original posts, here's a pointed commentary by a fourth-generation farmer and president of South Dakota Farmers Union from the South Dakota Searchlight.

Noem’s actions speak louder than words on eminent domain
By Doug Somke

South Dakota Farmers Union policy supports landowners’ rights. Because of this, during the 2023 legislative session, we supported House Bill 1133.

In a nutshell, the bill would have excluded carbon dioxide as a common carrier commodity. Unlike electricity, water or natural gas transported via pipelines, transporting highly pressured CO2 only benefits two private investor groups in pursuit of federal tax incentives.

The legislation passed the House but died in the Senate. If the bill had passed the Senate, CO2 would not qualify for “eminent domain,” which is a legal process to gain access to land from unwilling landowners. And Summit Carbon Solutions would not be drilling on farm ground owned by Brown County landowners like Jared Bossly. And farmers like Jared Bossly could focus on growing crops, not fighting in court with Summit Carbon Solutions.

While Farmers Union and other agriculture and landowner rights group lobbied for HB 1133, Summit Carbon Solutions’ 12 lobbyists worked hard to influence senators against the bill. Summit Carbon Solutions also served as a platinum sponsor of the 2023 inauguration.

I share all this background with you because during a recent interview with KWAT Radio, Gov. Kristi Noem said she had no legal control over the fact that Summit Carbon Solutions is exercising eminent domain.

“There were several bills that came to the Legislature that would have addressed this,” she said. “The Legislature killed them all. None of them made it to my desk.”

The governor is the most powerful political position in our state, wielding extreme influence when it comes to lobbying for bills during legislative session. Yet, never did she or anyone from her office support HB 1133 or any other bill making property rights stronger for landowners.

In the radio interview, she also mentioned her failed bill targeting against Chinese investors, Senate Bill 185, which had nothing to with eminent domain or the way Summit Carbon Solutions is using it to abuse family farmers and ranchers.

The governor pivoted to that bill to throw listeners off the fact she has done nothing to support family farmers and property rights. Moreover, she is doing everything she can for her platinum sponsor of the 2023 inauguration, Summit Carbon Solutions.

Failing legislative action, the governor should issue an executive order to attempt to halt any surveying and test wells for any CO2 pipeline until after the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission considers a permit for the project. The least this governor should have done is use her influence with her party leadership to make sure HB 1133 would get to the floor of the state Senate for debate and a vote. Remember, South Dakota’s House and Senate along with all statewide elected officials are controlled by the same party: the governor’s Republican Party. Any lack of action protecting family farmers from eminent domain abuse is clearly on the governor and her party leadership.

She also has the power to call a special session to address eminent domain’s abuse of family farmers and county commissions, who are calling for specific pipeline setback limitations protecting the public.

In South Dakota, actions speak louder than words. Gov. Noem has clearly spoken with her lack of action.

This commentary, originally published by the South Dakota Searchlight, is reported here under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: A sign opposing carbon dioxide pipelines stands along Interstate 90 in February 2023 in South Dakota, near the Minnesota border. Eminent domain, a process to gain access to land from unwilling landowners, is one of the most controversial aspects of the proposed pipelines. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 29, 2023 at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

South Dakota Searchlight: Tribal leaders urge legislators to support reestablishment of Lake Traverse Reservation boundaries

When I first moved to Summit in 2017, I was flabbergasted to open a South Dakota Department of Transportation state map and not see the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation on it, since it is on my Rand McNally map of South Dakota. I called the appropriate agency and was told the reservation had been disestablished.

That was a surprise to me, since many neighbors are Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate citizens, the tribe maintains a headquarters in Agency Village and businesses, as well as tribal elementary and high schools and a community college. There's a thriving arts and culture community. On Friday, the yearly wicipi--second oldest powwow in the United States--takes place over the weekend.

Fortunately, this may change, according to reporting in the South Dakota Searchlight.

Tribal leaders urge legislators to support reestablishment of Lake Traverse Reservation boundaries
By Makenzie Huber

AGENCY VILLAGE — The Lake Traverse Reservation, home to the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, doesn’t appear on official South Dakota state maps.

Literally, the oyate (a Dakota word meaning “people” or “nation”) was wiped off the map because of a 1975 U.S. Supreme Court decision. {Editor's note: read the decision here].

That decision has made tribal members feel erased in the last 50 years, tribal council members told the State-Tribal Relations Committee at the tribal headquarters Monday in northeastern South Dakota. But Sisseton Wahpeton is alive – its culture and government – and tribal leaders say its boundaries are intact, even if official maps don’t recognize it.

The tribe has been working to resolve the issue for years, with the only options being to take the issue to the Supreme Court again or have Congress federally recognize and reestablish the reservation boundaries. The boundaries encompass a triangular-shaped reservation with 107,200 acres of land.

The first step is having the South Dakota Legislature recognize those boundaries in its own legislation before taking the issue to Congress, tribal council members said.

“This is a part of our treaty and something that’s recognized on a federal level,” said Rep. Tamara St. John, R-Sisseton, and a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. “Although this is a big issue, what we’re asking for is relatively small. It is the understanding that we’re still here.”

St. John has already drafted legislation for the 2024 legislative session, which will convene in January, to recognize the treaty boundaries. She stressed that the draft isn’t complete.

“We have work to do,” St. John said. “This is a first step in wanting you all to be aware and ideally support us as we move this forward.”

The South Dakota State-Tribal Relations Committee is a legislative committee filled with lawmakers responsible for fostering relationships between the state government and South Dakota’s nine tribal nations.

If the Legislature passes the bill, it would be the first major step in a decades-long battle for Angelique EagleWoman, a professor of law at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, director of the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute and chief justice of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Supreme Court.

The Lake Traverse Reservation was created by a treaty between the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and the United States in 1867, 22 years before South Dakota became a state. The tribal nation ceded over 25 million acres of land to the United States from 1805 until the reservation boundaries were officially established in 1867.

In 1975, the Supreme Court made a 6-3 decision in DeCoteau v. District County Court to disestablish the reservation boundaries. The decision cited an 1891 agreement between the Sisseton Wahpeton and the U.S. government to open the reservation to non-Native settlers within its boundaries. A dissenting opinion argued that there wasn’t any indication in the agreement that the reservation boundaries were altered or disestablished.

While the U.S. Congress did pass a federal law recognizing the reservation existed after the 1975 decision, it was limited to allotments and tribal lands within the original boundaries, EagleWoman said, and did not provide the full federal recognition needed of its 1867 boundaries.

EagleWoman urged the lawmakers to support the legislation next session as “a matter of justice, fairness and doing what is right.”

“This is ongoing and we’d like to put it to rest so we can start focusing on things we need,” EagleWoman said.

The official map of South Dakota’s state highways also omits the Yankton Sioux Reservation and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Reservation. According to an article in the Lakota Times by the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies, the state Department of Tribal Relations said Flandreau isn’t included because it is an “area of influence” instead of a reservation, and Yankton is not shown because its boundaries are “undefined.”

The Yankton and Flandreau boundaries were not addressed during Monday’s meeting.

I'm hoping my state representative, Tamara St. John, is successful in getting her bill passed in the next session. This would be a fine development for my SWO neighbors.

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: Members of the State-Tribal Relations Committee meet at the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate headquarters in Agency Village on June 26, 2023. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 28, 2023 at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Former state rep Tim Miller still not having much luck with pro-life sanctuary cities ordinances

Last year, Bluestem Prairie posted about former Minnesota state representative Tim Miller's career change, from law maker to Pro Life Action Ministries satrap.

His attempt to make tiny Prinsburg, his hometown, become Minnesota's first pro-life "sanctuary city" was aborted by the town council before 2022 ended.

That failed effort is in the news again this weekend with the one-year anniversary of the repeal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. At the Rochester Post Bulletin, Dené K. Dryden reports in One year post-Roe, Minnesota's anti-abortion organizations have been playing defense against new state laws:

. . .With Roe gone, Minnesota's anti-abortion organizations turned their focus to state-level measures, especially during the Minnesota Legislature's 2023 session. PLAM Action, the outreach arm of Pro-Life Action Ministries of Minnesota, began work to establish sanctuary cities for the unborn, a measure taken by dozens of cities across the U.S., mostly in Texas.

"We were going to move forward with that strategy if things turned favorably our way," said Tim Miller, executive director of PLAM Action. "We started working toward sanctuary cities — we call them life cities."

However, Gov. Tim Walz signed the Protect Reproductive Options Act in January, which prohibits local units of government from enforcing laws that aim to "regulate an individual's ability to freely exercise" the reproductive health care, including abortion, that the bill protects.

"While we may have still had a pathway, it was probably not a realistic one, because it would have been too easy for the state of Minnesota to crash down on a community that wanted to do this," Miller said. . . .

That's Miller's version. A review of news reports suggests that life cities weren't getting much traction in the North Star state, though it's probably a good thing for Miller to remind voters of the threat PLAM posed before the DFL trifecta.

As we posted in Star Tribune editorial board praises Prinsburg for rejecting Miller's post-legislative career builder:

Perhaps Bluestem is overly optimistic to fancy that retiring Minnesota state representative Tim Miller has met his Waterloo with the rejection of his anti-reproductive freedom ordinance by his hometown's city council.

We mostly recently posted about this in Prinsburg rejects PLAM ordinance update: tasty tidbits from the latest Star Tribune coverage and West Central Tribune: City Council in Prinsburg, MN rejects proposed abortion ordinance.

But at least he's getting the attention he deserves from the editorial board at the Star Tribune.

Some of the wisdom in A failed try to stoke abortion controversy:

. . . unlike Texas, Prinsburg is in a state where no less an authority than the Minnesota Supreme Court has held, in the 1995 case Doe v. Gomez, that the state Constitution includes the right to terminate a pregnancy.

That did not dissuade Miller, who told a Star Tribune reporter, "This is what God is calling me to do." He had arranged for the deep pockets of the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law firm specializing in culture-war issues that does not publicly disclose its funding sources, to defend Prinsburg if it had faced court challenges.

Before the Prinsburg City Council decision, Miller said he planned to spread this campaign to deprive women of their constitutional right to other rural communities. The intention, he told the Star Tribune, is not to penalize the woman who has an abortion but to stop "the animals who tell her that's OK and profit from it."

This, of course, presumes that women are easily led astray and couldn't possibly have determined the risks for themselves and come to their own conclusion that the time is not right for them to undertake childbearing. It is an insulting premise, and most Minnesotans have made clear they reject such thinking. . . .

One of the best ways to defend those specific rights would be to enshrine them in statute.

The state Legislature now has a reproductive-rights majority. It should use that majority to provide statutory protection under Minnesota law without delay.

That happened. Dryden reports that following the session, Miller and PLAM's "outreach is happening mostly in religious spaces."

We'll keep an eye out for moments when Miller has boundary issues.

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Image: The town sign for Prinsburg. Via Alchetron entry for Prinsburg.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 25, 2023 at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rep. Rick Hansen & Mason Sargent: Minnesota making progress in protecting pollinators

This column, which ran in the Duluth News Tribune, is reprinted with the permission of Representative Rick Hansen, DFL-S. St. Paul.

Even the town board in our home in tiny Summit, South Dakota, allowed residents to observe "No Mow May" this year, so pollinator protection continues to gain ground in the popular vision of a healthy America. Sadly, I haven't seen any monarchs yet on my milkweed patch, which is starting to bloom.

Local View: Minnesota making progress in protecting pollinators
By Opinion by Rep. Rick Hansen and Mason Sargent

It’s Pollinator Week (June 19-25), a time to honor the key role pollinators play in our ecosystem while also recognizing and addressing the threats they currently face — many of which are human-caused.

Many of Minnesota’s pollinators — including our state bee, the rusty patched bumblebee — have suffered population declines in recent decades. The populations of seven of 24 species of local bumblebees are the subject of concern among researchers.

“There’s some species that are doing OK, and a lot that aren’t,” said Elaine Evans, a professor and researcher at the University of Minnesota Bee Research Lab.

Beyond just bees, there are species of butterflies, beetles, and many other types of pollinator insects that have been harmed by insecticide use, the loss of habitat, and our changing climate.

Despite the daunting scope of these problems, there are measures that can be taken, both at the governmental and individual levels.

This year, ahead of Pollinator Week, the Minnesota Legislature passed several new laws to take great strides to combat the population decline in our local pollinators. Funding for research to develop conservation strategies, establishing a breeding population of the Karner blue butterfly, and restricting the use of harmful pesticides were included in the Legislature’s final environmental budget bill. The Legislature also restricted the use of neonicotinoid insecticides on state lands.

“These can be harmful to bees, particularly our wild, solitary bees.” Marla Spivak, a professor of entomology at the University of Minnesota, explained.

Runoff from insecticides can be harmful to aquatic insects, amphibians, and birds as well. Lawmakers also modified the requirements for pollinator-friendly labeling on plants, ensuring homeowners are not inadvertently purchasing contaminated plants, thinking them safe for pollinators.

Habitat restoration can help these struggling species make a recovery. Creating areas for native prairie plants to grow gives pollinators additional sources of food and shelter, which can help to bolster a waning population.

“Pollinators respond quickly to changes in habitat,” Evans said. “There are many different stressors, but habitat helps to alleviate all of them.”

To this end, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency have received funding to plant native, pollinator-friendly plants along highways and at closed landfill sites.

There are also opportunities for individual Minnesotans to help, for example the Board of Water and Soil Resources’ popular Lawns to Legumes initiative for planting pollinator-friendly plants at your own home. The program, which received additional funding this year, has helpful planting guides and resources to help anyone convert their landscaping into a habitat for pollinators.

“Everyone can put in pollinator habitats at their houses,” Spivak said of the Lawns to Legumes program. To anyone considering taking advantage of the cost-sharing grant, she suggested planting a variety of plants that flower at different points throughout the growing season, not to contaminate the flowers with pesticides, and to leave stems and the ground alone to create nesting sites for pollinators.

There are all sorts of benefits to planting pollinator-friendly plants. They provide habitat for wide ranges of insects and birds, and they nourish the soil and prevent erosion. Native prairie plants with deep root systems are also a durable form of carbon sequestration.

“It’s bees, but it’s also water and soil and climate and carbon,” Spivak said. “If you protect bees and butterflies, you’re actually doing a lot more for the climate and the planet.”

Granted, habitat protection is not the be-all and end-all of the efforts to take care of our local pollinators. There also needs to be large-scale efforts to address climate change, pollution, and the amount of insecticide we rely on to produce the food we eat. If progress is not made in all of these areas, the benefits of the efforts that have been made will be substantially undercut.

This year, the Minnesota Legislature made historic progress in addressing each of these issues, but continued support from Minnesotans is necessary for the long road ahead.

Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, is chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee. Mason Sargent is a Juris Doctor student at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

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Photo: A rusty-patched bumble bee, Minnesota's state bee.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 23, 2023 at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Owatonna littered with antisemitic, racist flyers

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In an echo of last summer's hateful leafletting that hit Watertown, South Dakota, the Highland Park neighborhood of St Paul and the broader Twin Cities metro, southern Minnesota's Owatonna was littered this past week.

The community reaction illustrates how much the Steele County community has changed since it was a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity in the 1920s.

In the Owatonna People's Press, Annie Harman reported Wednesday in Anti-semitic, racist flyers left overnight have community speaking out:

“These people are cowards.”

That was the sentiment repeated multiple times, as Matt Jessop discussed his feelings surrounding anonymous flyers that popped up throughout Owatonna between Saturday night and Tuesday morning. And to Jessop, there is no such thing as a coincidence.

“The timing makes me that much angrier,” Jessop said.

On Saturday, he was one of hundreds of locals who attended the Juneteenth celebration in Manthey Park, organized by the Alliance for Greater Equity (AGE). The Saturday event celebrated the now federally recognized Juneteenth holiday, observed on June 19, which celebrates the day the last slaves in the United States learned they were free. Today, many people use the holiday to celebrate, highlight and uplift the local Black community.

It was Tuesday morning, three days after the celebration and the morning after the official holiday, that Jessop found the flyers in his driveway. Wrapped in a plastic bag and weighed down by corn, the flyers promoted white supremacists ideals and anti-semitic language, directing people to a website that promotes the works of a California-based anti-semitic hate group and conspiracy theory network. According to multiple media outlets, the flyers have been popping up in communities throughout the country dating back to 2018.

“All I could think of when I saw those flyers was of the Colemans,” Jessop said. “I had just seen them on Saturday at the Juneteenth celebration, and I immediately thought of them and their kids. That celebration was about joy and bringing people together, so yeah, the timing makes me angrier.”

Brian Coleman, a Black man, distinctly remembers seeing Jessop at the Juneteenth celebration, noting he and his wife, Linda, enjoyed a long embrace with their old friend. Coleman is currently the chair of AGE and was instrumental in organizing and welcoming people to Saturday’s event. Since the flyers have hit the community, the first batch found near city parks Sunday morning and more found in various neighborhoods on Tuesday morning, Coleman said he is mostly confused.

“The fact that these were tossed around in the middle of the night shows me the people doing it don’t want to be recognized or seen,” Coleman said. “It’s one of those things that happens just to stir the pot, create difference and divide our community. I don’t like it, and I don’t agree with it.”

“I would much rather invite those people to come to the table and have a conversation, so I can understand where they’re coming from. But they’re choosing to stay anonymous, and that’s what throws me off,” he continued. “If this is a point you believe in, then stand up firmly and say you represent these ideas and why … Let me know who you are; let me understand.”

But as Jessop has already stated, he believes the people spreading these flyers lack courage. He also, defeatedly, believes they are local.

“I initially wanted to say this is outside actors causing trouble, but I know it’s not,” Jessop said, holding back emotions. “I would like to believe this is not Owatonna people, I hope it’s not Owatonna people. But I have a strong feeling they are, because they did it at night and are afraid to show their faces in public with their BS beliefs.”

Taking a stand

Jessop has worked his entire adult life in a variety of public-facing jobs, most recently working in retail in downtown Owatonna. He said many of his customers are people of color, and he refuses to let them — or anyone — believe that nobody will stand up against hateful rhetoric.

“We can’t just push this under the rug and hope it goes away, because it hasn’t yet,” Jessop said. “It is important to me that people know that I saw this, that it moved me, and I don’t want it in this town. Some people might say it’s too controversial, but it’s not. It’s doing the right thing.”

Recognizing that he’s not part of the targeted demographic, Jessop said he just wants to “make noise.”

“If somebody in my demographic doesn’t have this conversation, it’s going nowhere,” he said. “Nothing anyone else says is going to be heard … But if people who don’t look like me know that they’ve been seen, if they heard someone say this is not OK, if they hear us make noise — well, that’s the kind of person my parents raised me to be.”

Coleman agreed with Jessop’s mindset.

“These are the individuals that can reach the people we aren’t reaching, and now these other individuals might pay attention and listen,” Coleman said. “People like Matt can bend ears and have influence in different circles. Having allies is always an asset, because they can turn to others and say what needs to be said in a way that reaches the people who may not be all in yet.”

City response

Jessop is not the only person who decided to make noise about the rejection of the flyers in the community. A multitude of people reached out to local elected officials, as well as notifying the local law enforcement, throughout the day Tuesday and again on Wednesday morning.

Early Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Tom Kuntz released an official statement, adamantly speaking out against acts of racism in Owatonna.

“The statements made in these flyers are a direct contradiction to the city of Owatonna’s mission statement: ‘The mayor and City Council shall represent the people of Owatonna by making decisions which ensure quality public services for all who live and work in the community,’” Kuntz said. “On behalf of the City Council, I can assure you the city of Owatonna has zero tolerance for racism.”

“While we support the First Amendment, we stand strongly against those who hide behind it to promote hate. Our message to those who are distributing such messages is that there’s no place for hate in Owatonna. Owatonna is a community that is becoming more diverse as it grows,” he continues. “I hope you will join me in standing up for equal rights for all who call Owatonna ‘home’. All are welcome here.” . . .

Read the rest of the article to learn what the next steps the community plans to take.

While the Owatonna People's Press notes "The editorial team at the People's Press chose not to share the contents of the flyer, the name of the website or the name of the affiliated group in this article," Bluestem suspects that the cowards who littered Owatonna used the same or similar material as that spread a year ago in Northeastern South Dakota and the Twin Cities.

Last June 30, Bluestem posted in Highland Park anti-Semitic flier drop echoes late May leafletting in Watertown, South Dakota:

An anti-Semitic lit drop in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood shares a tactic with a similar hate literature drop last month in Watertown, South Dakota: putting the fliers in bags of rice.

And use of the tactic in the two most recent incidents echo earlier incidents in Wisconsin, California, Denver, Miami and elsewhere.

Late Wednesday afternoon, James Walsh reported for the Star Tribune in Anti-Semitic fliers left near more than a dozen homes in St. Paul's Highland Park:

Nick Perin's Highland Park neighborhood near Talmud Torah's Newman School is close-knit — so much so that neighbors have set up a text chain to update each other on what's going on.

So, when Perin received a text early Monday from a neighbor who'd discovered an anti-Semitic flier behind his garage, he set out to find more before the schoolyard was full of children so "nobody else had to find them," he said.

"We probably got a good portion of them before anyone noticed them," Perin said of at least 15 fliers he collected. Other neighbors also found some near their homes, although officials had no hard numbers.

On Wednesday, St. Paul police confirmed they have assigned an investigator to the case. Talmud Torah is a Jewish school founded 66 years ago in a neighborhood long considered the center of St. Paul's Jewish community.

"If anybody does have video or if anyone knows who did this terrible thing, we would appreciate it if they got in touch with us," police spokesperson Steve Linders said.

Perin said a neighbor's security camera captured what appeared to be someone in a small, white pickup truck tossing bags early Monday.

The fliers were enclosed in sealable plastic bags and weighted with rice so they could be tossed from a car. They allege "every single aspect of gun control is Jewish" and include an illustration of the Star of David opposite a satanic pentagram.

The fliers also list the names and pictures of more than 20 Jewish lobbyists, politicians and lawyers who they say favor gun control. The name of "Goyim TV" — a video platform that streams anti-Semitic content and is associated with a California-based hate group — was also printed on the fliers. . . .

The rice-bag hate literature drops in both cities aren't isolated. We'd looked into the tactic last month in our post, News digest: SD violates voter registration laws, MN white juries, Watertown's antisemitic rice.

Just before the Watertown incident, WTMJ-TV Milwaukee's Sarah McGrew reported in 'This is not Germany in 1940': Antisemitic fliers found in Kenosha neighborhoods:

Earlier this year, NBC News reported antisemitic fliers had been found in at least three U.S. cities: Denver, San Francisco and Miami. Now, similar fliers have been found outside of Kenosha homes on at least two occasions.

Unlike last year's offensive littering, the Owatonna cowards used corn to add weight to their message. Let's hope the Minnesota Corn Growers condemn this misuse of innocent corn kernels.

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Photo: "Standing alongside Owatonna’s newest mural, promoting diversity and inclusion in the community, Matt Jessop said he wants to believe the statement that accompanies the mural is what Owatonna stands for — not the hateful rhetoric found on flyers spread throughout the city at the beginning of the week. (Annie Harman/southernminn.com).

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 23, 2023 at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DNR to host June 29 public engagement sessions on Upper Sioux Agency State Park & MN River Valley outdoor recreation

Bluestem's been covering the effort to transfer the Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the Yellow Medicine Dakota Community since bills to do so were introduced in the Minnesota Legislature this winter.

There's been concern about what recreational opportunities will replace the park--a provision in the bills heard in the House and Senate--as well as the desire for public hearings about the process.

From a Department of Natural Resources press release (the DNR runs the park), DNR to host public engagement sessions on Upper Sioux Agency State Park and outdoor recreation in the Minnesota River Valley

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources invites the public to upcoming sessions to learn about recent legislation to transfer Upper Sioux Agency State Park lands to the Upper Sioux Community and share their feedback on outdoor recreation opportunities in the Minnesota River Valley in western Minnesota. Two sessions will be held at the Kilowatt Community Center, 600 Kilowatt Drive, Granite Falls, MN 56241, on Thursday, June 29. One session will be held from 2-4 p.m. and one from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Each engagement session will begin with information about legislation enacted this year regarding the transfer of Upper Sioux Agency State Park (USASP) lands to the Upper Sioux Community. A critical component of this process will be to enhance and/or create new outdoor recreational opportunities in the Minnesota River Valley, so the engagement sessions will focus on gathering ideas from attendees for achieving this outcome. The DNR understands the importance of outdoor recreation in this region and will use this feedback to help guide next steps.

Representatives from the DNR will be on hand to provide information, answer questions and listen to feedback.

To learn more about the land transfer process and efforts to enhance outdoor recreation in the Minnesota River Valley, visit the Department of Natural Resource's Upper Sioux Agency State Park Land Transfer page. . .

Informational meeting

We invite you to attend one of two public engagement sessions to learn more and provide feedback on opportunities to enhance outdoor recreation in the Minnesota River Valley.

Thursday, June 29
Session one: 2 to 4 p.m.
Session two: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Kilowatt Community Center Meeting Room
600 Kilowatt Drive, Granite Falls, MN, 56241

Contact Darin Newman , Parks and Trails Principal Planner, 651-259-5639

We hope readers can attend the meetings in Granite Falls.

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Photo: Sunset in the valley. Photo by Heather M. Anderson/via MN DNR.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 22, 2023 at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Governor Kristi Noem's ‘rhetoric’ vs ‘reality’ regarding BLM proposed public lands rule

It's hotter than First Baptist Heck and sunny in Summit, South Dakota, so I'm taking a break from painting my garage. I'm republishing an article from the Pagosa Daily Post, a Colorado online publication, under the terms of its Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In ‘Rhetoric’ vs ‘Reality’ Regarding BLM Proposed Public Lands Rule an unnamed post contributor assesses Governor Kristi Noem's congressional testimony in the House Natural Resources Committee's hearing on a "Bureau of Land Management’s proposed Public Lands Rule that would allow land managers to treat conservation as one of the multiple uses of BLM land."

The testimony has been reported by Lee Strubinger at SDPB in Noem opposes BLM rule on conservation leases and at the South Dakota Searchlight in States Newsroom's Jacob Fischler in At congressional hearing, Noem calls conservation leases ‘dangerous’, among other South Dakota media.

‘Rhetoric’ vs ‘Reality’ Regarding BLM Proposed Public Lands Rule

In a hearing Thursday morning, the House Natural Resources Committee heard testimony about the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed Public Lands Rule that would allow land managers to treat conservation as one of the multiple uses of BLM land.

The four-hour long hearing was filled with bombastic predictions of doom from some members of the committee and witnesses, including South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who unleashed a torrent of conspiracy theories while making it clear she didn’t understand the proposal itself or even which lands in her state it would apply to.

In response, BLM Deputy Director for Policy Nada Wolff Culver calmly took question after question and provided clear answers straight from the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the text of the proposed rule.

Here are a few of the highlights and lowlights from the hearing.

Rhetoric: The rule allows BLM to establish de facto national monuments or wilderness areas.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (California): “Do we pretty much have a de facto national monument or wilderness area by a designation?”

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem: “It gives them the authority to. This proposed rule absolutely allows them to look at large landscapes and shut the public out of them, from accessing it, from utilizing it, from no longer being able to hunt and fish, from engaging in outdoor recreation, from mining, from grazing.”

Reality: Conservation leases would not interfere with existing rights or recreational use of lands.

According to the BLM, conservation leases would “be consistent with, and not override, valid existing rights,” and would “require land management to protect the goals of the leases but not interfere with casual use or other consistent uses.”

These valid existing rights include grazing, mining, and drilling, while casual use includes most forms of outdoor recreation, including hunting and fishing. In fact, the rule gives grazing allottees, extractive industries, and recreationists a new optional opportunity to engage in responsible stewardship by proposing conservation leases to offset their impacts and restore lands.

Rhetoric: The rule lets BLM avoid environmental reviews.

Noem: “[The rule] also allows BLM to go around the NEPA process.”

Reality: The proposed rule doesn’t touch NEPA at all. Environmental reviews would still be required for all land use planning, just as they are today.

“The proposed Public Lands Rule would not change that or create new laws; it is consistent with the current laws that apply to BLM’s management of public lands,” according to the BLM.

Rhetoric: The rule takes authority from local BLM offices.

Noem: “What’s interesting to me is watching how they allow bureaucrats in DC to make these decisions under this proposed rule, and taking that authority away from local BLM offices.”

Reality: The rule gives local land managers more tools to do their job.

According to the BLM, “The proposed rule would also help facilitate responsible development by providing specific tools to authorize appropriately tailored and durable compensatory mitigation. The conservation leasing tool proposed in the rule responds, in part, to comments from state and industry partners on the need for a reliable path to pursue compensatory mitigation on public lands to facilitate development projects.”

Also according to the BLM, “A conservation lease is a land use authorization that the BLM can issue to an external entity to help achieve restoration or mitigation outcomes on public lands. The proposed rule treats it as a tool, not a requirement. The conservation lease would be proposed by a third-party and the BLM has discretion to decide whether and how a lease would be an appropriate tool to achieve restoration or mitigation.”

Nada Wolff Culver, BLM Deputy Director of Policy and Programs: “I want to just re-emphasize that the rule sets out a framework, it doesn’t make any decisions. Any on the ground decisions will be made by local land managers. I would encourage everyone to search the word local in the rule, if you’re looking at it online. We really emphasize that that process will not change.”

Ironically, the solar industry has raised the exact opposite objection to Noem’s, worrying that the proposed rule would delegate too many decisions to local field offices.

Rhetoric: The rule would drastically affect South Dakota’s economy.

Rep. Peter Stauber (Minnesota): “As you mentioned in your testimony, entire facets of your economy are built both figuratively and literally on our precious public lands. If this rule is finalized and the BLM uses this tool to weaponize federal lands, what effect will it have on your state’s economy?”

Noem: “It’ll be dramatic.”

Reality: For better or worse, this rule will have almost no effect in South Dakota.

BLM manages less than 1% of the land in South Dakota — around 300,000 acres out of a total of 49.4 million acres.

Rhetoric: The rule will affect the management of national forests.

Res. Cmmsr. Jenniffer González-Colon (Puerto Rico): “You were saying in your testimony in your statement, that the proposal will also impact in a negative way public safety in your state. Can you elaborate on that?”

Noem: “Well, it’s going to risk people’s lives because it will not allow us to manage the Black Hills National Forest and Forest Service lands throughout that area in a way that protects our communities and homes that are there.”

Reality: The rule only applies to BLM-managed lands. National forests are managed by the Forest Service.

Black Hills National Forest isn’t managed by the BLM. The U.S. Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture, not the Interior department, and the proposed rule wouldn’t apply to national forests at all.

Rhetoric: The rule would prevent grazing on lands where ranchers currently hold a permit.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colorado): “Just this week I heard from one of my constituents who is a farmer and rancher in Mesa county that this unconstitutional rule could prevent her livestock from grazing on BLM land where they currently graze and where she has an active permit. Ranchers and farmers across the West still don’t have clear answers as to what the impact of this rule will be on their current grazing leases…. Will this rule lock up more land and prevent other multiple-use activities under the guise of conservation?”

Reality: The rule does not override any existing uses, including grazing.

Wolff Culver: “No it will not, Congresswoman.”

According to the BLM, the rule will “be consistent with, and not override, valid existing rights.”

Also according to the BLM, the rule “provides opportunities for permittees to enter into a conservation lease to improve land health,” and “conservation leases would generally be a compatible use with grazing allotments meeting land health standards.”

Wolff Culver: “In terms of day-to-day decisions on managing grazing, that will not change. That will continue to be managed at the local level. The rule itself, again, doesn’t change the Taylor Grazing Act, it doesn’t affect any existing authorizations in the context of conservation leasing.”

Reality: Congress explicitly tasked the BLM with preserving and protecting public lands in the Federal Land and Policy and Management Act.

Wolff Culver: “Absolutely it is. The definition of multiple use is very clear. It includes, for example, natural, scenic, scientific, and historical values. Those are certainly aspects of conservation, as are management of habitat. I think the quote that I’ve read a few times lately comes from former governor of Idaho, Mr. Andrus, who was the secretary of the Interior when FLPMA passed in 1976. And he talked about the importance of public lands to all Americans. And said in response to the passage of FLPMA, ‘Conservation is no longer a pious idea, it is an element of our survival.’”

According to the BLM, “FLPMA expressly states that public lands should be managed to protect environmental and water resources, fish and wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation, among other values, all of which benefit from the conservation of intact habitat and the restoration of degraded lands. FLPMA also requires the BLM to prevent unnecessary or undue degradation; the proposed rule includes additional tools to help meet this congressional mandate.”

Rhetoric: “Oil and gas companies are always reclaiming and restoring the land.”

Sgamma: “We’re always conserving, we’re restoring, we’re reclaiming. Oil and gas companies are always reclaiming the land and restoring it in agreement with the BLM.”

Reality: The oil and gas industry has abandoned thousands of oil and gas wells on federal lands without reclaiming them, leaving taxpayers with the bill.

According to the Government Accountability Office, BLM identified 89 new orphaned wells between July 2017 and April 2019, and BLM offices identified to GAO about $46 million in estimated potential reclamation costs associated with orphaned wells and with inactive wells that officials deemed to be at risk of becoming orphaned in 2018.

The Inflation Reduction Act included $1.15 billion to clean up orphaned wells, according to the Interior Department.

Related posts

Photo: Gov. Kristi Noem testifies June 15, 2023, to the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources in Washington, D.C. (Committee livestream, via South Dakota Searchlight).

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 20, 2023 at 04:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Native Americans cheer Supreme Court’s upholding of Indian Child Welfare Act

A sudden rainstorm interrupted my house painting, so here's a quick post of an article first published at South Dakota Searchlight. Since I live within the historic boundaries of the Lake Traverse Reservation, home of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, the happiness of Indian families means a lot to my neighbors and me.

As companion reading, I recommend a ProPublica article by Jessica Lussenhop and Agnel Philip, Native American families are broken up in spite of law to keep children with parents, also published at the South Dakota Searchlight.

Native Americans cheer Supreme Court’s upholding of Indian Child Welfare Act, push for more action
By Mackenzie Huber

After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act in a 7-2 vote released Thursday, Native American advocates in South Dakota applauded the decision and said the state should go further to protect Native children.

ICWA is a 1978 federal law giving preference to Native tribes in the case of foster care placement and adoption. The law was in response to high rates of family separation in Native communities, and intended to keep removed children in Native communities.

Before ICWA was adopted, between 25% to 35% of all Native American children were being taken from their homes and placed with adoptive families, foster care or boarding schools.

Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Chairman J. Garret Renville was emotional following the news. The decision for him means tribes can strengthen their communities.

“I think everyone in Indian Country has some sort of personal story that ties us to ICWA,” Renville said. “We might have a relative or parent, someone who has gone through the system at some point in their life that’s been removed from the community. Sometimes it takes most of that person’s life, but they eventually come back searching for their identity, where they come from and who their family is. That reconnects them not just to the family left behind, but their homeland and their people and culture.”

While Native children are still overrepresented in the foster care system in South Dakota, other tribal leaders and organizations also celebrated the decision, saying it reaffirmed tribal sovereignty and protections for Native children.

What was at stake in the case

The case, Brackeen v. Haaland, centered around a white Texas couple, Chad and Jennifer Brackeen, who challenged the law’s preference for Native tribes when American Indian children are adopted, saying it is racial discrimination and forces states to carry out federal mandates.

The decision means that, according to a majority of the justices, the law does not discriminate on the basis of race and does not impose federal mandates on state-regulated areas of power.

The court rejected all of the challenges to ICWA, “some on the merits and others for lack of standing,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in her majority opinion. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

The majority opinion cited over a century of precedent that classifies Native Americans as a political, not racial, group.

Alito in his dissent criticized ICWA, saying the federal law conflicts with state laws.

“Decisions about child custody, foster care, and adoption are core state functions. The paramount concern in these cases has long been the ‘best interests’ of the children involved,” Alito wrote. “But in many cases, provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) compel actions that conflict with this fundamental state policy, subordinating what family-court judges — and often biological parents — determine to be in the best interest of a child to what Congress believed is in the best interest of a tribe.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch in a concurring opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said he was “pleased to join the Court’s opinion in full,” adding that he wanted to note the historical significance of the opinion.

“The Indian Child Welfare Act did not emerge from a vacuum. It came as a direct response to the mass removal of Indian children from their families during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s by state officials and private parties,” Gorsuch wrote. “In all its many forms, the dissolution of the Indian family has had devastating effects on children and parents alike. It has also presented an existential threat to the continued vitality of Tribes — something many federal and state officials over the years saw as a feature, not as a flaw.”

Decision reaffirms Indian child welfare protections, tribal sovereignty

Tribal leaders, organizations and legislators across South Dakota praised the decision.

State Sen. Red Dawn Foster, D-Pine Ridge, introduced a failed bill during the 2023 legislative session to establish a task force addressing the welfare of Indian children in South Dakota. Foster said the Supreme Court decision was a cause to celebrate, “reaffirming the protections of Indian children and a great day for reaffirming tribal sovereignty.”

“This decision should finally put an end to the baseless attacks on the Indian Child Welfare Act as a race-based preference by upholding tribal sovereignty and reaffirming tribes are distinct political entities whose inherent sovereignty predates the United States,” Foster said in a text message.

Foster’s task force would have worked to identify why Native children are overrepresented in South Dakota’s foster care system despite federal ICWA protections for the last 45 years. Her goal is to add support mechanisms to the system to reassure ICWA’s standing and support reunification efforts for Native families.

The ICWA task force bill passed the Senate but failed 26-42 in the House. In response, some tribal nations planned to create their own task force. The Oglala Sioux Tribe established the OST ICWA and Child Protective Services task force earlier this year and is working to study the issue. The state has been invited to participate.

The future of ICWA in South Dakota

More than half the state’s foster children are Native American, even though Native children make up only 12% of the children in South Dakota. Native American children are nearly three times as likely to be in foster care as other children, according to a 2020 Annie E. Casey Foundation study.

And more than 700 Native American children — or about one of every 40 living in South Dakota — experienced the termination of their parents’ rights from 2017 to 2021, according to a ProPublica analysis of the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System removal records. That was one of the highest rates of Native parental termination in the country and nearly 13 times the rate for white children in the state.

“ICWA only works if you follow it,” Marcia Zug, a professor of family law at the University of South Carolina School of Law, told ProPublica.

Two other ICWA bills were introduced by Rep. Peri Pourier, D-Rapid City, during the 2023 legislative session, which would have codified aspects of ICWA protections in state law. They would have better defined aspects of ICWA such as “active efforts,” ensuring measures to provide transportation, drug counseling, parent classes, and other efforts were made by the state.

One opponent to the ICWA bills, Rep. Tony Venhuizen, R-Sioux Falls, said on the House floor that if the bills became state law and the Supreme Court found ICWA unconstitutional, then the state would have passed potentially unconstitutional laws.

The impending Supreme Court decision was “one of the biggest hurdles” to pass the three bills during session, said Jessica Morson, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe ICWA administrator and chairwoman of the South Dakota ICWA Coalition.

“The disproportionate rates of separation should be heartbreaking to every South Dakota citizen,” Morson said. “It doesn’t matter the skin color or origin or anything — we all live in this state. When you look at those numbers you have to think: What is happening? There is something there that’s not right, and the fact that lawmakers don’t want to look at that is disheartening to me and the child welfare system as a whole.”

“Now,” Morson said, “there is no reason to hold off on anything.”

Six states enacted their own ICWA laws codifying the federal law either in part or whole before 2022, when the Brackeens petitioned the Supreme Court. Several other states codified ICWA in their state laws earlier in 2023, in preparation for the Supreme Court’s decision.

Venhuizen told South Dakota Searchlight after the Supreme Court decision was published that it still doesn’t make sense to pass the two bills that would codify aspects of the ICWA protections in South Dakota law.

“At this point, I don’t see why there’d be any need for state legislation,” Venhuizen said. “… One of the fears of a state law was that we’d pass a state law similar to ICWA but not the same. Having both in force could cause confusion.”

Venhuizen added that he believes the ruling takes away the opportunity for the Legislature to make improvements or change ICWA on a state level because federal law preempts state law.

South Dakota established an ICWA task force in the early 2000s to study the state’s shortcomings at the time and released a list of recommendations for improvement in the state. Foster said her plans to reintroduce an ICWA task force bill will depend on the outcomes and progress made in the Oglala Sioux Tribe ICWA and Child Protective Services task force.

Morson plans to work with Pourier and other legislators in the upcoming session, which starts in January, to reintroduce the bills that would better define pieces of ICWA in the state.

“It remains clear,” Pourier said in a statement. “We must do more to strengthen families of tribal nations, which will require collaborative work from all levels, including tribal and state leaders and the citizens thereof.”

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

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Photo: The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight).

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 17, 2023 at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bluestem Prairie on staycation through June 21

Plaster repairs: Damaged plaster wall with exposed laths

I won't be posting for a week on Bluestem Prairie while I attend to some home repairs and house painting, as the air quality allows.

Thanks for your patience.

Photo: A plaster wall in need of repair. About the way an upstairs closet looks. Via iStock.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 15, 2023 at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Midwest battles brew over CO2 pipelines

Bluestem's been digesting news about the corn industry's captured carbon pipeline dreams for a couple of years now.

Readers should appreciate this fairly comprehensive overview of the conflicts over ethanol carbon pipelines, from Stateline's Tom Peterson, a correspondent based in Minnesota and the Washington, D.C., area.

New Midwest battles brew over CO2 pipelines
Plans to transport carbon dioxide from ethanol stir environmental, property rights concerns
By Tom Peterson

GRANITE FALLS, Minn. — The Minnesota River cuts through this quiet prairie town, powering a small hydroelectric plant in a 19th century dam. A winding downtown riverwalk flanks the west side of the river while a park stretches across the far bank. The dam’s frothy tailrace holds the promise of fish that attract families and pelicans.

The old-school hydro provides a tranquil scene in this town of about 2,700 residents. The town’s real energy powerhouse, however, stands on the outskirts, where the towering Granite Falls Energy plant produces 63 million gallons of ethanol annually.

Ethanol production has become a vital piece of state economies across the Midwest. Forty-five percent of U.S. corn production now is destined for the scores of ethanol plants that rise from the farm fields.

The industry is at a crossroads.

Proposed pipelines to move carbon dioxide, a byproduct of ethanol production, would crisscross the Upper Midwest like spiderwebs. From North Dakota to Illinois, thousands of planned miles of metal pipeline would link dozens of ethanol plants, including Granite Falls Energy and an even larger facility up the road in Atwater.

The proposed projects have drawn controversy, leaving state officials with tough decisions. State regulators are wrestling with whether and how to approve the pipeline projects. And state lawmakers are fighting over property rights and whether land can be taken from unwilling owners to build the pipelines.

Officials are torn between two sets of interests.

For the energy industry, major farm groups and other proponents, the ability to store carbon dioxide thousands of feet underground holds the promise of opening new ethanol markets and snagging federal tax credits while preventing carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.

For farmers, tribal groups and environmental activists, the proposed pipelines spell disaster. Opposition has brought unlikely allies together.

Farmers and other landowners say property rights are being trampled and livelihoods threatened. They fear the pipelines could affect their productivity and hurt land values. Tribal groups worry that ancestral grounds will be disrupted. Environmentalists cite the potential hazards of the highly pressurized liquid carbon dioxide and say ethanol use just delays the move to carbon-free energy. Even climate change deniers, who see no need for reducing carbon, are against the pipelines.

Opponents, though, know they are up against a well-funded and politically powerful foe.

“It’s David vs. Goliath,” said Joy Hohn, whose family farms corn and soybeans outside of Hartford, South Dakota.

Currently, there are a handful of pipelines that carry carbon dioxide from ethanol, but the network of proposed pipelines would be on a whole different scale.

State permitting activity will ramp up across the region throughout the summer and fall, but three carbon pipeline companies say they expect construction to begin in 2024.

Summit Carbon Solution’s $5.5 billion Midwest Carbon Express says its project will be the largest carbon capture and storage in the world. It will collect CO2 from 34 ethanol facilities over five states and use more than 2,000 miles of pipeline to deliver it to west-central North Dakota. The company says it has reached agreements with more than 2,700 landowners.

The project has the capacity to store 18 million tons of CO2 thousands of feet underground. That’s the equivalent of removing 3.9 million vehicles from U.S. roads, it says. Construction is expected to begin next April, according to COO Jimmy Powell.

Navigator CO2 Venture’s Hartland Greenway will run 1,300 miles through five states, linking 30 facilities. At its peak, it will store 15 million metric tons annually. The pipeline will service ethanol plants run by POET, the world’s largest biofuels producer. Construction is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2024.

Wolf Carbon Solution’s Mt. Simon Hub will include 280 miles of pipeline, linking Archer-Daniels-Midland plants in Iowa to a deep underground Illinois storage facility. It is estimated to handle 12 million tons per year. Construction is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2024.

Battling over eminent domain

Pipeline opponents in the region have fought similar battles before. They say lessons learned while protesting the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines have prepared them to take on a formidable foe. They see strengthening eminent domain requirements as the most direct path to blocking pipeline companies from accessing their land and acquiring easements.

Eminent domain allows the government to take or grant easements on private property for public use. States can adjust the scope of eminent domain by restricting its use to specific types of projects or by requiring a certain threshold of voluntary landowners to agree before it can be invoked.

In both Iowa and South Dakota, legislation to restrict the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines passed in the state House but failed in the state Senate. In North Dakota, the state House this year killed two state Senate bills aimed at protecting landowners in eminent domain proceedings.

Legislation to exclude CO2 pipelines from eminent domain in Illinois also died this year.

In Nebraska, which leaves carbon pipeline permitting to its counties, any attempt to use eminent domain for a carbon pipeline will likely be decided by the courts, lawyer Brian Jorde told the Nebraska Examiner. Jorde represents landowners who are rejecting right-of-way offers from pipeline companies.

Minnesota alone among the affected states does not allow the use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines.

In South Dakota, Jorde told KELO Newstalk radio, Summit has sued more than 80 landowners to acquire access rights through condemnation proceedings.

A bill to end companies’ right to eminent domain passed the South Dakota House 40-28, then was killed a week later by a 9-0 vote in the Senate Commerce and Energy Committee.

Senators who voted to kill the bill noted the importance of ethanol to the state’s economy and a desire to keep regulations consistent during the process.

“We can’t keep changing the rules,” said Republican state Sen. Lee Schoenbeck, the Brookings Register reported.

Republican state Rep. Karla Lems sponsored the House bill that passed because she wants to protect farmers’ land rights.

“This is the heartland of America. It’s out here in farm country that the people tend to remember where they came from, as some of this land has been in families for up to seven generations,” she said.

Lems said pipeline backers had more than 20 lobbyists at the capitol in Pierre, while three lobbyists worked for landowners.

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem has not taken a public stand on the issue.

KELO-TV of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, reported that Summit was a “platinum sponsor” of Noem’s inaugural events, a connection noted by pipeline opponents. But Ryan Sheldon, media coordinator for the event and Noem’s former digital media manager, told KELO, “There isn’t any direct link to any conflict.”

Summit is also well represented in Iowa, the nation’s largest ethanol producer. Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican and the longest-serving governor in U.S. history, is listed as a special adviser, and Jess Vilsack, son of Democrat Tom Vilsack, the current secretary of agriculture and a two-term Iowa governor, is Summit’s general counsel.

Navigator’s Elizabeth Burns-Thompson told Energy News Network that the company would only use eminent domain as a last resort.

“Eminent domain does not save us time, it does not save us money and it does not make us any friends,” Burns-Thompson, the company’s vice president of government and public affairs, told the website.

Pipeline proponents also point to the federal 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which raised the tax credit for carbon sequestration to $85 per ton. They say farmers will benefit from a bigger market that will create demand and drive up profits. Cleaning up CO2 emissions also opens markets for the region’s ethanol in states with low-carbon standards, such as California.

Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, argues ethanol plants that don’t capture and store CO2 will not be competitive and says the effects will ripple through the state’s economy.

“If Iowa screws this up, we’re in big trouble. We will absolutely lose a huge chunk of our industry and put the Iowa ag economy in a tailspin,” Shaw told NPR.

But Jorde, the attorney for landowners, sees it another way.

“You are funding these carbon pipeline companies so they can take your land and rights away from you,” Jorde told a landowners gathering in Norfolk, Nebraska.

Safety and access disputes

Critics cite numerous concerns over pipeline safety. CO2 pipelines operate at much higher pressure than oil or natural gas pipelines and pose daunting safety challenges. Many point to a 2020 pipeline rupture in Satartia, Mississippi. The 30,000-barrel leak vaporized immediately and left 49 people hospitalized and produced a 40-foot crater. Like most of the more than 5,000 miles of CO2 pipeline already in use, the Satartia pipeline is used to enhance oil production.

Landowners fear local first responders will have neither the training nor specialized equipment to handle a pipeline incident.

On its website, Summit says its proposal “goes above and beyond” federal standards on pipeline depth, clearance and setbacks.

Summit already has been served notice of a tough permitting process in Minnesota. The state’s Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously in January for an environmental impact statement rather than a speedier review sought by Summit.

“Taking longer to make sure we get it right, isn’t that in everybody’s best interest?” asked Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Chair Katie Sieben at the January hearing. “We have certainly heard a lot of concerns about CO2 pipelines.”

In Bismarck, North Dakota, the city commission has requested a 25-mile setback from the pipeline. The local school board added a resolution of support for the setback. Also in North Dakota, a state legislator has questioned whether Summit is running afoul of a state law that prohibits property investments by “foreign adversaries.”

But pipeline companies are pushing back against regulation attempts by cities, counties and other jurisdictions. In November, for example, Summit sued two Iowa counties that attempted to pass routing and permitting restrictions, claiming that such authority belonged to the federal government and Iowa Utilities Board. At least four South Dakota counties face lawsuits over moratoriums or other restrictions.

Hohn expects a drawn-out struggle throughout the region. She contends the companies are pushing to get projects underway before the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which regulates pipelines, issues new construction and safety regulations. The first draft is expected in 2024.

In a statement to Stateline, Summit said it “actively engage(s) with PHMSA and other regulatory authorities to stay up-to-date with industry best practices and evolving safety standards.”

Hohn is skeptical. “They are trying to wear us out,” she said of the pipeline companies.

Hohn, however, recently heard that Summit was re-routing the pipeline off their land.

Good news? Not quite. Hohn surmises she was “too vocal,” so Summit moved the route to her neighbor’s land — her brother’s cattle and buffalo operation.

This Stateline article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Photo: Granite Falls Energy in Minnesota produces 63 million gallons of ethanol using more than 20 million bushels of corn. Proposed pipelines to move carbon dioxide, a byproduct of ethanol production, that would crisscross the Upper Midwest have sparked controversy. Tom Peterson/Stateline.

Related posts

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 13, 2023 at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

States Newsroom: Funding for 33 rural broadband projects unveiled by USDA

Via the Minnesota Reformer, news of federal rural broadband funding for service providers in north central, southeastern and west central Minnesota.

Jennifer Shutt of the States Newsroom reports in Funding for 33 rural broadband projects unveiled by USDA:

The Biden administration on Monday announced it will send $714 million to help rural areas in Minnesota and 18 states connect to the internet.

“The president honestly believes that in order to have the fullest opportunity available to bring manufacturing back, to bring precision agriculture, to reconnect young people to economic opportunity in rural places, the expansion of broadband access is essential,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on a call with reporters.

“And the announcement today is an additional step being taken by this administration to make that a reality in all parts of the country, regardless of how remote and rural they may be,” added Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa.

Congress approved the funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Program in the bipartisan infrastructure law that members of both political parties approved last year.

The Agriculture Department’s funding is a fraction of the $65 billion that U.S. lawmakers authorized for programs that aim to connect all Americans to the internet.

The additional funding is being distributed by the Federal Communications Commission and the Commerce Department, each of which have rural broadband and internet connectivity programs of their own.

This tranche of funding from the USDA, Vilsack said, would go towards 33 different projects.

The funding includes:

$7.9 million grant and a $7.9 million loan for Johnson Telephone Company;
$6.8 million grant and a $6.8 million loan for MiEnergy Cooperative;
$19 million grant for Meeker Cooperative Light & Power Association

This article is republished online Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: A family enjoying high speed broadband. Stock photo via Meeker Cooperative Light & Power Association

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 12, 2023 at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

South Dakota Searchlight: Leave it to beavers to help restore streams in the Black Hills

I've spent a long day doing vegetable garden chores and house painting now that it's cool enough to work outside.

Here's a headline and a quick read from the South Dakota Searchlight Bluestem couldn't resist sharing.

Leave it to beavers to help restore streams in the Black Hills
By Joshua Haiar

Beavers may not realize it, but they’re at the heart of a project in the Black Hills National Forest to restore areas adjacent to creeks.

These spaces, called riparian zones, are crucial in maintaining water quality, preventing erosion, regulating water flow and providing habitat for aquatic and land animals.

Black Hills National Forest officials say that beavers help keep riparian zones healthy, and their absence can contribute to problems including biodiversity loss and declines in water quality.

To restore these riparian zones, Forest Service and Game, Fish and Parks workers are installing some human-made beaver dams, which the Forest Service calls “beaver dam analogs.”

The structures are constructed with logs, willow branches and chunks of sod – mimicking beaver dam-building.

Beaver dams slow down the flow of water and create small ponds or wetland areas upstream. This slowing of water velocity allows sediments to settle, leading to improved water quality. It also helps in groundwater recharge in the soils nearby, which benefits vegetation. And the wetlands provide habitat for a wide range of species, including fish, amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates.

Additionally, beaver dams trap organic matter and nutrients, such as leaves and woody debris, in the wetlands they create. This accumulation of organic material contributes to increased nutrient availability for plant growth.

And the wetlands created by the dams store water during high-flow periods and gradually release it during drier periods. This process helps maintain soil moisture in a floodplain ecosystem.

While the beaver dam analogs serve as a crucial step toward restoring the riparian ecosystem, the ultimate goal is the return of beavers themselves.

Some factors affecting Black Hills beavers’ natural habitats are development, deforestation, wildfires, trapping, pollution and the damming and channelization of creeks. And some landowners see beavers as pests, given they can cause flooding issues, block drainage systems and damage valuable timber.

Improved conditions in the targeted riparian areas could facilitate the natural recolonization of beavers; alternatively, reintroduction efforts could be conducted in collaboration with the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks.

Recently, when GF&P found a beaver at its West River Outdoor Campus in Rapid City, the department decided the critter needed a better environment. Meanwhile, the Black Hills National Forest had already been working to restore an area in Schoolhouse Gulch with beaver dam analogs in the northwestern Black Hills, so the GF&P transported the beaver to the project area.

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: A human-made beaver dam in the Black Hills National Forest, which the Forest Service calls a “beaver dam analog.” (Courtesy of U.S. Forest Service)

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 11, 2023 at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wesenberg throws place-baiting shade on bonding bill's tree planting provisions

In an end-of-session column, A clear contrast in priorities, published in the Morrison County Record and the Brainerd Dispatch, Little Falls freshman Republican Minnesota state senator Nathan Wesenberg throws shade on the recently passed bonding bills.

Using bonding to pay for tree planting is a particular annoyance to the wildlife biologist--though a review of earlier bonding efforts reveals provisions for shade tree planting has been included since the Pawlenty administration ( 2008: Shade tree diseases, Minn. Laws 2008 c 179 s 7)

Wesenberg notes in the Dispatch version of the copy:

I believe the Minnesota Legislature should focus on actual infrastructure needs instead of grants for art centers, theater space, and tree planting. . . .

. . . Democrats pushed forward two bonding bills: one cash bill and one traditional bonding bill. Historically, these bills are meant to fund critical infrastructure projects throughout the state, such as wastewater treatment facilities, roads, bridges, clean water projects, flood mitigation efforts, and more. These bills are meant to maintain and support all the facilities that keep our state and communities safe and running efficiently. For that reason, they should focus equally on metro and rural Minnesota. But instead of focusing on important issues, Democrats seized the opportunity to pass bills that fund a number of their metro-centric pet projects.

As we head into next year’s session, it will be another bonding year, and Democrats have already stated their interest in doing yet another cash bill. Though I don’t have much hope in it happening, I believe we should focus on actual infrastructure needs instead of grants for art centers, theater space, and and tree planting. . . .

Blog posts are written by fools like me, but only Nathan Wesenberg would cast shade on a tree.

Apparently Wesenberg--or the Republican State senate communication staff==couldn't be bothered to check what's been in bonding bills "historically," instead asserting that art centers, theaters and tree planting aren't funded through this means.

Given how misleading Wesenberg's claim is, that's unfortunate--since the ever-helpful staff of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library (LRL) has published online a list of Major Capital Investment and Bonding Bills and Laws, 1963-present.

Bluestem decided to fact-check the notion that using bonding to fund tree planting is a consequence of the DFL trifecta, a "metro-centric pet project." Not an actual infrastructure need.

Now, according to the LRL entry for the last full bonding bill, 2020's Omnibus public finance; capital investment; taxes; supplemental budget. passed during a time of divided government, when Wesenberg's Republican Senate caucus controlled that chamber, Bluestem reads this item in Listing of Approved Projects (page 2) under Natural Resources, line 63 Shade Tree Program . .$1000 [000].

What was Capital Investment chair Dave Senjem thinking?

Readers can find out more information about thus program on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' website, under Shade tree program bonding grants, 2021-2024. Perhaps Wesenberg confuses the term "urban" with "metro-centric.

The 2020 grant recipients include such Twin Cities locales as Duluth, Lake City, Red Wing, Rochester, Willmar and Winona.

Then there's a ten-year gap.

In 2010 there's this among "Capital Improvement Projects", 2009-2010 Session Laws Index on the Laws of Minnesota 2010, Chapter 189 (HF2700) Omnibus capital investment listing" for Shade tree program, Minn. Laws 2010 c 189 s 7

Sub 12. Shade Tree Program $3,000,00

For grants to cities, counties, townships, and park and recreation boards in cities of the first class for the planting of publicly owned shade trees on public land to provide environmental benefits; replace trees lost to forest pests, disease or storm; or to establish a more diverse community forest better able to withstand disease and forest pests. The commissioner must give priority to grant requests to remove and replace trees with active infestations of emerald ash borer. For purposes of this appropriation, "shade tree" means a woody perennial grown primarily for aesthetic or environmental purposes with minimal to residual timber value and no intent to harvest the tree for its wood. Any tree planted with funding under this subdivision must be a species native to Minnesota.

Under 2008's Shade tree diseases, Minn. Laws 2008 c 179 s 7:

Subd. 21.

Diseased Shade Tree Removal and Replacement

For grants to cities, counties, townships, and park and recreation boards in cities of the first class for the identification, removal, disposal, and replacement of dead or dying shade trees located on public property that are lost to forest pests or disease. For purposes of this appropriation, "shade tree" means a woody perennial grown primarily for aesthetic or environmental purposes with minimal to residual timber value. The commissioner shall consult with municipalities, park, and recreation boards in cities of the first class, nonprofit organizations, and other interested parties in developing eligibility criteria.

I looked for other shade tree projects beginning with the first Pawlenty but didn't find them. Nor were there shade tree bonding projects during the Dayton administration, even when Democrats had a trifecta for 2013-2014.

As for one of Wesenberg's assertions--that the trifecta led to bonding being used for art centers and theater spaces, I suggest readers check past bonding bills for that sort of thing--and Wesenberg or the staff writers check the notion that art and theater are "metro-centric."

Wesenberg's kvetching seems to be simple placebaiting grounded in a "DFL out of control" frame, rather than facts/

As far as other spending on shade trees, Bluestem recommends reading S. St. Paul DFL Environment and Natural Resources Committee Chair Rick Hansen's Legislative Update – June 9, 2023 email's discussion of Tree Planting Provisions in Environment Bill.

Related posts

Photo: Tree planting. Minnesota DNR.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 10, 2023 at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Formal effort begins to replace ‘cluttered genocidal mess’ on Minnesota state flag and seal

I've long found the Minnesota state flag annoying, down to the bare feet of the white settler plowing (hookworm, anyone?). It's grown more than just irritating since I've moved to a part of South Dakota where Dakota people were ridden off into the western horizon.

When a grad school friend in Mississippi created Look Away, Look Away, a documentary about the Magnolia State's five-year struggle to replace its flag, I thought there was hope for my native state.

The article below was originally published by MinnPost on June 8.

Formal effort begins to replace ‘cluttered genocidal mess’ on Minnesota state flag and seal
By Peter Callaghan | MinnPost

In 2001, the North American Vexillological Association conducted a survey to rate the state and provincial flags of the United States and Canada, and Minnesota’s did not finish last.

It finished sixth from last.

Opinions about the flag have not improved. As such, by next May it will be lowered for the last time and replaced by a new banner designed by a 13-member commission created to approve a new flag and a new “Great Seal of the State of Minnesota.”

“It’s not an effective flag. It’s not popular. A lot of people don’t know we have a flag,” said Lee Herold who owns Herold Flags in Rochester. “That’s not a good situation when you live in a state and you don’t even know what your own state flag looks like.”

Minnesota’s flag falls into the grouping that populates the bottom of most rankings — state seals plopped into the middle of a solid background.

Others know exactly what it looks like and like it even less. The seal includes many images, but the central theme is of a farmer tilling a field with a Native American on horseback riding in the distance. While the pre-statehood-designed seal and flag might be subject to interpretation, a poem written by the wife of the designer says this about the image: “We claim his noble heritage/And Minnesota’s land/Must pass with all its untold wealth/To the white man’s grasping hand.”

The flag is not displayed by many tribal nations in the state, said Kevin Jensvold, the chair of the Upper Sioux Community.

“The flag is problematic, and I lay it out there as a simple truth so it can be seen from eyes that are different from most of the immigrants,” he told the House State Government Committee in February.

The prime sponsor of a bill to give the job of designing a new state seal and flag to a commission called the current emblems “a cluttered genocidal mess.” Rep. Mike Freiberg, DFL-Golden Valley, said the commission must agree on replacements by Jan. 1 and, unless both houses of the Legislature veto it, it will be raised on Statehood Day, May 11, 2024.

If the commissioners can’t agree? The bill language that was placed in the lengthy state government omnibus bill repeals authorization and recognition for the current flag and seal. So no action would leave the state with nothing for a flag or seal and the commission would end its service by … raising a white flag (figuratively).

“I don’t expect that will happen,” Freiberg said in the closing days of the 2023 session.

Herold has been a student of flags ever since the state of Minnesota adopted the current design in 1957. He didn’t like it then and expected it to be replaced soon. It wasn’t, except for a slight change in 1983.

Vexillologists mostly agree on what makes for an effective flag — keep it simple, use meaningful symbolism, use two or three basic colors, no lettering or seals and “be distinctive or be related.” That is “avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections.”

Minnesota breaks all the rules, Herold said.

“In the Minnesota flag there are three dates, there’s the state tree, the state flower, there’s a motto, there’s a scene with the river and St. Anthony falls, there’s a farmer, there’s an Indian. You can’t remember them all,” he said. “A flag is moving so it has to be very simple, very direct and have one or two symbols and be very distinctive.”

Herold has another rule of thumb: Flags should be simple enough that people could make them at home, generous for someone who sells them for a living.

Other states have changed their flags recently. Utah is already fighting over its just unveiled replacement, but Mississippi, which replaced a flag reminiscent of the Confederate flag with a new version, saw 73% of voters support one featuring the magnolia flower.

No such public vote will happen in Minnesota. The bill gives the commission the power, subject only to a veto. That drew opposition from Rep. Kurt Daudt during House floor debate.

“We haven’t seen the product. We won’t see the product until 2024, and then it will just happen,” the Crown Republican said. “It will become the state flag without legislative approval. That is wrong.”

Freiberg said he had confidence in a citizen commission.

“It’s a well-crafted commission that, I think, will come up with a great flag design and a great seal design,” he said.

The makeup of the commission, which will be appointed by Aug. 1, is this:

Three members of the public appointed by Gov. Tim Walz

One appointee of the Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage

One appointee of the Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs

One appointee of the Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans

Two appointees by the Indian Affairs Council with one representing the Dakota community and one representing the Ojibwe community

Someone representing the secretary of state, the state historical society, the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board, the Minnesota Arts Board and Explore Minnesota Tourism

Four members of the Legislature from the GOP and DFL caucuses of both the House and Senate who would sit on the commission but would not have voting power

There is no budget for design experts but the commission can accept volunteer help. It must solicit public comments and its meetings are subject to open public meetings laws. Seven votes are required to approve a new flag and seal.

The directions from the Legislature are brief but still complex. “The designs must accurately and respectfully reflect Minnesota’s shared history, resources and diverse cultural communities,” the law says. “Symbols, emblems, or likenesses that represent only a single community or person, regardless of whether real or stylized, may not be included in a design.”

While the commission could decide to keep the current flag and seal, it is unlikely that it would or that retaining what is in place would meet the criteria in the law. That also suggests that while the current flag and seal are similar — though the flag is even more cluttered than the seal — there will be significant differences between the two come next May.

The new flag movement has led to a variety of proposed replacements.

Freiberg often wears a lapel pin depicting what is called the North Star Flag that was designed in 1989 by the Rev. William Becker, the pastor of Saint Columbanus Catholic Church in Blooming Prairie, with involvement from Herold and others. It has just a few colors — blue above and green below a rippling white stripe. It has one symbol — the star that appears in the upper left corner. Freiberg said he would be fine if that was the flag chosen by the commission.

“If that is what the task force decided to do, I would be more than OK with that,” he said. “The people who came up with this design put a lot of thought into it.”

But Freiberg said his opinions might not be helpful.

“I’m color blind,” he said.

This story is republished under an attribution-noncommercial-no-derivatives Creative Commons license. Donations can be made to MinnPost, a reader-supported nonprofit publication, here.

Images: Above-- Minnesota state flag, REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst; Below-- The North Star Flag, designed in 1989 by the Rev. William Becker.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 09, 2023 at 02:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jean Wagenius: For climate and clean water, state agencies need Walz to lead

It's impossible for Bluestem Prairie to resist commentary by former Minnesota state representative Jean Wagenius about climate action and clean water.

Particularly when she addresses agricultural use of nitrogen.

And so, here's her latest commentary from the Minnesota Reformer:

For climate and clean water, state agencies need Walz to lead
By Jean Wagenius

To their credit, Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from Minnesota 50% by 2030. The Legislature included the same goal in the final environment/energy bill which is now law. It’s the goal science tells us we must meet globally to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

To meet the 2030 goal, agriculture needs to substantially reduce its use of nitrogen fertilizer that is creating greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing nitrogen is also needed to stop pollution of groundwater, which is making it unsafe for drinking and making surface water unsafe for aquatic life. It can be done. Minnesota agriculture can sustainably produce food for Minnesotans and the world.

Nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen applied to crops

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency tracks greenhouse gas emissions from seven economic sectors. In its latest report of Minnesota emissions, MPCA said that the transportation sector was the biggest emitter at about 25% of the state’s total emissions, and the combined agriculture/forestry sector was second. But the effect of this combination is misleading. The agriculture sector is a net emitter of greenhouse gas emissions. Forests sequester carbon. If MPCA considered agriculture and forests as separate economic sectors, then agriculture would be Minnesota’s largest emitter of greenhouse gasses.

MPCA also tracks greenhouse gas emissions from specific activities in each sector and reports each kind of emission. In total, nitrous oxide is the biggest source, accounting for 49% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide is 27%, methane is 24%. Most of agriculture’s nitrous oxide emissions are from row crop agriculture, some is from animal agriculture.

In 2021 Minnesota farmers planted about 8.5 million acres of corn, covering more than 15% of the state’s total surface area. Of that vast acreage, 31% were devoted to corn for ethanol.

Growing corn is heavily dependent on nitrogen fertilizer. More nitrogen is applied than needed for growing corn. When nitrogen fertilizer is applied, nitrous oxide is produced from the nitrogen in soils, crop residues and runoff. MPCA reports that “Nitrous oxide emissions from crop agriculture increased by approximately 9% from 2005 to 2020.”

Bear in mind: The emissions reported by MPCA don’t even include emissions in other states where the nitrogen fertilizer is produced from fossil fuels.

Nitrogen in our waters from agriculture

When it comes to reducing climate pollution from agriculture, Europe has been successful. In the past 20 years European efforts focused on water pollution also reduced nitrous oxide emissions and increased agricultural productivity.

While Europe has been successful in reducing nitrous oxide from agriculture, Minnesota has failed. In 2014, Minnesota created a nutrient reduction plan for surface waters relying on unenforceable goals, voluntary actions, best management practices and cash payments. But nitrogen pollution didn’t decrease — it increased. Regulation has helped other industries limit pollution; it’s time now to limit nitrogen pollution with regulation.

MPCA’s efforts to reduce nitrogen will continue to fail until it starts measuring the actual outcomes of its work, instead of measuring its work by the number of programs created by state agencies and the practices adopted by farmers, regardless of the results achieved. Even after years of state agencies efforts, they don’t know how many more drinking water wells are contaminated with nitrogen or what is happening to aquatic life.

The most recent evidence of nitrogen’s impact on drinking water is in the well documented April 23, 2023 emergency petition to the EPA filed by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and 10 other groups. The petitioners tell EPA that public and private wells in the southeast Karst area of Minnesota are exceeding health standards and putting the health of residents at “serious risk.”

The petitioners ask EPA, among other things, to determine which enforcement measures should be implemented and order those responsible for contaminating wells to pay for free safe drinking water for residents. In an uncomfortable echo of Flint, Michigan, the need to provide residents with free safe drinking water clearly shows the consequences of state agencies’ failure to protect drinking water sources.

Reducing nitrous oxide emissions and water pollution

In Minnesota, the Legislature has taken serious action to to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in two of the three big economic sectors, transportation and electricity generation.

But not yet in the agricultural sector.

Instead of real climate action, some in Minnesota are asking the federal government to increase mandates for use of corn ethanol in gasoline. Ethanol proponents argue that ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions. But current peer-reviewed science tells us that the federally mandated use of ethanol in gasoline has caused farmers to grow more corn on more land with more nitrogen. So ethanol doesn’t mitigate climate change. Its impact “is no less than gasoline and likely at least 24% higher.”

Other economic sectors are transitioning to avoid greenhouse gas emissions and protect us from the worst impacts of climate change. Other industries are regulated and have substantially reduced their water pollution. Now it’s agriculture’s turn to transition. With new direction from Gov. Walz, state agencies could change course and require rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution from nitrogen.

But that isn’t enough. A new generation of farmers also needs support. Some farmers want a future that is less dependent on production methods that add to greenhouse gas emissions and pollute our water. Some farmers are acutely aware of food scarcity and are growing needed food crops, but they need support to expand. Some farmers need support to go organic. And some farmers see the future with more electric vehicles and less ethanol and want to plan their transition.

While the next generation of farmers gets only token support as some are experiencing food scarcity, conventional corn farmers have received massive financial support. Gov. Walz can begin to change that dynamic by giving this new generation of farmers the financial support they need to grow the produce and protein that hungry Minnesotans need.

This Minnesota Reformer article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

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Photo: An aerial view of the Mississippi River-Lake Pepin watershed. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency/ via Minnesota Reformer.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 08, 2023 at 06:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MPCA press release: Study shows unaffordable costs of PFAS cleanup from wastewater

The Minnesota legislature passed tough rules to help keep "forever chemicals" out of the state's environment, but groundbreaking study that's the subject of a recent press release from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) illustrates how daunting--and expensive--dealing what's already there may be.

From the MPCA:

Groundbreaking study shows unaffordable costs of PFAS cleanup from wastewater

Findings underscore need to reduce use of “forever chemicals”

A new report published by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) finds that technologies and expenses needed to remove and destroy per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from certain wastewater streams across Minnesota would cost between $14 and $28 billion over 20 years. The study is the first of its kind and, although specific to Minnesota, the novel methods developed to estimate costs can be applied anywhere.

The MPCA commissioned the independent study as part of Minnesota’s PFAS Blueprint, a comprehensive interagency plan to prevent, manage, and clean up PFAS pollution. The report, titled Evaluation of Current Alternatives and Estimated Cost Curves for PFAS Removal and Destruction from Municipal Wastewater, Biosolids, Landfill Leachate, and Compost Contact Water, was prepared by Barr Engineering Company and Hazen & Sawyer with funding from the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

“The exorbitant costs associated with removing PFAS from community wastewater systems underscores the need to address PFAS pollution long before it gets into the waste stream,” said MPCA Commissioner Katrina Kessler. “At no fault of their own, wastewater treatment facilities receive PFAS from a variety of sources and they cannot carry the burden of cleaning up the pollution. We must all focus on preventing PFAS from entering the environment in the first place.”

Unaffordability of PFAS cleanup from wastewater

The full report will be of interest to the wastewater management and scientific communities. Key findings of broader interest include:

Removing and destroying PFAS from water and biosolids leaving Minnesota’s wastewater treatment facilities could cost between $14 billion and $28 billion over 20 years.

PFAS can be bought for $50 - $1,000 per pound (according to MPCA estimates), but costs between $2.7 million and $18 million per pound to remove and destroy from municipal wastewater, depending on facility size.

Small wastewater treatment facilities would face per-pound costs over six times greater than large facilities, due to economies of scale.

New “short-chain” types of PFAS are more difficult and up to 70% more expensive to remove and destroy compared to old “long-chain” PFAS.

Cost estimates are based on the required upgrades to Minnesota’s existing wastewater infrastructure to treat and destroy PFAS using current commercially available technologies and PFAS levels. In total, 13 PFAS removal and destruction technologies passed a screening on their real-world effectiveness and the most cost-effective technology was selected for statewide cost development. Complete details and additional findings are found in the full report.

New technology that reduces costs to remove and destroy PFAS from wastewater is in development, but the MPCA believes that without an alternative source of funding, PFAS removal and destruction from municipal wastewater will be unaffordable for the foreseeable future. In contrast, emerging biosolids technologies capable of destroying PFAS can be cost-competitive with current practices.

PFAS in wastewater

PFAS can enter wastewater through industrial processes, everyday use of commercial products, or when PFAS-containing products are discarded in landfills and compost sites. Even decades after they are brought to a landfill or compost site, PFAS can make their way into liquids called landfill leachate and compost contact water. These liquids are often sent to wastewater treatment facilities that are not designed to remove PFAS and ultimately released into the environment, where PFAS can contaminate surface water, groundwater, drinking water, fish, other wildlife, and the food supply. Targeting PFAS in wastewater streams, as the study assesses, would be a significant step toward protecting these resources.

Minnesota’s wastewater treatment facilities recognize the need to address PFAS pollution. They have begun monitoring for PFAS and completing PFAS source identification work, but no municipal wastewater facility has the infrastructure capable of removing and destroying PFAS.

Managing and preventing PFAS pollution

Minnesota’s PFAS Blueprint prioritizes pollution prevention as the most effective way to protect health and the environment, and the new PFAS wastewater cleanup cost estimates add a greater urgency to prevention efforts in Minnesota and elsewhere.

The MPCA is working to implement a new law passed by the Minnesota Legislature and signed by Gov. Tim Walz to phase out nonessential PFAS use over the coming decade. The Legislature also funded PFAS Blueprint programs to help businesses transition away from PFAS, protect drinking water supplies, and enhance monitoring systems.

Download the report

Evaluation of current alternatives and estimated cost curves for PFAS removal and destruction from municipal wastewater

Related posts

Photo: This example of a large water filtration facility in New Brighton, MN, for TCE contamination, would be needed for PFAS removal from wastewater for a community of about 5,000 people. Via MPCA.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 07, 2023 at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MN Reformer: Sen. Smith, Lt. Gov Flanagan highlight tribal rights in face of SCOTUS ruling

Readers know Bluestem has been following considerations of tribal sovereignty for many years. Since moving to Summit, SD, within the historical boundaries of the Lake Traverse Reservation, home of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, we've been following the fate of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, since our next door neighbor, a SWO citizen, is the father of three happy and bright adopted brothers, raising the boys along with his non-Indian wife.

His own mother is a traditional herbalist who owns a small business, and the boys help gather sage and other herbs for their grandmother, as well as doing well in the local school. It's a blessing to live beside a happy family.

Yet, while this happiness isn't guaranteed for other Dakota families, there's a movement across the country to protect the concept of tribal sovereignty and heritage.

At the Minnesota Reformer, Michelle Griffith reported Monday in Sen. Smith, Lt. Gov Flanagan highlight tribal rights in the face of U.S. Supreme court ruling:

Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan on Monday praised the emerging influence of Native Americans throughout state and federal governments, and they urged leaders to uphold tribal sovereignty at a National Congress of American Indians conference.

The conference at the Mystic Lake Center in Prior Lake attracted tribal leaders from across the country. Speakers addressed issues facing tribal nations, including climate change and the 2023 federal Farm Bill.

But the theme of the day was celebrating a series of recent electoral and political victories for Native Americans, all the while anxiously awaiting a potential existential blow to tribal sovereignty from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court any day now will issue a ruling in Brackeen v. Haaland, a case to determine the constitutionality of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA). The law established federal minimum standards for the removal of Native American children from their homes and requires states to prioritize placing children in homes of extended family members and other tribal homes — places that could reflect the values of Native American culture.

ICWA was enacted following a century-long campaign by the federal government of forcibly removing Native children from their homes and placing them in boarding schools and with white adoptive families. The mission was to assimilate Native children into the white American mainstream — or “kill the Indian in him, save the man,” as the founder of the first boarding school infamously said.

The plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case argue ICWA discriminates against non-Native families because of their race. ICWA proponents argue tribal citizenship is a political — not racial — category.

Smith told the room full of tribal leaders that she will “do everything in my power to protect and strengthen tribal sovereignty.”

“We have to hold each and every federal, state and local leader accountable for respecting your sovereignty,” Smith said.

The Minnesota Legislature this session passed a law codifying ICWA-like language into state law in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, though if the Supreme Court overturns ICWA it’s unclear what would happen in Minnesota. Minnesota’s law could face its own court challenge.

Flanagan told the room about the initiatives the Minnesota Legislature passed this session for the 11 tribal nations within the state, including additional funding for tribes and restricting the use of Native American mascots in public schools.

Flanagan also said it was a “beautiful gift” for young Native Americans to see themselves represented in the government and in television and movies.

“For far too long, dominant culture has seen Native people as mascots, as ancient history, but that is not and has never been the truth,” Flanagan said. “We are sending powerful reminders that we are still here and we will not be unheard, and it is past time for systems that were built without us to finally listen, or we will change those systems for our own benefit.”

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who is the first Native American to serve in a president’s cabinet, also spoke on Monday. The Department of the Interior published a first-ever report last year on the atrocities committed at boarding schools. Haaland said Interior continues to hear the stories of people who survived boarding schools while directing survivors and their descendants toward support.

This Minnesota Reformer article is republished here under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

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Photo: Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Nation, is the nation's highest ranking Native woman elected to executive office. Flanagan shown here speaking before a march for missing and murdered Indigenous women in Minneapolis in February 2020. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 06, 2023 at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SD News Watch: Dangerous wild animals encroaching on South Dakota neighborhoods

While my neighbor saw a mountain lion cross her path while out on a walk north of town a few years ago--and an occasional bear ambles into Roberts County--this hasn't been an issue in Summit. I grew up hearing a story about a great-great-grandmother shooting a cougar out of a tree above where her children were playing in early statehood southern Minnesota, so I gather the concerns about safety aren't misplaced, even these days.

From South Dakota News Watch:

Dangerous wild animals encroaching on South Dakota neighborhoods
By Bart Pfankuch

SPEARFISH, S.D. – Holly Hansen doesn’t have hard data to prove that potentially dangerous wild animals are entering residential areas with greater frequency, but she does have some pretty strong anecdotal evidence.

In early May, a black bear entered her suburban Spearfish property and killed 16 ducks, chickens and turkeys, she said. Large paw prints in the mud and two piles of bear scat provided evidence of the daytime intruder’s identity.

On May 23, an adult mountain lion was hunkered down in a tree at a home on Wyoming Court, well within Spearfish city limits and not far from two schools, a recreation center and two parks. State game officers tranquilized the lion and safely relocated it before any people were endangered. However, the property owner posted a note on social media indicating that her children likely walked beneath the big cat, whose method of killing animals can include an ambush from a tree limb overhead.

Also in May, a resident near Whitewood, between Spearfish and Sturgis, reported that a suspected mountain lion had killed a foal found dead on her ranch, according to the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office.

Those incidents came amid numerous other wild animal sightings reported in residential areas across South Dakota. Among them: a mountain lion photographed on a street in west Rapid City in March and an encounter at Sertoma Park in Sioux Falls in May where a woman walking her dogs had to carry the canines and run from two coyotes that chased her.

“If they’re coming into town and they’re comfortable, that’s a different level of concern,” said Hansen, who has had mountain lions, coyotes, skunks and now a bear visit her Spearfish property, though only the bear attacked animals. “If they’re in your stuff, tearing animals apart and eating them, it’s a dangerous situation.”

Report of mountain lion above kids concerning, official says

Some wildlife interactions in residential areas are to be expected in South Dakota, where numerous cities border the Black Hills National Forest and other animal habitats.

But the lion removed from Spearfish in May should increase concerns about future interactions with humans, said Terry Mayes, a vice president of the South Dakota Wildlife Federation.

“He wasn’t up there to sleep overnight because that is their normal prey activity,” Mayes said. “They ambush from a branch above, and that’s how they get their major kills, including deer and elk. They disable it and eat that animal pretty much entirely, so there’s a potential for an encounter that could be very bad.”

Officials from the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks — the agency tasked with responding to wild animal encounters — were unwilling to answer questions about the frequency and potential risks of wild animals encroaching into residential areas.

Mike Apland, a GFP supervisor in Spearfish, did not return calls or a text message seeking comment from News Watch.

GFP spokesperson Nick Harrington declined to answer questions about the topic or arrange an interview for News Watch despite numerous email and phone requests.

Animal encounters a global issue

Expanding research into wildlife habitat and human encounters reveals a consistent theme. Encroachment of urban life into animal habitat across the world is increasing. As a result, so are human-animal interactions.

A 2019 study by Colorado State University researchers found that housing and other development had intruded on protected wildlife areas and could reduce them by as much as 12% by 2030.

As urban areas across the world continue to expand, they increasingly shrink habitat for wild animals.

The greater interface between wild animals and residential and developed areas leads to a change in how wild animals behave. It makes them even more likely to brush up against unsuspecting humans, according to a 2020 review of 83 wildlife studies published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

That study concluded that 9 in 10 wild animals adapted to their new urban habitat by changing their diets to include more human foods. They also reduced their range of movement. Both changes could make them more likely to enter or even reside entirely in urban areas.

A July 2020 National Geographic article examined the rising incidence of wildlife in urban areas. It included a map showing how one collared coyote in 2014 had a den atop a parking garage in Chicago and traveled along elevated train tracks and other urban corridors from Michigan Avenue downtown and several miles along Lake Michigan to the city’s south side.

Increased interactions bad for people and animals

The increasing interface between wild animals and humans in non-wild areas is not good for either side of the equation. But it’s far worse for the animals who find themselves in unfamiliar settings and subject to car accidents or euthanization, said Megan Howell, executive director of the non-profit South Dakota Wildlife Federation.

“I think it’s harder on the animals for sure because they don’t have the habitat they need. And they’re put in a situation where they don’t have malicious intent, they’re just subject to new situations,” she said. “And in those situations, we do need to keep humans safe.”

While feeding habits, a change in availability of food or water or illness can lead wild animals into residential areas, the biggest reason for increasing human interactions is loss of habitat for animals across South Dakota and the world, Howell said.

“We’ve lost so much habitat. And not only that, but it’s more fragmented, so the habitat isn’t in big chunks, which is what most wildlife needs to thrive,” Howell said. “When they lose their habitat, that’s when we have more interactions.”

Small steps to possible improvement

Farmers and urban planners can improve practices to maintain animal habitat and provide buffers between wild areas and residential or crop lands, Howell said.

Public education can help residents maintain suburban or rural properties in ways that reduce animal interactions.

And government and environmental groups can continue to seek money and methods to put more land under protection.

“Everyone that has an interest in wildlife or any natural resources, we need to remember that it’s ours and we need to protect it,” she said. “For the federation, we personally take it as a responsibility to protect the natural resources because they are a public trust.”

Mountain lions, and the hunt, hot topics in S.D.

Mountain lions have a long and storied history in South Dakota, and the hunting season remains a controversial program for many.

The mountain lion population was strong in the 1800s but rapidly declined amid unregulated hunting in the early 1900s to the point where the animal was listed as a state threatened and protected species from 1978 to 2003. A hunting season was approved in 2005 and has been in place since.

Due to difficulty of pursuit and sometimes challenging weather (light snow is best for tracking and sighting), hunters have had a hard time reaching the state’s annual quota of 60 total lions or 40 females killed.

The Black Hills season runs from December to April, and prairie hunting is allowed year-round. Hunters are allowed to use dogs in the hunt in Custer State Park and on some other public lands.

Big male mountain lion topped 150 pounds

About 3,000 to 4,000 lion licenses are sold each year, and 2011-2012 was the last time the quota was reached, with 73 animals taken in the Black Hills and Custer State Park.

In recent years, the kill total has ranged from a low of 21 in 2018-2019 to a recent high of 51 total in 2019-2020. So far in 2023, 44 lions have been killed, the largest a 153-pound male estimated to be 7½ years old taken in January in Pennington County.

A 2021 proposal to expand use of hounds to hunt on some public lands outside Custer State Park was opposed by numerous residents who wrote to the GFP before the commission voted in favor. Their comments shone a light on the emotions surrounding the lion hunt overall in South Dakota.

Some argued that the rules could decimate the state’s population of roughly 300 lions, while others decried the lion hunt as existing only to provide hunters with a trophy.

“I am very opposed to a pointless mountain lion season,” Katie Gilmore of Harrisburg wrote. “Shooting animals for food serves a purpose, trophy hunting does not.”

Others were opposed to the use of dogs in lion hunting, which often culminates in a lion being flushed up a tree where it can be shot.

“It is bad enough we have a hunting season on mountain lions when there is no need for one, but to allow the use of hounds is truly despicable,” wrote Teresa Hicks of Rapid City. “This isn’t hunting. It’s cruel and unsportsmanlike.”

But the GFP and some wildlife groups support the hunt as an important way to manage the state’s lion population. The season continues “as a management tool to manage mountain lion populations at a desired level,” according to the GFP website.

Deer population may influence interactions

In addition to habitat loss, the declining deer population in the Black Hills may be another reason mountain lions are migrating into residential areas, according to Mayes with the South Dakota Wildlife Federation, who has become an animal behavior expert.

Deer populations — a primary food source for mountain lions — have declined slightly due to animal losses caused by the emergence of chronic wasting disease and epizootic hemorrhagic disease, a viral illness spread by midge flies, Mayes said.

One metric of deer population is the annual harvest by hunters, which reached a low of roughly 20,000 per year in the late 1970s, rebounded to nearly 100,000 a year in 2010 and recently has hovered closer to 50,000 annually.

Along with population changes, more deer have taken up full-time residence in South Dakota cities. That has caused more than 300 car-deer crashes and $1 million in property damage a year in Rapid City, said Mayes, who serves on the Rapid City wildlife management board.

In recent years, Mayes said, more deer have become part of established herds that are born, live and die entirely inside city limits. That not only dramatically increases the likelihood of animal interactions with humans but theoretically could attract more lions into buffer lands in and outside the urban area.

The high population of deer in Rapid City has led to six years of an annual culling by city sharpshooters, who removed 237 deer in January and February 2023, according to city records.

A devastating loss of family’s fowl

Hansen, the Spearfish area resident, said the bear that tore up her yard and killed her fowl entered her property sometime during the daylight hours of Mother’s Day while she and her sons were off fishing.

She keeps animal feed and garbage in metal containers with strong lids to reduce enticements for wild animal visits, but she has experienced a mountain lion on her deck and other close calls with coyotes and other critters.

The bear climbed a wood pile and broke through a fence before clawing and tearing up her animal houses, killing numerous farm fowl but also a “silly turkey” that followed her around, pecked at windows to get attention and had become somewhat of a pet.

“I walked out there, and it was pretty devastating. There were dead animals and animal parts everywhere,” she said. “The bear had torn off a panel attached with deck screws, and he tore off wood and wire.”

The bear scat found on her property contained corn and egg shells, which Hansen said likely came from attacks the bear reportedly made on her neighbors’ properties.

Seeking greater information sharing

Hansen said the bear attack and recent mountain lion sightings around Spearfish have heightened her concerns to where she tries not to do chores after dark and traverse her property with a dog or other person present.

“I’ve seen more and more mountain lions in the past year and more and more coyotes,” she said. “They say there’s never been a mountain lion attack in South Dakota. But there’s also never been a bear killing this many animals, so maybe anything is possible, and it’s just a matter of time.”

Hansen said she has shared her bear story with neighbors so they are aware. She added that she felt like GFP officials have not done enough to inform the public about wild animal encounters on her property and in other areas of South Dakota. “I think we need to know so people can be prepared,” she said.

Risk can be mitigated, not eliminated

Mayes, who has seen mountain lion tracks at his home about a mile from Monument Hospital in Rapid City, said wild animals will adapt to their surroundings fairly quickly and do what they must to survive, even if it means traipsing into areas populated by humans.

“They’re adaptable, they know where the food is, and with them it’s all about survival,” he said.

Mayes said that regardless of the species, people need to realize that animal encounters are always possible, and that some basic precautions can reduce the risk of a negative interaction.

He urged people not to feed wildlife, to keep animal feed and household garbage safely secured, and to drive slower and be more aware of potential animal movement at dusk, overnight and dawn.

“We have to make peace with the fact that we’re going to interact. And we have to know that you can do things to mitigate that, but you can’t eliminate it,” he said.

This article is published here with the permission of South Dakota News Watch.

Photo: The mountain lion that Spearfish police tranquilized in May after it wandered into a residential area. (Photo: Spearfish Police Department via South Dakota News Watch.

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 05, 2023 at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scott Jensen promises to file lawsuit on Tuesday against Board of Medical Practice & AG Ellison

On June 1, Bluestem noted in Third time: Scott Jensen to rejoin usual bunch of quacks at Global Health Freedom Summit, that former state senator and 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Jensen had been saying for a couple of months that he was suing the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice and Attorney General Keith Ellison over the Board's investigation of Jensen's unconventional health care views.

At that time, no lawsuit had been filed.

Bluestem was left to guess had been the topic of the complaints against Jensen, since the inquiries and files of Board of Medical Practice investigations are closed unless the doctor is reprimanded. We're guessing that the Board is represented by a staffer at the Attorney General's office, although Keith Ellison's name appears at the top of the letter such a letter would be printed on.

Apparently in the world of Scott Jensen, the board doing its job to investigate complaints violated his right to free speech. He's a victim.

According to a news press release mentioned in the Morning Take Newsletter:

TOMORROW: via a Scott Jensen press release, VERBATIM: “Former Republican Gubernatorial Candidate [Dr.] Scott Jensen will be filing two suits against [Attorney General] Keith Ellison and the MN Board of Medical Practice. … Scott Jensen and counsel will be available for media who attend the event.” The event is at 1:00 p.m.

Willmar Radio has more in Scott Jensen suing AG Keith Ellison, alleging free speech violations:

(Chaska, MN) -- Former state senator and candidate for governor Scott Jensen is suing Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the state Board of Medical Practice. Jensen claims they violated his First Amendment rights of free speech and other rights under the U-S Constitution. Jensen was investigated for, among other issues, questioning the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine and says if physicians are denied their First Amendment rights to speak in opposition to "conventional narrative, you would lose the dynamic vitality of medical discussions that really pave the way for scientific advancement." Opponents contend Jensen, as a physician and public figure, made scientifically inaccurate statements and spread information that could mislead people. A spokesman for Attorney General Ellison said, “There is no merit to the allegations" now being formally filed in Jensen's lawsuits.

That's not quire as detailed as Willmar Radio's April 20 report, Scott Jensen suing Ellison over medical license investigations:

(Chaska MN-) Former Gubernatorial Candidate and Minnesota Family Doctor Scott Jensen has announced that he's filing a lawsuit in Federal Court against Attorney General Keith Ellison and members of the Board of Medical Practice for violating his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The following is a news release from Jensen...

Government regulatory agencies are not weapons to be used against political opponents. Dr. Jensen is preparing a lawsuit to vindicate the rights of physicians and other health care professionals, cosmetologists, and anyone else who recognizes this grave threat to free speech and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

The purpose of the suit will be twofold: First, to aid the courts in further drawing the line between protected speech and professional conduct subject to regulation. Second, we will hold accountable those responsible for the outrageous weaponization of government against Dr. Jensen and countless other professionals who displayed the courage to speak out against censors and regulators run amok.

After being an outspoken voice during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Jensen had his medical license threatened 5 times by political activists who leveraged Minnesota's Board of Medical Practice against him. These attacks on speech continued throughout his campaign for Governor of the State of Minnesota.

Said Jensen of the lawsuit, "For three years, while I was a sitting State Senator and while I was running for governor, the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice hovered over me as a weaponized agency. Attorney General Keith Ellison joined that harassment as a political actor. My rights were violated, as were the rights of so many to speak freely during the COVID-19 pandemic and afterwards. We are going to take this lawsuit as far as we need to in order to protect the rights of physicians and all other professionals who have dissenting voices. The silencing and intimidation of political adversaries cannot become the norm in America."

Former Republican nominee for governor Scott Jensen is accusing the state medical board and attorney general of targeting his medical license for political reasons.

Jensen released a video on social media (now going viral) Monday in which he said he recently received a letter from the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice notifying him of an upcoming conference on a complaint against him. The letter (which he showed on screen) was written on Office of Attorney General stationery because their attorney works for the board.

In July 2020, Jensen first went public about a medical board complaint against him. He said it was the first time in his 40-year career he’d been the subject of a complaint, and that it arose after he expressed unconventional views about COVID-19.

He said four other complaints against him were dismissed, but after hearing nothing last year — as he was running for governor — this fifth complaint has been resurrected after first being lodged 15 months ago.

“What do you think happened in 2022?” he said, an apparent reference to his failed run for governor. “The pieces of the puzzle fell into place” — presumably after he lost to Gov. Tim Walz.

“There’s an opportunity for dissenting voices to be crushed,” Jensen said.

The letter, dated Jan. 25, is a notice requesting that he meet with the board’s complaint review committee as an “information-gathering step.” Ruth Martinez, the board’s executive director, and an assistant attorney general signed the letter.

Martinez acknowledged in the letter that their language is “quite formal and legalistic,” as required by law, but went on to say the meeting won’t be a hearing. Rather, it will be a forum for the board to meet face-to-face with Jensen and have a conversation about the concerns raised.

That did little to assuage Jensen’s concerns: He said he was up past 1 a.m. “trying to go through this.”

“This is all about raw politics. This is about raw power. This is about punishment,” he said on the video.

Other doctors have accused Jensen of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.

Although Jensen has denied being anti-vaccine, he has appeared with prominent anti-vaxxers, and he once referred to COVID-19 as a “mild four-day respiratory illness.” He promoted using hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19. And during this campaign for governor last year, he compared pandemic public health policies to Hitler’s rise.

Jensen said his medical license is on the line.

“How does that make me feel? Sick to my stomach,” he said.

He accused the state of trying to “extinguish a voice of skepticism,” noting that he is former vice chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Finance and Policy Committee, has taught at the University of Minnesota and was asked by Walz to help get an insulin bill passed.

“If you’re not getting on board, you’re a problem,” he said. “If they can do it to me, they can do it to you.”

The attorney general and medical board did not respond to a request for comment.

Well jeepers.

Before the 2022 election, the Reformer's Michelle Griffith reported Scott Jensen’s unconventional health care views spread beyond COVID-19.

Who knew? Head over to the Reformer and check out the list of unconventional views.

Should a lawsuit be filed in federal court, Bluestem will try to pry it out of the PACER system and check it out.

Relate posts

Photo: Former candidate for governor Scott Jensen accused the state medical board and attorney general of targeting him for being a voice of dissent about COVID-19 vaccines and treatment. Screenshot from Jensen video/via Minnesota Reformer.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

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Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 05, 2023 at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Noem plans to use emergency and disaster money to pay for border troop deployment

On Thursday, Bluestem Prairie posted Governor Kristi Noem orders South Dakota National Guard troops to Mexican border again, a South Dakota Searchlight article about the governor's latest border excursion.

But there's more to the story: how South Dakota is paying for it.

The Searchlight's Seth Tupper reported Friday in Noem plans to use emergency and disaster money to pay for border troop deployment:

Gov. Kristi Noem’s funding source for a troop deployment to the U.S.-Mexico border is the state’s Emergency and Disaster Fund, a revelation that caused a top-ranking legislator to criticize the plan and question its legality.

Noem announced the impending troop deployment Thursday in a news release, saying she plans to send at least 50 National Guard soldiers to help secure the nation’s southern border this summer. She and 12 fellow Republican governors are responding to a request for assistance from the governor of Texas, the news release said.

Noem’s spokesman, Ian Fury, did not provide a cost estimate for the deployment, but told South Dakota Searchlight via text message Thursday evening, “All costs will be paid out of the Emergency & Disaster Fund.”

Lee Schoenbeck, a Watertown Republican and president pro tempore of the state Senate, said securing the border is a federal responsibility. He said Noem is acting on a “political agenda unrelated to South Dakota issues” and violating the trust placed in the executive branch to spend the state’s money as intended.

“She cannot use those funds for that,” Schoenbeck said Thursday night. “She needs to follow the law.”

A fund for in-state expenses

A Searchlight review of budget documents, public testimony, legislation and state laws pertaining to the fund revealed a common thread: references to the fund being intended for expenses within the state’s borders.

According to the recommended budget Noem sent to legislators in December, the fund is for emergencies and disasters “in South Dakota.” Noem asked legislators to put $2,524,560 into the fund.

The House Committee on Appropriations filed a bill to appropriate precisely that amount in January. Angela Lemieux, of the Department of Public Safety, testified during the bill’s first public hearing later that month.

“The fund covers costs for emergencies and disasters that occur in the state,” Lemieux told the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Appropriations.

She said the money is used to help communities recover from natural disasters, and for grants that help communities prepare for future disasters.

After the Joint Appropriations Committee, the bill’s next stop was the House of Representatives, where Republican Lance Koth of Mitchell delivered the only comments.

“It’s a special appropriation for the Emergency and Disaster Fund to cover costs of emergencies and disasters that have already occurred in our state,” Koth said.

In the Senate, the only remarks came from Dean Wink, R-Howes, who offered a detailed example to illustrate the fund’s purpose.

“We’ve had a very dry two years out in the Black Hills, and so we’ve had some wildfires that the locals, it got too big for them,” Wink said. “We have a reciprocal agreement with neighboring states that if we need help, they send their crews and their equipment, and vice versa. And next year, they may need our help. So they send us a bill after going back home, the Department of Public Safety pays it, and now they request us to refill their fund to bring it back up to zero.”

The bill received unanimous support at each level of the Legislature, and Noem signed it into law on Feb. 9.

None of the testimony, nor any of the language in the bill, mentioned out-of-state National Guard deployments.

The bill’s text said the money is for costs related to an “emergency or disaster” and pointed to a pre-existing state law that defines those terms. That law says emergencies and disasters include any natural, nuclear, man-made, war-related, or other catastrophe “in any part of the state.”

Legislators react

Thursday night, Schoenbeck declined to say what, if anything, the Legislature could do to stop Noem from spending the money as she plans. But he said budget requests from Noem and her staff could face opposition during the next legislative session.

“The appropriations process involves a lot of trust,” Schoenbeck said. “If they come back with less trust, that translates into what’s appropriated the next year.”

Sen. Jean Hunhoff, R-Yankton, the chair of the Joint Appropriations Committee, said Noem’s plan to use the Emergency and Disaster Fund for a troop deployment “looks like a new use of those dollars.”

Hunhoff wasn’t prepared to offer further comments, she said, because she hadn’t received any communication about the matter from the Governor’s Office.

“I wish we would’ve had notice or information, but apparently we all got the information the same time the news release went out,” Hunhoff said.

Noem has sent National Guard troops to the nation’s southern border before. In 2021, she ignited controversy with her acceptance of a $1 million donation from Tennessee billionaire Willis Johnson to pay most of the cost for deploying 48 troops. The deployment cost a total of $1.45 million, according to records obtained by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Friday, Fury seemed to disregard the $1 million donation while tweeting that the state’s Emergency and Disaster Fund “is how these type of activations are ALWAYS paid for. In fact, it’s precisely how the deployment to the border 2 years ago was paid for.” South Dakota Searchlight sent Fury a message asking for clarification on whether the fund covered the portion of the deployment not covered by the donation, or whether the donation was never paid. Fury has not yet responded.

Yes, the @SD_Guard deployment to the border is being paid for by Emergency & Disaster Funds. That is how these type of activations are ALWAYS paid for.

In fact, it's precisely how the deployment to the border 2 years ago was paid for.

The border is an EMERGENCY. It's a warzone.
— Ian Fury (@IanTFury) June 2, 2023

Also in 2021,

Noem approved the sending of additional National Guard soldiers to the border at the request of the federal government. She said those additional troops were on “federal pay status.”

The new deployments announced by Noem and other Republican governors come during a period of heightened political rhetoric about the border, in connection with the end of a pandemic policy that temporarily turned away asylum seekers to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The number of migrants crossing the border — predicted by some to surge after the policy ended — has plummeted recently.

Fury’s Friday tweet said, “The border is an EMERGENCY. It’s a warzone.”

— South Dakota Searchlight’s Joshua Haiar contributed to this report.

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Related posts

Photo: Gov. Kristi Noem visits troops during the 2019 Golden Coyote Exercise at Rapid City in 2019. (U.S. Army Reserve photo by Spc. Jamaal Turner/ via South Dakota Searchlight).

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Jun 03, 2023 at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen applied to crops

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