Dear Friends,
With the legislative session likely to end this week and the eminent domain bill languishing, it’s time to pull out all the stops. I ask you to do three things:
(1) Call or write your state senator to ask Senate leadership to bring up SF 506 for debate NOW! Similarly, call or write your state representative to ask House leadership to bring up HSB 249 for debate NOW! If you’re not certain who represents you at the statehouse, go to find your legislator.
(2) Tomorrow, I announce the “trump card” in this fight, one that I believe has the potential to finally convince Iowa’s political leadership to do the right thing and pass the eminent domain bill. Help me get the word out TODAY by cutting and pasting this press release and sharing it online and with your local media:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
9:30 a.m. Monday, June 1, 2015
Des Moines, Iowa
For more information, contact Ed Fallon at (515) 238-6404
Fallon to announce 11th hour “trump card” strategy on eminent domain bill
“It’s time to hit elected officials where they are most vulnerable.”
Tuesday, June 2 at 10:30 a.m. outside Governor Branstad’s office (Room GO9), former Iowa lawmaker Ed Fallon will announce what he calls the “trump card” strategy to move the eminent domain bill (SF 506 and HSB 249) forward. The bill would establish a fairer, more level playing field and provide some protections to landowners along the path of the proposed Bakken oil pipeline. In April, the bill easily passed a subcommittee of the Iowa House and a full committee of the Iowa Senate. But it since has stalled out, and leaders in both chambers are preventing it from coming up for debate.
“The vast majority of Iowans are opposed to government allowing a private corporation to confiscate farmland for an oil pipeline that serves no public purpose,” said Fallon. “Thousands of Iowans have pleaded with lawmakers at the Statehouse and at meetings in their home districts. They have written letter after letter to legislators, Governor Branstad, the Iowa Utilities Board and local newspapers. For my part, I have walked 400 miles across Iowa and been arrested at the Governor’s office. Yet it all seems to fall on deaf ears.”
“Now it’s do or die,” concluded Fallon. “The bill has to pass this week or landowners along the path of the pipeline will not be given the consideration and help they deserve. It’s time to pull out all the stops and embrace a different strategy. It’s time to hit elected officials obstructing the bill where they are most vulnerable.”
At the press conference on Tuesday, Fallon will announce the details of that strategy and share a written statement.
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(3) This coming Saturday, June 6, St. Paul, Minnesota hosts a regional anti-pipeline and tar-sands resistance mobilization that promises to be big and influential. That morning, I have been asked by Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska to co-facilitate a discussion with landowners throughout the Upper Midwest from 9:00-11:00 a.m. (location TBD). Click here to register to attend the meeting, and click here for more detail about the mobilization.
This week’s Fallon Forum can be heard live on Monday, June 1, 11:00-12:00 noon on KDLF 1260 AM (Des Moines) and online. Call (515) 528-8122 to add your voice to the conversation. The program re-broadcasts Wednesday on KHOI 89.1 FM (Ames) at 4:00 p.m., and Wednesday on KPVL 89.1 FM (Postville) at 7:00 p.m. Podcasts are available at www.fallonforum.com.
Thanks! – Ed Fallon