Jared Bossly, a farmer from South Dakota, is fighting to protect his family farm in the face of green, greedy prairie fairies. Around 80 farmers have filed lawsuits against a green energy company that is attempting to steal their land.
Summit collects carbon dioxide from ethanol factories and transports it to North Dakota where it’s stored underground. The pipeline is 1,958 miles in length, of which 474 miles would be in South Dakota.
FACT-O-RAMA! The term “prairie fairy” is used to describe hippy-types who avoid soap, worship flowers, and hug trees. Save the hate mail. The phrase isn’t “gayophobic.”
The green company “Summit Carbon Solutions”, which has GOP allies in high places such as former S.D. Governor Terry Branstad, who served six terms in Iowa, is attempting to take Bossly’s farm under eminent-domain in order to build a pipeline for carbon capture. GOP state Chair Dan Lederman. Summit was a major sponsor of Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D. ) inauguration.
Bossly claims that Summit surveyors entered his frame shop and house without permission.
The surveyors claimed that Bossly had threatened to shoot them should they return and asked the judge to find him guilty of contempt. The judge refused. Bossly says he did not make the threat. Others believe that the alleged threats were bogus and meant to scare away other farmers who might resist Summit’s land grab.
Bossly says that Summit surveyors entered his house illegally while Bossly and his wife were in the fields.
Mrs. Bossly, according to the report, got up and told her husband about what was going on. Summit says she turned the speaker on the phone and Bossly said in six seconds that he was going to shoot the first surveyor.
IRONY-O-RAMA! Bossly planted the trees as a wind shield for his cattle. Summit, an “green” firm, is likely to bulldoze the trees down if it succeeds in acquiring the farm.
While Bossly has been abandoned by many GOP politicians, the South Dakota Freedom Caucus is on his side.
Their website:
According to the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution the government can only take private property if it pays a fair compensation to the owners of the property and if the property is used for public purposes.
It is unacceptable to use eminent-domain by a private corporation for anything like the underground storage of carbon dioxide or sequestration of carbon-dioxide.
South Dakota law allows this to happen! (SDCL SS 48-7-13)
Bossly’s victory on the contempt charge was just the start. He and other farmers face a long battle against a well-funded, large green business that wants to steal the land they’ve owned for generations.