Brookings Referred Law 21 forum: Biased as hell, and painfully stupid

Went to the local forum here in Brookings last night on Referred Law 21. And it might have been the most painfully stupid thing I’ve ever attended in over 35 years of politics.  And that says alot, because I’ve been to a lot of stupid events, where people say a lot of stupid things.  But, I might have a new winner.

Arrived at the event outside, and had a burger with the pro-ethanol people who were set up in the parking lot handing out food left and right as catered by HyVee. Nice folks – a lot of ethanol producers and advocates.

And then it went downhill from there.  If you walked into the event, you were instantly struck by the tables full of anti-pipeline merchandise, where sponsors were selling… er, trading for a donation of varying amounts t-shirts and signs.  They were handing out sheets which had information about who was sponsoring the event, and who was speaking.

Brookings RL21 Forum by Pat Powers on Scribd

The event sheet says that the Forum Hosts were Craig Hoffman, Clint Hoyer and MeLisa Elijah without any other disclosure.  I didn’t get a chance to look until I got home, but the nature of the sponsors might have been disclosed up front.  Here’s Craig Hoffman actively opposing the pipeline, Here’s Craig Hoffman & Clint Hoyer on a podcast opposing the pipeline, and here’s MeLisa Elijah Opposing the pipeline here and here. And here.  Obviously, the forum hosts are all anti-co2 pipeline, despite the fact the event was not advertised as such.  And things didn’t improve from there.

Opponents and proponents were given 10 minutes per speaker.. except for the extra 20 minutes they gave geologist Tim Kenyon to go on and on to make claims about how c02 pipelines leak and kill prairie dogs. There was maybe 3 seconds where he mumbled that pipelines were safer than trucks.. but it was three seconds out of 20 mind-numbing minutes of fear-mongering over co2 pipelines.  That was the set up for Nebraskan Trent Loos.. whom someone described to me as a “western shock jock.”

Here’s where we get to the painfully stupid parts with the opponents who were both hauled in from out of state. Trent Loos, who claims he’s broadcasted daily on 100 stations across the United States gave me pause to lament how stupid he is making his listeners with his angry pronouncements and ridiculous claims. Two of the big takeaways from Trent Loos – 100 people DIE every year from changing out co2 canisters on soda fountain machines. And sequestering carbon in the ground is causing volcanoes in other parts of the world.

What? Did I actually hear someone say those things? The soda machine claim in relation to the RL 21 debate was a huge red flag that we were on a bus to crazytown, but the volcano comment left no doubt that we’d arrived in the center square.

Opponent/Economist from Iowa Doyle Turner spent his time attacking Bruce Rastetter. Literally that was his biggest point. So he doesn’t like the guy. OK. That happens, but how is that the basis to travel to South Dakota to yell about a ballot issue? Offering crazy tales about exploding co2 canisters killing the masses might hold some people rapt…

…but it doesn’t do a lot for non-kool aid drinkers.

The event did feature a couple of actual people who actually live in South Dakota, both proponents. I thought they had good information, despite being invited into the viper’s den. But was anyone listening?

Proponent State Representative Roger Chase is a landowner actually affected by the pipeline, and has signed an easement to allow it’s construction on his land. As a legislator, he seemed in unfamiliar territory he was there to actually discuss Referred Law 21/Senate Bill 201, and not crazy conspiracies from the Internet.

However, in the time allotted, he did a good job explaining the Landowner Bill of Rights, and how it would provide for additional protections for landowners, revenue for landowners and counties, and the provisions of the bill as passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Noem.

Jim Seurer, CEO of Glacial Lakes Energy provided a eye-opening industry perspective on why hooking to the pipeline is vial to the South Dakota Ethanol industry, and how they have been watching where the world is headed, towards de-carbonization, whether people like it or not.

Ethanol plants are not doing this because they want to, but they are doing it as driven by the consumer market, and industry trends. Seurer notied how decarbonization is coming, and those efforts are only going to continue to get stronger. He pointed to one specific presentation he attended where a white paper was discussed that he recommended that everyone look up. A Strategic Roadmap for Decarbonizing the U.S. Ethanol Industry notes the following:

Ethanol is a vital component of U.S. rural economies that contributed over $57 billion to the national gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022. Ethanol accounts for 28% of U.S. farming GDP alone while sustaining over 420,000 jobs. Not only is ethanol the most commonly produced and used biofuel in the United States, but the nation produces over half of the global ethanol supply. 

While ethanol has much lower carbon intensity than conventional fuels, considerable room for decarbonization still exists.

and..

Current incentives provide a foundation for ethanol decarbonization but are not enough on their own. Additional policy measures will accelerate the adoption of the strategic decarbonization roadmap for the ethanol industry to reach net-zero carbon intensity and move beyond. This report makes thirteen recommendations to ethanol producers, Congress, the administration, USDA, DOE, IRS, EPA, and state governments 

You can read that and the entire report here.

Seurer noted that these are the challenges the ethanol industry faces right now, and they are not going away. He also pointed out that whether ag producers like it or not, and speaking as someone who is on the front lines of agriculture – decarbonization is coming, and it is coming for not just ethanol, but for individual ag producers. And now is the time for ag to prepare to deal with it.

Not that this crowd wanted reality. From there it moved into Q&A Time, with the pipeline opponents who sponsored the event filtering them forward at their preference, predictably. The questions, and much of the discussion for the portion I hung around for did not have a lot (anything?) to do with the landowner bill of rights that people will actually note on, as much as opponent’s focus on carbon credits and pipelines, and crazy statements on carbon dioxide.

I exited around 8-8:30, as I had to get my dogs out. So I didn’t hear if we were in danger from anything else exploding. I think I had enough at that point.

So, my final assessment of the event last night was that despite a reasonable presentation of what the law actually says, and the challenges the ethanol industry faces, that was not the purpose of the forum last night, because they were after fear mongering and anything but what the measure actually does. When you fail to disclose it was organized by opponents for opponents at the get-go, it was an event that was biased as hell when it wasn’t being painfully stupid.