Wyoming committee rejects bill adding landowner thresholds for eminent domain on CO2 pipelines

The Agriculture, State & Public Lands & Water Resources Committee voted down a bill that would have limited use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines, rejecting LSO 26 LSO 0209 on a 5-7 roll call.

The bill, introduced to the committee as LSO 26 LSO 0209 and explained by LSO staffer Anna, would create a new Wyoming statute (proposed 1-26-819) authorizing eminent domain for CO2 pipelines only if a series of procedural and substantive conditions were met. Those conditions included negotiated land-use and compensation agreements securing either at least 66% of the area over a pipeline route or consent from at least 66% of the owners; calculation of improvements into fair market value; confidentiality of compensation terms except to the opposing party and courts; a 30-day notice to county commissioners and municipal governments before condemnation; and specific easement-renegotiation requirements. The bill included conforming amendments and an applicability clause covering condemnations after July 1, 2026, but said it would not impair existing contracts or projects that had entered local or state permitting before that date.

Why it mattered: proponents said the measure protected private property by forcing meaningful negotiation before a condemnation action; opponents said it would chill financing and delay pipeline projects important to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and other carbon uses. Committee debate and public testimony focused on whether the measure unduly constrained projects already…