DES MOINES, Iowa — Aaron Lehman has many concerns about the fate of Iowa farmers. There is more than one climate change lawsuit.
But state lawmakers disagree with Iowa Farmers Union President Lehman. Instead, they pushed through legislation to protect agricultural businesses from lawsuits over the climate impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. The bill currently awaits Governor Kim Reynolds’ signature.
In 2018, residents in northeast Iowa announced plans to sue the Department of Natural Resources for failing to regulate air emissions from hog facilities, but did not file a lawsuit. Even then, the challenge would have been directed at national institutions rather than individual pork producers.
Policymakers should invest directly in local, farmer-based solutions to the global climate crisis, but the latest bill does “the exact opposite” of that, Lehman wrote.
Benefits of ethanol?
In fact, ethanol plants, rather than farmers and ranchers, appear poised to benefit most from the new law’s protections. The law broadly defines “agricultural resources” as any location where agricultural products are produced, handled, stored, processed, or distributed. This can include everything from farmland and livestock facilities to slaughterhouses and ethanol plants.
アイオワ州は、米国の保有工場のほぼ 4 分の 1 に相当する 42 の工場を有し、エタノール生産において他の州をはるかに上回っています。 Nearly 40 percent of the corn grown in Iowa, the nation’s largest corn producer, is converted to ethanol in a fermentation process that burns energy and releases carbon dioxide gas.
A farmer harvests corn near Burlington, Iowa. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Over the past few years, some of these factories have faced legal issues related to greenhouse gas emissions.
Last summer, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Byrd sued Quad County Corn Processor, an ethanol plant in Galva, seeking $6 million in fines accumulated over 600 days of Clean Air Act emissions violations. The factory ultimately settled the lawsuit by paying the Department of Natural Resources $100,000, a portion of the damages it had originally sought.
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The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and FUELIowa, formerly an Iowa oil distributor and convenience store, have registered to support the bill. Neither organization responded to multiple requests for comment.
Other states have enacted similar laws. Last month, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed legislation limiting liability for damage and injury caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The law is even broader than Iowa’s and covers all individual emitters, not just farmers.
In 2023, then-South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed legislation that made it more difficult to file lawsuits and nuisance claims against farms for odor and pollution. Florida amended its Right to Farm Act in 2021 to include similar language.
Iowa’s bill doesn’t completely block lawsuits, but it leaves a narrow legal path for plaintiffs who can prove with “clear and convincing evidence” that a farming operation violates existing laws or permits that set emissions limits. Wolf said during the House debate that this exception ensures that the bill cannot be used to protect “bad actors.”
Opponents of the bill argue that such language would do little to ensure justice. The exception is a “red herring,” Iowa Sen. Art Stead said in a Senate debate last month. “Permits are for a limited time only and do not guarantee safety,” he said.
That floor may not exist for long, Stead said, after President Trump overturned the endangered status certification that was the basis for federal regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. “The main basis for emissions limits in permits is off the table. This bill will only contribute to the ongoing race to the bottom as far as climate protection is concerned.”
Dani Reprugle, a staff attorney with the food and water watchdog group, said allowing lawsuits for permit violations is a meaningful provision only if the permit sets greenhouse gas limits. That might not be the case, she says, unless the species is discovered to be endangered. “This means that those injured by climate-related harms will have no avenue to receive compensation.”
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Annika Jane Beemer
Annika Jane Beamer covers Iowa’s environment and climate change, with a particular focus on water, soil and CAFOs. A lifelong Midwesterner, she writes about ecological change from one of the continent’s most altered landscapes. She holds a master’s degree in science writing from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in biology and Spanish from Grinnell College. She is a former Outrider Fellow at Inside Climate News and was named a Taylor Blakeslee Graduate Fellow by the Council for the Advancement of Scientific Writing.
Georgina Gustin
washington dc reporter
Georgina Gustin covers agriculture for Inside Climate News and has spent much of her journalism career reporting on the intersection of agriculture, food systems, and the environment. Her work has earned her numerous awards, including the John B. Oakes Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism, and she has been named Glenn Cunningham Agriculture Journalist of the Year twice and once with her ICN colleagues. She has worked as a reporter for The Day in New London, Conn., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and CQ Roll Call, and her articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and National Geographic’s The Plate, among others. She is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the University of Colorado Boulder.
