South Dakota Is Destroying Itself
Tim O’Connor – Center for the Preservation of Humanity – 2/24/2024
South Dakota Is Destroying Itself
The South Dakota legislature is letting the residents of South Dakota down in a big way. There has already been at least one grotesque bill signed into law and the bills moving are no better. The state apparently sees it necessary to consolidate power into their hands, assist demonic companies in destroying the agricultural base the South Dakota economy thrives on, and doesn’t really seem to mind mandating increased criminal activity. All of these are bad omens.
SB 201 is one of the worst bills I have ever come across. It was introduced to circumvent opposition to one of the most absurd ideas ever concocted. Two companies, Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator CO2 Ventures have spent several years unsuccessfully attempting to get carbon capture pipelines approved. Multiple efforts from the companies have seen them attempt to use eminent domain procedures against land owners, as well as other strong arm tactics. While Navigator CO2 Venture quit, Summit has carried on with it’s desire to seize people’s lands. SB 201 attempts to destroy the ability for landowners, local municipalities, or counties to ever again have a say about anything having to do with a CO2 pipeline ever again.
State legislative bribery is Summit’s new avenue of attack. Their inside guy, a ‘republican’ South Dakota state Senator that makes me want to puke, Casey Crabtree, introduced SB 201. Casey Crabtree has some problems. For one – I will do everything in my power to convince people to never, ever vote for this guy again. Two, his profession outside of writing draconian legislation violating the rights of South Dakotans as well as the cities and counties in the state, is as a Director of Economic Development for Heartland Energy in Madison, SD. In other words this guy is an economic planner with a conflict of interest who has apparently adopted far too many tenets of Hobbes and Marx and never bothered to think about Hayek nor Mises.
The bill has passed the Senate of South Dakota. It takes away the ability of any entity other than the state to decide where a pipeline should go or what the necessary easements should be. Companies such as Summit and Heartland will be able to do virtually anything they want with carbon capture technologies with the force of the state government behind them. Heartland has a track record of this type of idiocracy – in 2015 they sponsored the installation of smart meters. In January 2024 they issued a statement that, because of the smart meters, they now have to be alert to cybersecurity concerns.
The bribe comes into play as counties will either receive tax revenue collected by the state paid by the pipeline company or the counties will be able to charge up to a dollar per linear foot of pipeline in their jurisdiction. This bribery scheme can only be altered by the state. When Crabtree or one of his cronies goes and lands on the board of one of these carbon capture companies watch the ‘profit’ motive for the counties who are being ordered to stand aside while the state steals people’s land on behalf of the carbon pipeline company to move CO2 from the Dakotas to Illinois dry up.
The bill also strips any government other than the state to have any control over a gas, liquid, or electric transmission line in regards to “routing, setback, construction, operation, maintenance, and zoning permits.” Residents get nothing except an incredibly depreciated assessment of their land and a meager check from the State of South Dakota while they thieve the land. The company gets state backing to do whatever it wants including the ability, time, and money to lobby congress to enhance their powers to crack down on people who think these companies shouldn’t have free reign to do as they please with lands that are not theirs.
Crabtree’s bill sets up the same kind of foreseeable disaster in the making. Navigator CO2 Ventures has a useful visualization as to what carbon capture actually is which should make it clear that it’s a terrible idea in the first place. It sucks plant food out of the air. The effect will be less crop production unless additional CO2 is purchased by farmers to grow their crops. That is what carbon neutral strategies entail. The fact that most of this carbon will be piped to Illinois to be stored underground (where it will inevitably cause an ecological disaster) is just another reason this is a really bad idea. It’s literally making the movie Total Recall a reality. Maybe Crabtree should take a couple hours and familiarize himself with the concept presented in the film because his bill is how we end up in Total Recall in South Dakota.
Crabtree’s bill wouldn’t need to exist if these companies were above-board and doing something that would actually benefit the state’s residents. Clearly, they are not. This bill represents the worst way to go about committing to bad ideas at the expense of city government, county governments, and residents alike. There are better ways to do this. No House member should vote in favor of this dumpster fire. Any that do need to be voted out of office during their next election – they have no respect for the citizens they are supposed to represent in South Dakota.
A fuller explanation of why carbon capture is a horrendous idea exists here.
Another bill seeks to serve as a treaty between the state of South Dakota and Ireland. I don’t understand how South Dakota expects this to stand in court due to Article I Section 10 clause one of the United States Constitution, “No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation.” Yet that is exactly what Senate Bill 165, sponsored by Senator Maher, seeks to achieve.
The bill starts off by creating a taxpayer commission to align projects between the state of South Dakota and the nation of Ireland. The commission features paid jobs expanding the government of South Dakota. It is charged with facilitating “bilateral trade and investment”; “joint action on issues of mutual interest”; “business and academic exchanges”; “mutual economic support”; “mutual investment in the infrastructure”; and “Address[ing] any other issues deemed to be of mutual benefit to this state and Ireland.”
I cannot understand why this bill was ever written. It is clearly not something the state is supposed to even attempt to engage in per the United States Constitution. Ireland and the United States already have deep trade ties in all of the areas addressed by Maher’s unconstitutional effort. If Maher would like to enhance South Dakota’s role in these arrangements, he should have done an internet search for the Irish embassy in the United States which is located at 2234 Washington Ave. NW, Washington DC, 2008 and the telephone number is 202-462-3939. I’m sure that Maher would be able to gain access Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland’s ambassador to the US, quicker than you or I would because of his status as a state Senator.
The real question I have is what is driving Maher’s desire to have Ireland fund South Dakota infrastructure projects. Something doesn’t sit right with me about Maher nor this bill…. Maybe he wants Ireland to start buying up South Dakota’s infrastructure so he can insure it for them and make heaps of money while ensuring that larger portions of South Dakota are owned by a foreign entity? Maybe Maher is antisemitic and is expressing it, and even rewarding the Irish government’s own antisemitic stance, by authoring this bill to create a South Dakota treaty with Ireland while the government of Ireland routinely agitates to make good on it’s desires of creating a state of Palestine, recognizing it, and creating diplomatic relations with it.
Both SB 201 and SB 165 have passed the Senate and have been assigned to the House Commerce and Energy Committee.
Another really bad bill, SB 57 was signed into law on February 7. This snake waiting to bite us makes it far easier for felons to gain professional licenses in trades (carpenters, electricians, etc...). The result is going to be increased fraud, increased burglaries, and increased crime in general taking place in South Dakotan’s homes. SB 57 means that absolutely no faith nor trust should be placed in any professional license held by anyone in South Dakota. Research and interview the people you wish to hire to make your own decision about them before you hire them to do anything inside or outside your home. If you don’t trust them, don’t hire them.
Related to SB 57 is SB 64. It seems that the State of South Dakota’s Department of Health would like to consolidate all control of medical licensure. There is no problem with them doing that; however, the legislation presented by a nurse practitioner, Erin Tobin, on behalf of the SD Department of Health (ran by Melissa Magstadt) guts the entire licensing procedure. The bill gives the same status and protections to physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners as those afforded to medical doctors.
There are democrats in South Dakota and one of them, Senator Larson, attempted to destroy free speech with SB 96. The idea with this bill is to claim a fact – that deepfakes can be harmful to the truth – to then apply the law to anything a candidate doesn’t like whether it is a deepfake or not. Democrats love this idea because banning all negative speech about the content and character of democrat candidates is the only way rational people would ever vote for them in red states. Thankfully this bill died for now – the House State Affairs Committee voted to move it to the day after the session ends meaning it will never be considered.
Even more troubling is the Senate attempting to use declarations of emergency in their bills. Under a declaration of emergency bills immediately become law as soon as they are signed by the governor and citizens get no say whatsoever one way or another about what occurs during the emergency. The original text of SB 201 includes, “Whereas, this Act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, and this Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage and approval.” Not sucking carbon out of the air and starving plants and, subsequently people, does not constitute an emergency. Neither does the emergency declaration in SB 93 (which was tabled), which sought state money for reservations by altering what public property is, which reads, “Whereas, this Act is necessary for the support of the state government and its existing public institutions, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, and this Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage and approval.”
Emergency declarations need to be reserved for emergencies. Those emergencies already exist and nothing is being done about them. Central bank digital currencies threaten the financial and economic stability of the state as well as everyone in the state but nothing is being done to combat it. There are no bills to establish a South Dakota state bank. There is a huge problem in Sioux Falls, South Dakota subverting the state’s stance on illegal immigration because the mayor of the city has no qualms about hosting illegal aliens. This is an actual emergency not being addressed. 15 minute cities, transhumanism, and the use of AI are all issues as well. If these are addressed at all it is to deprive South Dakota’s citizens of rights or to promulgate the developments.
South Dakota should be serving as a test state in how to properly address all of these issues. Instead the South Dakota legislature is focused on abusing land owners, destroying proper licensure requirements to promote the safety of its citizens, and act to create unconstitutional treaties with foreign nations. South Dakota is destroying itself and it is so sad to watch. And why? These legislatures are not being held properly accountable to what is good and decent. When South Dakotan’s cries become widespread that their state representatives should be held accountable, the damage will already have been done. This is all selfishness and abuses of power which wouldn’t be attempted if we paid attention.
Bless G-d and G-d bless.