“There’s No Harm in Carbon,” Says Helena Hayes During Richland Meet and Greet

RICHLAND – ​​Helena Hayes, Iowa House Representative whose district contains all of Keokuk County, held a meet and greet at the Hinshaw Shelter in Richland, where Hayes attempted to brush off concerns over the mass exodus of AEA employees and the dangers of climate change. The conversation began with discussion of the Summit Carbon Pipeline, designed to capture excess carbon dioxide from ethanol biorefineries and transport it to North Dakota for underground storage. The pipeline has received heavy scrutiny due to safety concerns and because of the Iowa Utilities Board’s decision to allow Summit to build the pipeline using eminent domain.

Hayes stated that she and several other Republican members of Iowa congress were in the process of suing to overturn the Utilities Board’s decision on grounds of constitutionality, to protect landowner rights. The pipeline is not planned to go through Keokuk County. However, Hayes claimed that Summit intended to purchase easements previously sold to the Navigator Pipeline, which would go through the part of the county. Hayes claimed that Summit had illegally purchased these easements before holding public meetings.

Hayes talked about the safety concerns of the pipeline, saying that a carbon dioxide leak could affect people a half mile away. She talked about the pipeline explosion in Satartia, Mississippi, which spread through a rural community and hospitalized 45 people. She stated that one man she had spoken to was so affected by brain fog that he cannot function enough to even cook a meal. Hayes stated that insurance companies would drop landowners in areas the pipeline went through.

Hayes was asked what she thought should be the alternative solution for the excess carbon dioxide created by ethanol plants. She dismissed this by claiming that there isn’t excess carbon dioxide, because climate change isn’t real. “Do I think we have a climate problem that is related to carbon? No. I don’t,” said Hayes.

She claimed that attempts to reach net zero were a form of control created by the World Economic Forum. She said that the problem with saying that climate change exists is that, if it did, people would be responsible for fixing it and pressured to act in certain ways.

Hayes claimed that there are a huge number of scientists that will say we don’t have a carbon problem. In reality, there is a vast, vast consensus among scientists that climate change both exists and is a problem. According to a 2021 study published by Mark Lynas, Benjamin Houlton and Simon Perry in the journal Environmental Research Letters, an analysis of 3,000 different scientific papers found only four that were skeptical of the evidence of human-caused global warming. More than 99% of scientific studies all agree with the reality that human activity has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to rising global temperatures.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased 50% since 1750, from 280 parts-per-million to 426 parts-per-million. Since 1850, the Earth’s temperature has risen by 2° F. Nationwide, August of 2024 was tied for the hottest August and was the third driest August in U.S. history.

Hayes then claimed that high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were a good thing, because carbon dioxide is used in photosynthesis, meaning excess carbon dioxide makes plants perform better. A man in attendance claimed that we need to make the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere “go up a lot” so we can grow plants in new environments. He explained that he’d read that flowering plants evolved when there was more carbon in the atmosphere. Flowering plants evolved roughly 125 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, when there was 1,000 parts-per-million of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This high level of carbon dioxide led to the period being far warmer than the modern day. Humans did not evolve during the Cretaceous period.

Hayes was asked about droughts caused by increasing temperatures, like the Iowa drought lasting from 2020-2023. Hayes brushed this off, saying that droughts can be caused by many variables. The attendee stated that it would be fine if Iowa becomes drier, because the plants will become more efficient from the increased carbon dioxide.

“Carbon is the molecule of life. It’s life!” said Hayes. “You have to have carbon to have life. There’s no harm in carbon. And so I reject the global agenda of decarbonization because I don’t believe it’s based on truth, and you can quote me on that...I oppose all of the things related to trying to reduce our carbon footprint, especially the carbon pipeline.”

Hayes then attempted to dismiss the problems of climate change from a religious angle, saying that human actions could not destroy the world, because the world was created by God. “God created a system of order, and it has a way of running itself, and it’s a beautiful system,” said Hayes.

The conversation shifted to a discussion of the AEA overhaul Hayes voted for. She stated that the AEA overhaul was still working itself out and that there were a lot of unknowns, but noted that Great Prairie AEA managed to keep most of its flow-through funding. She was asked about a recent report stating that the AEAs lost 429 employees this year. Hayes dismissed this, stating that the bill she voted for did not require anyone to be let go and that the AEAs didn’t cut anybody. She explained that hundreds of people voluntarily left the AEA by either retiring early or taking other jobs. She said this was a natural response to the claims and fear going around.

Hayes was asked how superintendents and principals she’d spoken to felt about the AEA overhaul. “They’re still getting their feet under them, they’re still testing out the newness of the program,” said Hayes. “They don’t have a lot to say yet.”

Jeff Shipley, representative for a district bordering Hayes’s who was also in attendence, said “I haven’t really heard any complaints. I don’t think there’s been much service disruption...I hate to even say it this way, though, but I think, truth be told, there’s a lot of redundancy in positions and, if you lose some personnel to attrition, sometimes things go better.”

Hayes bragged about the teacher pay increase that was attached to the AEA overhaul and claimed the state would continue to give schools additional funding for higher teacher salaries.

Helena Hayes is currently running for reelection unopposed. Hayes will hold another meet and greet and Barn Wired in Sigourney on Sept. 25, at 9:00 a.m.