Delegates adopt measures on wind and solar, carbon intensity payments and rural incentives.

State policies regarding the exploration and extraction of Iowa’s un­derground natural resources — including property interests, surface use agreements, compensation and cost-sharing — garnered significant discussion and final adoption at Iowa Farm Bureau’s annual Summer Policy Conference last week in West Des Moines.

With heightened interest in hydrogen exploration across the state, including companies considering tests for hydrogen trapped underground in north central and west central Iowa, Farm Bureau county voting delegates recommended and approved policies covering all underground natural resources. 

Extracted geologic hydrogen can be used to make ammonia for fertilizer, generate electricity or fuel transportation, experts say, creating opportunities for exploration. 

Currently, few hydrogen exploration wells exist, but interest — including in Iowa — is high.

Delegates noted that such exploration is new and that few guidelines exist to protect natural resource rights for landowners and farmers who own the surface land. 

Farm Bureau policies aim to provide a framework as natural resource exploration grows, addressing property interests, negotiated agreements, land re­­storation requirements, compen­sation for damages, royalty pay­­ments and who bears development and operating costs.

“This is a whole new subject in the state of Iowa,” said Brian Feldpausch, Iowa Farm Bureau vice president, who oversaw the resolutions process. “We are the first farmers, and we’re the first … citizens in Iowa discussing this outside the Legislature and some of those decision-makers.

“In the next few...