JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in his annual shareholder letter Tuesday that the government may need to seize private property to advance clean energy initiatives.
Dimon discussed the need to quickly begin investing in solar projects and other green initiatives and suggested that the government should use eminent domain to seize property for those projects.
“At the same time, permitting reforms are desperately needed to allow investment to be done in any kind of timely way. We may even need to evoke [sic] eminent domain – we simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives,” Dimon wrote.
Eminent domain allows the government to forcibly seize private property for public use as long as the owner is compensated. (RELATED: JPMorgan Boss Warns That Banking Crisis Will Have Consequences ‘For Years To Come’)
“Massive global investment in clean energy in technologies must be done and must continue to grow year-over-year,” Dimon continued. “To expedite progress, governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations need to align across a series of practical policy changes that comprehensively address fundamental issues that are holding us back.”
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 21: Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. Jamie Dimon (C) returns to the room after a break during a hearing before the House Committee on Financial Services at Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on September 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Dimon’s suggestion comes just weeks after the Iowa state House passed a bill that would limit carbon pipeline companies’ ability to exercise eminent domain. Under the bill, the companies would need to reach voluntary deals to buy 90% of the land needed before they could use eminent domain, according to the Des Moines Register.
Democratic state Rep. Steven Holt said the legislation was about protecting private property rights, according to the Des Moines Register.
“Regardless of the economic gain or the benefit to certain industries or groups of people, this fundamental liberty must not be for sale,” Holt said, per the outlet. “If these pipeline projects are essential to ethanol and agriculture, let them be built through voluntary easements and not by allowing the blunt force of government to be used to shatter this fundamental birthright we all share as Americans.”
