10/13/2026 Unalienable Populism Podcast
AUSTIN HAYEK TALKS WITH DALE COPARANIS ABOUT IOWA AND THE MIDTERMS + The Humes’ situation + IS CARBON SEQUESTRATION BEING LUMPED IN AS A “NATIONAL SECURITY” TOOL?
➡️ Watch & LISTEN ON SUBSTACK, starts at 52:00 ⬅️
Austin Hayek, podcast host of the Rooted Patriot, husband, father, farmer, fighter of the carbon sequestration scam, Webster County, Iowa County Supervisor, can be found on X, Rumble, Facebook, etc.
Dale Coparanis is a Podcaster and writer for two separate channels: Unalienable Populism - The rights we have as people are unalienable and come from God. Populism is the expression and implementation of those rights on behalf of the people rather than the state. Eternity is a Long Time - Eternity is a long time - a very long time. You only have two choices. Choose wisely.
Podcasts are also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
➡️ LISTEN ON SUBSTACK, starts at 52:00 ⬅️
TRANSCRIPT, starts at 52:00:
So why don't you say again what you told me earlier before we went live about what you saw about in Colorado?
Yeah, so I'm going to backtrack just a little bit off the Colorado piece. So recently in the last,
was the last couple of weeks, the North Dakota Supreme Court sent the case back to their, is it PSC or PUC, whatever it is in North Dakota. And they basically said, you have to relook at this.
It's not right. You have to go back and look at this. One of the things that was stated, I believe, in that hearing is there are
there are national security concerns and it wasn't really disclosed by national concerns about a CO2 pipeline.
Yes, that there is a significance to national security as to why they need it. And so the question was like, why do they need it then? One of the things that I looked at, and I think I tagged you on their page, I'm going to say it's Hume, but humefarmstead.com. I literally touched base with them Sunday night.
I happened to see it popped up on... Facebook, on a group I'm in, I happen to see something about their page. So they have a pipeline that already goes, they have an existing pipeline already going through a natural gas one through their farm where they're at. With that, The previous owner had had an easement with them. And from what I gathered, and I would highly recommend Humefarmstead.com. Look them up.
They've got a lot of articles. They're trying to get a lot of that information out there. But the previous owner of their farmstead had set up an
easement with the gas company. And most of them were all like, you know, we're putting in a gas line. And it was very generic and it could be just about anything. The wherewithal that the previous individual had was basically he put into that easement, it could only be natural gas.
And I can't remember exactly the word that she used in that, but it had to be natural gas going through that. So it had to be energy product, natural gas, things that are power in homes and heat and shops and stuff like that. It had to be that. And it excluded everything else. Well,
I think they're in a current lawsuit with {Tallgrass} or there's some fight over what the actual language in that easement meant.
But it's really interesting when you start to look at, you know, now the thing they never got talked about in Iowa was
why this would be a national security issue. The only thing they ever talked about in Iowa was we're going to sequester it underground. And that's been it.
And you're talking about sequestering the CO2 underground.
Yep. Yep. They were only ever going to sequester that CO2 underground. And they literally testified that. And I had talked to a lot of people and I said, what, like, what's your, what's the repercussions?
I mean, I watched them in North Dakota say, well, we're going to put it underground, but then we're also going to use it for EOR. And I'm not for, I'm not saying anything for or against EOR. And EOR is? The enhanced oil recovery. So where they inject the CO2, Into the oil wells to push up more oil.
And they went to North Dakota and said it's for both of those. They came to Iowa and said it's just for sequestration.
And there seems to be a huge disconnect, but there's no accountability in it. The Hume Farm one, I think their name is
Hume, but like I said, humefarmstead.com. They have a really interesting story. I'm trying to help them get it out there. And in that discussion, you know, they talk about how close I want to say they're saying this, the current compressor is 951 feet from their home. I want to say they said the new the pipeline,
if they do start to run CO2, I thought they said it was going to be like 300 feet. I can't find the article 300 some odd feet from their front door of their house. So it's going to be very close to their house.
And that pipeline is not exactly the safest thing in the world.
No. And that's the thing. I mean, I think there's been a lot of work and there's a lot of study done in that space, but there's still a lot of issues. And it carries a very different hazard profile than,
say, natural gas does. CO2 is heavier than air. It's going to settle in the low spots. It's going to find that low spot. And it's going to funnel that.
Natural gas is lighter, so it's going to go up and dissipate much quicker than CO2 will.
And to be, like I said, I don't have the article in front of me. I want to say that she said it was like 300 some feet from their front door. And to have it that way is really concerning.
And I think that I think they're looking at how many other uses are there for it. They've talked about SAF, so the aviation fuel, sustainable aviation fuel is what this could be
used for. A cooling agent for things like data centers. So rather than using water or glycol or other things, it could be used for that. I don't know. I'd be speculating a lot on some of that stuff. And I'm not big into the speculation game unless I got something to back it up with.
But it's just very interesting when you start to look at all these things that you put together is this shift. Right now they're trying to consolidate all of their And that's what's been really interesting is this fight's not over. And
It's going to be impacting all of these races as well as funding them, where it's coming from.
And you mentioned that this was also the CO2 pipeline was being somehow connected to data centers. And therefore, because it's being connected to data centers, the CO2 pipelines are now being considered perhaps National Security requirements. And how dare you, Mr. Farmer, Mr. or Ms. Homeowner, you can't object because this is all about national security.
So the heck with your private property.
Yeah. And that's right. I've tried that. That was a new thing that came up and it hadn't dawned on me that that's what that could be used for. But like I said, A couple of weeks ago when they had mentioned national security,
and I didn't notice that, a friend of mine pointed out to me, so that's what I say. I try to be a little careful on passing on the speculative information, but at the same time, why all of a sudden in the last five years of talking about this,
national security was never something that came up out of it? You know, they've talked about sequestration and help the climate. They've talked about helping the farmer and raising the price. They've talked about oil and being able to use EOR to attract. But it's never gotten into it's a national security issue. And I'll find that. I'll share it.
But that's one of the things that got talked about is why now all of a sudden is it a national security issue that we would need this pipeline?
Well, I can't. I'll tell you, Austin, my cynicism meter is way up there right now because when I hear people after not being able to win the argument, I hear national security being brought up. That just waves the red flag saying, we can't get the money to the people who we want to get the money to.
Therefore, we're going to use national security as the reason and how dare you How dare you even object because it's national security. And we unfortunately have, if not brainwashed, we've persuaded so many people that taking away our rights for national security is just fine. It's just fine. And that's a slippery slope. That's so slippery.
Yeah, and that's where it's starting to feel like they're more grasping at straws because they couldn't win on the argument for the climate.
They couldn't win on we're going to raise prices of corn. They couldn't win on the oil argument. So what they're kind of stuck with is kind of that catch-all. And yeah, that's where the cynicism catches. And that's where I started to think about it. I'm like, I need to do a lot more homework.
And so that's why I say I do
try to be careful. I don't want to I don't I don't have a lot to back up any conspiracy. So I don't want to share things that, you know, that could be untrue because I don't know for sure. I haven't done enough homework on it.
But but it's just really interesting to me that the argument now is shifting to national security. And of all things that I could see as a national security concern, the need to sequester carbon is Not high on my list of things that I think are a national security concern.
Well, it follows, though, because there's so much money in this. And unfortunately, and the Democrats are just as guilty of being beholden to their donors as the Republicans are. And I can see us having this issue with We have to make our donors happy.
Therefore, we're going to say whatever we need to say in order for this to go through. Like you said, this is something we have to keep an eye on, but it doesn't surprise me. Unfortunately, this is the way things get done or have been getting done.
And now that people are waking up to this, they're seeing this a lot more. And this is why DOGE, Really struck such a chord with ordinary people. And it's also why, in my mind, it got shut down so quickly because it started going into areas that were difficult for some people.
And those people that it was difficult for are the ones who donated to the politicians. So they told the politicians, stop Doge, and Doge was stopped.
Yeah, and that's where I think that a lot of the heartburn has come.
When you talk about what's been the major draw, especially at the federal races, if we can't get anything accomplished, it seems like, is solidifying something like Doge is something that was
pretty universally wanted. We need to be more efficient, we need to be better with tax dollars, and we need to balance our books. And that's what I think resonated with left and right. I think there is a huge recognition that, hey, we've got issues, you know, because even with all the fraud they found, it was always like,
well, yeah, but there's fraud, but there are some that are doing good. You know, that's what you heard a lot on the left as well. There are some of these, but there are some that are doing good. And I don't doubt that there are some that are doing good.
And if we can fund some of those programs, I can get behind some of that. But we have to first start by cleaning the house and making sure we got our books in order.
And yeah, I mean, recognize it. You know, when you look at, you know, that's one thing that got talked about in the first four years of this was the report from the inspector general on
how much the... 45Q tax credit cost the taxpayer with zero accountability.
I think it ended up being just north of $532 million was paid out from 2010 to 2019 that they couldn't account for. And, you know, it's just on the pipeline side and you think about it, you know, half a billion dollars of unaccounted spend.
What's a few hundred million between friends? I mean, come on now.
I haven't figured that part out, and I guess my moral compass won't allow me to figure it out. But I think that Doge was something that resonated with everybody, is we need to get our government spending in order. The government needs to be, whether you love some of the social programs or not,
we still have to keep spending in line. We have to balance our books. And we can't just have runaway spend. And while I where I think the heartburn is, is people are feeling like, oh, I can't go fix it at the federal level, but I can stay in touch with it very locally.
