BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota utility regulators granted approval on Friday for a span of a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would cross five Midwestern states — a key victory for the company that has faced vociferous landowner objections and various hurdles and setbacks in its plans.
The state Public Service Commission voted unanimously to approve a siting permit for Summit Carbon Solutions’ modified, 333-mile route in North Dakota. The company’s proposed $8 billion, 2,500-mile pipeline system would carry tons of planet-warming CO2 emissions from 57 ethanol plants in five states for storage deep underground in North Dakota.
No construction has begun anywhere on Summit’s proposed route. Iowa has approved the project, but other hurdles remain in North Dakota as well as South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska.
The approval is a win for the company after North Dakota initially denied a permit in 2023, shortly followed by rejection in South Dakota. Another company, Navigator CO2 Ventures, canceled its project around the same time due to the “unpredictable nature of the regulatory and government processes involved, particularly in South Dakota and Iowa.”
Supporters cheer carbon capture projects as a way to combat climate change, with lucrative federal tax credits available for such efforts. The ethanol industry sees Summit’s project opening up sustainable aviation fuel markets, a boost for ethanol and No. 1 corn producer Iowa.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, now President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Interior Secretary, a position with wide influence over natural resources, has touted his state’s underground CO2 storage potential as a “geologic jackpot.” Carbon-capture skeptics say the technology is untested at scale and allows the fossil-fuel industry to continue largely unchanged.
Summit opponents, including many landowners across the Midwest, decry the potential of a pipe rupture releasing hazardous, heavy CO2 gas to flow over the land, endangering people’s health and lives. They also fear the taking of their land through eminent domain.
North Dakota Public Service Commission Chairman Randy Christmann urged Summit not to use eminent domain, “at least not more than absolutely necessary.” Eminent domain is not in the panel’s jurisdiction or a part of the siting process, he said.
Summit CEO Lee Blank told reporters the company is pleased with the panel’s decision. He said Summit has worked with landowners on a voluntary basis and will continue to do so.
“Our goal is, again, to acquire as much right of way possible as we can voluntarily, and ultimately at the end of the day, we hope to do 100% of that,” Blank said.
Summit said Friday it has acquired easements for over 82% of its North Dakota route.
Republican state Sen. Jeff Magrum, an opponent whose district the pipeline would cross, said he’d rather see investments in roads, bridges and dams instead of “Green New Deal projects that don’t create any benefit for our state or our country.”
