Public Service Commissioners, from left, Sheri Haugen-Hoffart, Randy Christmann and Administrative Law Judge Tim Dawson meet on November 15, 2024 at the Summit Carbon Solutions Pipeline. (Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor)
North Dakota regulators on Friday approved a route permit for the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, a significant victory for what the company says is the world’s largest carbon capture project.
The three-member Public Service Commission voted unanimously to approve the pipeline permit.
The commission had denied Summit a route permit in 2023, but the changes the company made to its route helped convince the commission to reconsider its position.
Meeting plans to build 333 miles of pipeline across North Dakota, part of a 2,500-mile network of pipelines in five states. The pipelines are planned to connect 57 ethanol plants, including Tharaldson Ethanol in Casselton, to an underground carbon storage site west of Bismarck.
Ethanol plants emit carbon dioxide as part of the fermentation process when converting corn into fuel. That carbon can be captured, compressed and placed in a hazardous liquid pipeline.
The link between corn price and carbon capture is difficult to establish
Summit announced its plans in 2021 and had hoped to begin construction in 2023, but faced pushback from some landowners and several legal challenges as it tried to obtain the necessary permits.
Supporters see the project as essential to helping the ethanol industry compete in low-carbon fuel markets. Ethanol is an important market for corn growers.
Opponents cite safety concerns, damage to farmland and property values and an infringement on property rights. Some landowners have also complained about Summit’s business practices.
Although Summit has said the plan to capture greenhouse gas emissions is good for the environment, several environmental groups, including the North Dakota-based Dakota Resource Council, oppose the project as doing more harm than good.
Summit still has several challenges to complete the planned route. It needs a permit in South Dakota, where it has already been denied once.
Iowa-based Summit requires a separate warehousing permit from the North Dakota Industrial Commission.
Summit chose western North Dakota as a permanent storage location because the area has the geology to keep CO2 deep underground with a cap rock that keeps it from reaching the surface.
Summit would benefit from federal tax credits of $85 for every ton of CO2 stored. It would store 18 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Iowa has granted Summit a license and the company says it plans to reapply for a license in South Dakota. Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission is expected to vote Dec. 12 on a 28-mile stretch near the North Dakota state line.
The project also includes Nebraska, which has no state agency responsible for licensing CO2 pipelines.
Commission Chairman Randy Christmann emphasized that the approval of the North Dakota PSC does not guarantee that Summit has the right to use eminent domain to force landowners to provide easements for the pipeline. A decision regarding eminent domain would have to be made by the court.
“I certainly encourage the company not to use eminent domain, at least not more than absolutely necessary,” Christmann said before the vote.
Summit says it is working to obtain voluntary easements. As of Oct. 9, the company had obtained voluntary easements for about 81.4% of the miles it needs in North Dakota, according to a Summit filing with the PSC.
Burleigh County, which includes Bismarck, had the lowest voluntary easement rate at more than 65%.
The regulation of carbon pipelines is important to North Dakota’s oil and gas industry. Summit’s plan is for permanent underground storage, but carbon dioxide could be pumped to oil well sites to help extract more oil, a process called enhanced oil recovery.
Summit CEO Lee Blank told the North Dakota Monitor earlier this year it had not been approached by oil companies interested in removing CO2 from the pipeline.
Carbon capture and storage is used by two ethanol plants in North Dakota, Red Trail in Richardton and Blue Flint in Underwood.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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