Aug 4, 2023 | Actions
The North Dakota Public Service Commission (PSC) has unanimously denied the siting permit for Summit Carbon Solutions’ CO2 pipeline project. The decision was made during a meeting attended by the public, landowners, legislators, and attorneys representing those impacted by the proposed pipeline. The PSC explained that Summit had not sufficiently addressed the impacts and concerns of landowners, nor justified why a reroute wasn’t feasible.
The original application for the pipeline was filed in October 2022 and has seen over 360 dockets and five public hearings over the last nine months. The Commission’s jurisdiction did not extend to issues of eminent domain, safety compliance with the Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or permanent sequestration and storage of CO2.
A significant issue was Summit’s failure to satisfactorily address potential geological instabilities identified by the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as not adequately responding to the North Dakota State Historical Preservation Office’s (SHPO) concerns about a cultural resource report. The SHPO’s concurrence is typically required for permit issuance.
Summit Carbon Solutions now has the option to appeal the PSC ruling or reapply and restart the entire application process.
Aug 4, 2023 | Actions
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The North Dakota Public Service Commission has denied a permit for the Summit Carbon Solutions Capture Pipeline Project. Summit proposed the pipeline to capture CO2 from more than 30 ethanol plants in five midwestern states and to store it deep underground in North Dakota.
Pipeline projects in recent years have raised landowner concerns about eminent domain and the potential dangers of a pipeline break. Some landowners see North Dakota’s rejection of Summit’s permit as a positive sign that things may be turning in their favor.
On the same day that the South Dakota PUC resumed its hearing for the Navigator Pipeline, the Summit Carbon Pipeline Project hit another roadblock.
The North Dakota PSC said Summit Carbon Solutions failed to provide adequate documentation proving the safety of property and residents. For some landowners, the decision came as a surprise.
Aug 4, 2023 | Actions
Dan Harvey: Iowa Firefighter Warns of Lethal Carbon Capture Pipeline
Dan Harvey is a firefighter in Emmet County, Iowa, who is concerned about the carbon capture pipelines proposed throughout his state.
The pipelines are supposedly going to save us from eco-catastrophe, by capturing carbon dioxide emitted by ethanol plants throughout the Great Plains and Corn Belt and piping it thousands of miles away to underground sequestration in neighboring states. The captured CO2 is liquified and transported under high pressure.
Gargantuan safety issues surround these pipelines. An accident involving one occurred in Satartia, Mississippi in February 2020, when flooding caused the ground to shift and break a weld in the pipeline. A dense cloud of the compressed CO2 descended on the town where people collapsed, car engines could not start, and 49 of the area’s 300 residents had to be hospitalized. The rest were evacuated. Many now live with residual lung, stomach and neurological problems.
Aug 3, 2023 | Actions
FORT PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A state legislator was the first of more than a half-dozen landowners Tuesday who told the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission why they don’t want Navigator’s proposed carbon-dioxide line to be permitted anywhere in the state.
Republican Rep. Karla Lems from rural Canton spent several hours on the witness stand. She was the prime sponsor of HB1133, which sought to ban carbon-dioxide from being defined as a common carrier under certain circumstances and, in turn, make a project no longer eligible to use eminent domain to force access through a property. The House of Representatives approved her bill, but a Senate committee killed it.
Aug 2, 2023 | Actions
Taking the stand for the first time, landowners voiced concerns for safety and a drop in property value in front of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.
After a week of testimony and cross-examination, landowners took the stand Tuesday in Navigator CO2’s pipeline hearing.
State Rep. Karla Lems was the first landowner to testify. The Canton Republican was the prime sponsor of multiple pipeline-related bills last legislative session.
Lems’ bills were unsuccessful, but her push against pipelines continued into her testimony against Navigator’s pipeline. She said it is her duty to listen to the public.
“When I go to public hearings, and commission meetings, and all of these kinds of things, like I said before. Nobody’s in an uproar about natural gas, or water, or electric, we all understand we need those things,” Lems said. “This is a different cat, if you will, and one of the big factors with this specifically is safety.”
Navigator has been hesitant in producing pipeline safety information to the public. Rick Bonander is a landowner and testified to the public’s need for information.
