The Iowa Utilities Commission has issued a permit for the main route of Summit Carbon Solutions’ liquid carbon dioxide pipeline through the state, which the company touted as another step toward building the 2,500-mile project next year.
The commission, formerly the Iowa Utilities Board, said conditions included in its earlier final decision and order remain. On June 25, the IUC said Summit cannot start construction until it gets approval for a sequestration site in North Dakota and approval of pipeline routes in that state and South Dakota. It also cannot begin building “trunk or lateral lines to ethanol plants in Minnesota and Nebraska until approvals are granted in those states” the commission said June 25.
The commission dismissed most objections from landowners as “meritless,” but did agree with one issue they raised: The commission said Summit’s “statement of confidence that it should be able to obtain the $100 million insurance policy prior to commencing construction” is not “a filing of proof of insurance as required by the commission. Summit Carbon is still required to file proof of insurance prior to commencing construction.”
The permit is for about 688 miles in Iowa. The company still has more than a dozen applications pending for connections to individual ethanol plants, for which it is is conducting informational meetings.
The company also got a win in state court in North Dakota Wednesday when a Bottineau County District Court Judge dismissed claims by landowners that state laws allowing “pore space amalgamation” are unconstitutional.
“Landowners own the pore space beneath their land, and the pore space storage of CO2 offers the potential for significant additional income to many landowners across the State,” the office of Attorney General Drew Wrigley said in a news release.
The state allows its Industrial Commission “to amalgamate (or pool) the ownership interests in pore space reservoirs when a supermajority of the impacted owners want their interests in the reservoir developed, so long as all owners, including any dissenting minority of owners, receive their equitable share of compensation,” the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office said in a news release. “The vast majority of landowners have voluntarily agreed to have their pore space reservoir interests used for CO2 storage in exchange for appropriate compensation.”
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The North Dakota Industrial Commission has three members, the governor, attorney general and state agriculture commissioner.
Landowners, including the Northwest Landowners Association, brought the lawsuit. The North Dakota Farm Bureau intervened on their side.
Meanwhile, Summit is facing an adverse decision from the South Dakota Supreme Court last week that said the company does not qualify as a “common carrier” and thus cannot exercise eminent domain to secure the rights to its pipeline route.
“[A] pipeline cannot become a common carrier simply by declaring itself to be one,” the court said Aug. 21 in a unanimous decision. It remanded the matter to the circuit court.
Summit reiterated its statement from last week saying it’s “evaluating the South Dakota Supreme Court's decision and look forward to providing the information requested to the District Court that reaffirms our role as a common carrier, and that CO2 is a commodity.”
Asked if its timeline remained the same, Summit spokesperson Sabrina Zenor said the company still plans to start construction in 2025 and begin operations in 2026.
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