Burgum is wrestling with a mammoth carbon dioxide pipeline project in his home state. The $5.5 billion venture has split North Dakota and left him straddling an awkward political divide as Trump and President Joe Biden offer voters starkly different visions about how to deal with climate change.
If Summit’s proposed CO2 pipeline is approved, the water used by ethanol plants on and off the route would be equal to the annual water use of 529,000 people -- more than the population of the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City corridor, according to a new Sierra Club report.
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In recent months, the company has more than doubled the number of ethanol producers to which its system would connect and added 340 miles of pipe — a roughly 50 percent increase. It indicated in March it would file 14 new permit requests for that expansion with the IUB while its initial permit application was still pending.
“Summit asked to discuss the status of the project, and those discussions revealed that the project was dramatically off-schedule,” a lawsuit says.
The Senate has been hesitant to take up legislation dealing with eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines in Iowa.
Supporters said it would expand the rights of landowners and clear up constitutional questions about the eminent domain authority for hazardous liquid pipelines.
State regulators should pause their final deliberations over Summit Carbon Solutions’ pipeline permit so they can review how the company’s recently announced expansion plans will affect it, the influential Iowa Farm Bureau Federation says.
The Iowa House has passed bills the last two sessions limiting the scope of eminent domain for carbon capture pipeline projects, but they have not received hearings in the Senate. The latest attempt in the House advanced out of a committee Tuesday on a 23-0 bipartisan vote.
Changes made by Summit Carbon Solutions to its pipeline route in North Dakota include avoiding areas where landslides are likely to occur.
The scope of the company’s project in Iowa has expanded considerably in recent weeks and is the result of another company, Navigator CO2, abandoning its plans for a similar system.
Eight of Valero’s facilities, including plants in Charles City, Lakota, Fort Dodge, Albert City and Hartley as well as one plant each in Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota, are expected to join Summit’s proposed pipeline, already about 2,200 miles long.
The prospect of legislative action on the projects this year is unclear.
A rural Nebraska county delivered a blow this week to plans by Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions to build a pipeline carrying carbon dioxide across the state.
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