South Dakota wants another $876K from Summit pipeline

South Dakota regulators will charge a carbon dioxide pipeline company up to $876,000 to help cover the cost of evaluating its new permit application.

It’s Summit Carbon Solutions’ second attempt for a South Dakota permit. The state Public Utilities Commission rejected Summit’s first application last year, due in part to the pipeline route’s conflicts with local siting laws. The company recently reapplied with an adjusted route.

The filing fee for the first application was $592,500, which the Iowa-based company paid in full. The new fee brings the company’s total potential filing costs to nearly $1.47 million. New costs will be assessed up to the maximum $876,000 that commissioners approved earlier this month during a meeting in Pierre, S.D.

The project would transport CO2 captured from 57 ethanol plants in five states including Iowa to underground storage wells in North Dakota. The company hopes to capitalize on federal tax credits incentivizing the prevention of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions.

The project has a storage permit in North Dakota and route permits in North Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota, although opponents continue to mount various legal and administrative challenges. Nebraska has no state permitting process for CO2 pipelines.

This article first appeared in the South Dakota Searchlight.