North Dakota Approves CO2 Storage for Summit Pipeline

By Jeff Beach

North Dakota’s Industrial Commission on Thursday approved a plan to accept millions of tons of carbon dioxide to be permanently stored underground against the wishes of some landowners in the storage area. 

Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions plans to build a network of pipelines that gathers carbon emissions from ethanol plants across five states. If built, the pipeline will end west of Bismarck, where three injection wells will pump the carbon deep beneath private property into pore space — gaps and voids between the rocks. 

Summit compensates landowners for use of their pore space but an attorney for a group of landowners questions the accuracy of the model used by Summit to estimate where the gas will go when it is pumped underground. 

The Industrial Commission is composed of outgoing Gov. Doug Burgum, Attorney General Drew Wrigley and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, who approved the permits unanimously. 

Thursday’s action by the Industrial Commission uses a North Dakota rule governing pore space called amalgamation. If at least 60% of the landowners in the pore space area approve, the other 40% are forced to comply. 

A lawsuit by the Northwest Landowners Association in North Dakota is already challenging the constitutionality of the amalgamation rule. 

About 92% of landowners in the 90,000-acre sequestration area for Summit are participating voluntarily. The region includes parts of Oliver, Mercer, and Morton counties. Department of Mineral Resources staff said landowners objecting to the project accounted for less than 2% of the acres. Carbon will be injected into the Broom Creek Formation about 5,500 feet below ground level. 

Summit estimates it will pump about 18 million tons of carbon dioxide into the storage area each year. The company will take advantage of federal tax credits — $85 per ton of carbon stored — as an incentive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

“These sequestration permits are the result of years of rigorous scientific study, engineering design, and input from regulators, landowners, and local leaders,” Wade Boeshans, executive vice president of Summit Carbon Solutions, said in a news release. “With these permits, we’re one step closer to providing vital infrastructure that benefits farmers, ethanol producers, and communities across the Midwest.”

The carbon will come from 57 ethanol plants in five states — Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Access to carbon capture and storage can significantly reduce an ethanol plant’s carbon score. Low-carbon ethanol may be able to fetch a premium price, which could also benefit corn growers. The carbon is captured during the fermentation process of turning corn into ethanol fuel. 

Tharaldson Ethanol at Casselton is the only North Dakota ethanol plant in the Summit pipeline project. 

Two other North Dakota ethanol plants are already capturing and sequestering carbon — Red Trail Energy at Richardton and Blue Flint Ethanol near Underwood. Those plants sit close to the areas with the suitable geology for carbon sequestration. 

After the vote, project opponents cited a leak at a carbon sequestration facility in Decatur, Illinois, where corrosion allowed the gas to go outside the storage area. 

“Recent incidents in Illinois, where CO2 leaked underground, demonstrate that we do not know enough about this technology to use North Dakota as a testing ground. Even Summit has stated that they cannot know the impacts of carbon dumping until they do them,” Scott Skokos, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council, a North Dakota-based environmental group, said in a news release. 

The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources determined that the storage wells do not endanger human health or the environment, and that Summit had made a good-faith effort to work with landowners in the sequestration area. 

Officials did note the objection of some landowners, including Kurt Swenson, who lives south of Beulah and has property in Oliver and Mercer counties. 

“I tried for a long time to negotiate with Summit,” Swenson told the North Dakota Monitor last week. He said he has been waiting three years for a counter-proposal from the company. 

Summit Carbon Solutions has obtained pipeline permits in Iowa and North Dakota. Minnesota approved a short segment of the route Thursday. 

Summit still still needs a permit in South Dakota. Nebraska has no state agency that permits carbon pipelines. 

In most states, it is the Environmental Protection Agency that permits CO2 storage wells, but North Dakota was the first state to be granted primacy in Class VI injection well permitting. 

This story has been updated with additional detail and reaction. 

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