Summit Petitions Iowa Regulators to Remove Dakotas Requirement From Pipeline Permit

By Cami Koons

Summit Carbon Solutions has filed a petition to amend its pipeline permit with the Iowa Utilities Commission.

The petition, filed on Monday, requests route and pipe-size modifications to add an ethanol plant to the route and to “amend the conditions regarding North Dakota and South Dakota.”

In the IUC’s approval of the CO2 pipeline permit through Iowa, it noted Summit could not begin construction until it had received route and storage permission from North Dakota — where the pipeline is slated to deposit the sequestered carbon in an underground rock formation — and route permission from South Dakota.

South Dakota enacted a law earlier this year to stop the use of eminent domain on carbon sequestration pipelines, and has denied Summit’s permit requests twice. Summit’s permits were approved in North Dakota, but have been tied up in litigation.

In the petition to the IUC, Summit said its request to change the language was not meant to change the “protections against a ‘pipeline to nowhere.’” Summit said this change would reflect that “additional options for storage and pathways to storage are developing and may provide a better solution.”

Summit asked that the state-specific language be removed from the order to instead read:

“Summit Carbon Solutions, LLC, shall not commence construction on any segment of pipe in Iowa until it has secured access to one or more sequestration sites and permits or agreements to allow it to reach such storage … and has filed proof of such approvals with the Commission.”

The other requested changes, according to the petition, would account for ease of building the pipeline around railroads and roads, and to facilitate connections to sequestration sites that have since been added to the project.

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