A group of North Dakota landowners is appealing that state’s approval of an underground carbon storage area for Summit Carbon Solutions, which is attempting to build the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project.
An Iowa Capital Dispatch story says the group filed the appeal Thursday (01.09), asserting that the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) withheld information and violated state law in approving the storage permit plan in December.
The permanent underground carbon storage sites in western North Dakota are a key piece of Summit’s planned five-state pipeline network capturing greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol plants.
In Iowa, that network would include Valero Renewables near Charles City, Homeland Energy Solutions near New Hampton, Golden Grain Energy near Mason City, and Poet Bioprocessing near Shell Rock.
Approving the storage wells in North Dakota was one of the last decisions of Governor Doug Burgum as chair of the Industrial Commission, which also included Attorney General Drew Wrigley and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring. The unanimous vote by the commission means that landowners who had not signed an agreement with Summit will be forced to allow the carbon storage on their property.
The landowners assert the NDIC, which includes the state’s Department of Mineral Resources, illegally refused to disclose information to landowners under open records laws. Clients want computer-generated models that predict where CO2 will go when pumped underground for permanent storage.
A link to the complete Iowa Capital Dispatch report is included here:
