Summit Pulls Pair of Sequestration Permits in North Dakota

Summit Carbon Solutions, which seeks to build a carbon capture pipeline across several north Iowa counties, is abandoning two-thirds of its planned project to store carbon dioxide underground in North Dakota. 

The company, which had been granted permits to store CO2 in three designated areas in North Dakota, has requested permits for two of the areas to be canceled. 

Summit said in a filing with the North Dakota Supreme Court, “Summit #1 and Summit #2 have determined as a matter of business judgment that they will not proceed with development, construction, operation, or implementation of either proposed storage facility.” 

The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that a North Dakota district court voided permits for all three areas earlier this year, but Summit is now asking the Supreme Court to limit the appeal of that decision to storage area known as Summit #3. 

The company’s decision to abandon two of its storage facility permits is a victory for many of the landowners opposing the project. Most of those landowners have objected to what they characterize as the company’s unwillingness to negotiate on matters of liability and compensation. Only one of the landowners involved in the litigation owns property in the third storage area, where Summit has about 98% of the storage rights secured.

Earlier this year, Summit announced a change of plans to transport carbon dioxide instead to a storage site in Wyoming for injection underground, but did not completely close the door on continuing to pursue its North Dakota operations. That change of plans also removed the Absolute Energy ethanol plant near Saint Ansgar and Poet Bioprocessing near Hanlontown from its route. The changes also reduced pipeline mileage in Floyd County. 

Summit still seeks to build its carbon pipeline, connecting with ethanol plants including Valero Renewables near Charles City, Homeland Energy Solutions near Lawler, Golden Grain Energy near Mason City, and Poet Bioprocessing plants near Shell Rock and Fairbank.