Minnesota regulators vote to proceed with environmental evaluate of disputed carbon seize pipeline

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota regulators voted Thursday to proceed with an environmental evaluate for a part of a proposed however disputed pipeline community that will carry planet-warming carbon dioxide from Midwest ethanol vegetation to a everlasting underground storage website.

Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions needs to construct a $5.5 billion, 2,000-mile (3,200 kilometer) pipeline community throughout 5 states in order that carbon dioxide from greater than 30 ethanol vegetation could possibly be completely locked underground in central North Dakota as an alternative of being launched into the ambiance as it’s now.

But the mission has run into resistance.

North Dakota regulators on Aug. 5 denied Summit’s software for key permits. Landowners in South Dakota involved concerning the dangers of a pipeline rupture and property rights have objected to the corporate’s use of eminent area alongside the route. Iowa regulators lately opened a several-week listening to, whereas South Dakota regulators will open a listening to subsequent month. The community would additionally cross components of Nebraska, the place counties would be the regulators.

Other related initiatives are proposed across the nation as industries attempt to scale back their carbon footprints. Supporters say carbon seize will fight local weather change. Governments and firms are making massive investments in it. But opponents say the expertise isn’t confirmed at scale and will require enormous investments on the expense of different power sources reminiscent of photo voltaic and wind energy.

The query earlier than the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Thursday was slim: whether or not to approve a draft plan laying out the scope of a proper environmental evaluate for one small a part of the proposed mission, a 28-mile section in Minnesota that will join an ethanol plant in Fergus Falls to the North Dakota border, the place it might join with Summit’s community. Commissioners accepted it unanimously.

PHOTOS: Minnesota regulators vote to proceed with environmental evaluate of disputed carbon seize pipeline

The Minnesota-based rural environmental advocacy group CURE had requested the PUC to defer any choice indefinitely due to the choice by the North Dakota Public Service Commission to reject a certificates of want and route allow for the mission. North Dakota regulators cited a number of points that they stated Summit didn’t appropriately handle, reminiscent of cultural useful resource impacts, geologic instability and landowner issues.

CURE stated continuing with the environmental evaluate in Minnesota could be a waste of state sources – that the mission could be a “pipeline to nowhere” with out the essential North Dakota approvals.

But Summit lately petitioned North Dakota regulators to rethink. Company lawyer Christina Brusven instructed the Minnesota regulators that Summit expects will probably be in a position to handle North Dakota’s issues within the coming months, so Minnesota mustn’t wait to start out its evaluate course of.

PUC employees instructed commissioners forward of Thursday’s listening to that they anticipated the evaluate would result in completion of a draft environmental influence this winter, adopted by a public remark course of. If the fee determines that the ultimate evaluate meets the authorized necessities, the PUC might determine whether or not to problem a route allow for the mission as early as subsequent summer season.