Embattled Midwest Carbon Pipeline Takes Another Permitting Hit

Summit Carbon Solutions still confident it will get required permits

Iowa land owners attend Iowa Utility Board hearing in Fort Dodge in August, 2023, on permitting of Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline project that would require easements on hundreds of private properties. Courtesy of Jessica Mazour

Summit Carbon Solutions hit a major snag this week when the advisory planning commission in Oliver County, North Dakota, recommended a denial of the company’s conditional use permit applications for road access to build two planned injection wells. The full county board, which has approved road access to other injection wells, will have the final say on this approval.

But the negative recommendation comes after an earlier gut punch: the state of North Dakota rejected a permit application in early August for a 320-mile pipeline transporting captured carbon dioxide (CO2) from ethanol plants to an underground North Dakota storage site, the injection wells in Oliver County.