While here in South Dakota, Dominck Dausch reported last Thursday Carbon pipelines clear legislative hurdles after South Dakota Senate kills 2 bills for the Argus Leader, in Minnesota, Montevideo's rural grassroots environmental group Clean Up The River Environment (CURE), is asking the Gopher State's Public Utilities Commission to take a more holistic view of Summit Carbon Solutions plans for Minnesota.
Via the West Central Tribune, AgWeek's Jeff Beach reports in Minnesota group files appeal on Summit Carbon pipeline environmental review:
A Minnesota group is asking the state’s Public Utilities Commission to take another look at a carbon capture pipeline proposal to take in the environmental impact of the whole project, not just a small piece.
The PUC is looking only at the stretch of the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline in Otter Tail and Wilkin counties, where Summit has filed a permit application.
The PUC on Feb. 6 denied a request from Montevideo-based organization CURE (Clean Up the River Environment) to look at the entirety of the Summit Carbon Solutions project, the bulk of the pipeline miles being in west-central and southern Minnesota.
While Summit’s website details the plans for both sections of pipeline in Minnesota, the PUC said that without an application, the southern portion remains “hypothetical.”
On Monday, Feb. 27, CURE petitioned the PUC to reconsider.
"By artificially separating the Northern and Southern portions of the pipeline, the Commission ignored the will of more than 100 Minnesotans and failed to consider the cumulative impacts of the entire Midwest Carbon Express project on the state. By doing so, the Commission allowed a private company to decide how and to what extent it will proceed through the environmental review process, in direct contradiction to the intent of
(the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act),” according to the filing.Summit’s pipeline would capture greenhouse gasses from 32 ethanol plants and pipe it to western North Dakota for underground storage. The company says that will benefit the environment, the ethanol industry and corn growers.
But some landowners have been reluctant to sign an easement agreement with Summit, citing concerns about damage to crop production and lost property values because of a hazardous liquid pipeline running through their property.
The five-state 2,000 mile project has an estimated price of $4.5 billion.
As of Feb. 6, Summit Carbon Solutions said it had signed 4,000 total agreements with landowners, or 1,250 total miles of right-of-way secured. The Iowa-based company says that's about 60% of the route in the five states — Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. . . .
Read the rest at the West Central Tribune.
Map: The entire Summit Carbon ethanol pipeline network.
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