It could be the most controversial project in recent memory to involve landowners, ethanol plants and a company wanting to divert CO2 through a proposed pipeline to North Dakota.
The $2 billion pipeline project would go through Otter Tail County.
According to their website, Summit Carbon Solutions, based out of Ames, Iowa, states that they are partnering with more than thirty ethanol plants across a five-state region to capture carbon dioxide from the fermentation process of biorefineries such as ethanol plants, compress the captured CO2, and channel it to North Dakota where it will then be stored underground in deep geologic storage locations.
The most controversial part of the project is not the technology itself, which has never been done before, but how the company is going about their business.
The project is still in the very early stages and in fact has many stages of review and permitting before getting approval to start construction and most importantly including obtaining a route permit from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.
With all that still needing to be done prior to the project even getting off the ground, Summit Carbon Solutions has been quietly and in some cases, not so quietly approaching landowners and securing voluntary easements. Peg Furshong, programs director for Clean Up the River Environment (CURE), a Montevideo-based organization, states that landowners in multiple states have reported that Summit’s land agents have engaged in high pressure tactics. In South Dakota, Summit recently filed suit against landowners who have refused to allow surveyors on their land.
In Otter Tail County, Jonathan Roehl, an impacted landowner, said Summit representatives have been at his property no less than half a dozen times.
“First it was asking for my permission to survey, which at that time they told me they didn’t need permission from me for a survey and they could do it anyway. I found out later they did need my permission. They told me I didn’t have a choice,” said Roehl.
Roehl said the visits started in October of 2021.
In Minnesota, sections of Summit’s proposed high pressure CO2 pipeline network will cut through Chippewa, Cottonwood, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Martin, Redwood, Renville and Yellow Medicine Counties and a northern leg crosses Otter Tail and Wilkin Counties.
“I don’t feel I want to have my land tied up with an easement for future generations as far as farming or tiling, growing crops, it’s permanent field damage and they’ll dig up your land for fifty or a hundred feet. They pay you once and you are stuck with it forever,” said Roehl.
Several meetings have been held regarding the proposed project with concerned landowners and CURE says they described conversations with Summit’s land agents where they were told they could not talk with their neighbors about offers being made. Those in attendance discovered inconsistencies between various offers and the information provided by land agents and the consensus was that landowners want more transparency about the CO2 pipelines and risks to their property and communities. They also expressed interest in finding ways to share information and work together.
“Their strategy is to have many landowners sign voluntary easements to demonstrate local support for this project. But think twice before you hand over the rights to your land when the utility commission hasn’t even approved the route,” said Furshong.
Furshong also advised landowners to have any contracts reviewed by an attorney with expertise in pipeline easement agreements.
