Plans that would bury carbon underground rather than release it in the air have stoked debate over climate and property rights, creating unlikely alliances and stirring memories of fierce battles over oil.
Corn brought by local farmers is stored at the Dakota Ethanol plant in Wentworth, S.D., on Dec. 19, 2022. Carbon generated through ethanol production would be fed into the proposed pipeline.
But opponents are concerned about property rights and safety, and are not convinced of the projects’ claimed environmental benefits. They have forged unlikely alliances that have blurred the region’s political lines, uniting conservative farmers with liberal urbanites, white people with Native Americans, small-government Republicans with climate-conscious Democrats.
“If this goes through, I’ll have to rethink what the future will hold,” said Geide, whose farm is on the path for the roughly 2,000-mile pipeline proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions, which would carry carbon dioxide across five states to underground storage in North Dakota. If built, supporters say, it would be the largest such pipeline in the world.
“From being through an 11-year battle and all the twists and turns and the hundreds of lawsuits” on Keystone XL, Jorde said, “we’ve got a very well-laid-out plan.”In a world already being reshaped by climate change, the promise of carbon capture is tantalizing. The reality is complicated. “It’s just for the greater good of our climate,” said Ron Alverson, a retired farmer in South Dakota who is on the board of Dakota Ethanol, which plans to use one of the pipelines to sequester carbon from its facility, and the board of the American Coalition for Ethanol.
“Irrespective of what’s in the pipeline, they suddenly come face to face with the principle of it: that no one should be forced to accept a project if they don’t want it if it’s not a public utility,” Jensen said. Environmental groups are also conflicted, varying widely on whether carbon pipelines could be part of a solution.
Although both Navigator and Summit have said they want to reach agreements with landowners, providing cash and legal guarantees in exchange for the right to bury and maintain their pipelines, the companies have also made clear that they would be willing to use eminent domain if state permits were granted and negotiations reached an impasse.
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