North Dakota Public Service Commission: Summit CO2 Pipeline Permit Re-Hearing [VIDEO]

The North Dakota Public Service Commission (ND PSC) rejected Summit Carbon Solutions’ carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline permit application in August 2023, after a series of public hearings where landowners and attorneys with the North Dakota Easement Team, as well as counties, state and local elected leaders, and a loud chorus of the public spoke out strongly against the risky proposed multi-state project and associated dangers.

The ND PSC commissioners cited landowners’ concerns explicitly in their reasoning for previously rejecting Summit’s permit application.

The “re-hearing” applied for by Summit and granted by the ND PSC is now in the stage of more public hearings focused on the newly-updated proposed route, on April 22 in Mandan (Hearing mainly on Burleigh, Morton, and Oliver counties), May 24 in Wahpeton (Hearing focused on Dickey, Sargeant, Cass, and Richland counties), and June 4 in Linton (Hearing focused on Emmons, Logan, and Mcintosh counties), in addition to a “technical conference” where witnesses were questioned on May 29-30 and June 3.

Summit is now claiming to the ND PSC in its updated application that it has responded to landowners’ concerns voiced during the previous round of public hearings — or at least some landowners’ concerns, and indeed — a number of the landowners who hired legal representation and were clients of the North Dakota Easement Team and Brian Jorde with Domina Law Firm or other attorneys who called them as witnesses, or spoke during public comment saw their land removed from the proposed route entirely.

But a number of other Jorde clients and North Dakota Easement Team members testified during the public hearing in Mandan on May 24 that Summit has made zero efforts to work with them on suggested alterations to the proposed pipeline route through their property, and seemed to in some instances renege on concessions made in initial discussions once the company learned a landowner had hired an attorney to represent them. The North Dakota Monitor reported on May 24 that “Richland County landowner Loren Staroba and other landowners testified that they have been frustrated by a lack of communication throughout the pipeline siting process.”

Many landowners stated that they opposed the project and no route at all would be their preference, but faced with the prospect of Summit condemning their land via eminent domain, suggested alterations such as moving the route onto neighbors’ property who had already proactively signed easement contracts with Summit.

Bold is capturing the livestream video from the current “re-hearing” public hearings to the best of our capacity. We were not able to record the first day of hearings in Mandan on April 22, but there is the audio recording of that day’s testimony on the ND PSC website, and the audio recording from the technical conference on April 23.

(Also unfortunately, due to inclement weather in Iowa on Friday morning, a power outage prevented recording of the morning session of testimony.) The North Dakota Monitor was there to cover the proceedings on Friday, May 24, where coincidentally Summit was questioned about its ability to shut down the pipeline in the event of a power outage. The Monitor reports that Summit “COO James Powell testified from Texas in a hearing before that the company would be able to shut off mainline valves of the carbon capture pipeline “within seconds.” “…He said the valves would have solar power backup to allow them to be shut off even if the power is shut down.”

Summit has previously claimed in its permit application in Iowa that it could shut down its highly-pressurized supercritical CO2 pipeline in just two minutes. But while Summit has never operated a CO2 pipeline before, Denbury, which was recently acquired by Exxon, has recorded recent real-world CO2 pipeline leaks, where its “Green” CO2 pipeline leak at a pumping station near Sulphur, Louisiana and the total time from the incident release to shutdown was more than two hours.

North Dakota PSC Testimony on Summit CO2 Pipeline Re-hearing (City, 5/24/24)
(Partial Afternoon Session Part 1)

North Dakota PSC Testimony on Summit CO2 Pipeline Re-hearing (City, 5/24/24)
(Partial Afternoon Session Part 2)

North Dakota PSC Testimony on Summit CO2 Pipeline Re-hearing (5/29/24, Morning)

North Dakota PSC Testimony on Summit CO2 Pipeline Re-hearing (5/29/24, Afternoon)

North Dakota PSC Testimony on Summit CO2 Pipeline Re-hearing (5/30/24, Partial)