(Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
A nearly $9 billion carbon-capture pipeline backed by Oklahoma billionaire oilman Harold Hamm was hit with another major roadblock this week in South Dakota when voters agreed to repeal a law to ease approval of the controversial pipeline.
Hamm was one of the supporters of the $8.9 billion Summit Carbon Solutions project but at least 60% of voters supported the repeal. Bloomberg described it as the last high-profile carbon pipeline proposal still standing after rivals with similar visions went bust amid opposition from landowners in various Midwestern states.
Hamm’s Continental Resources company is a major player in the Bakken play of North Dakota. He is also an investor in Summit Carbon Solutions. The Des Moines Register reported in March of 2022 that Continental Resources commited $250 million to help fund the proposed pipeline. Back then, the project’s cost was an estimated $4.5 billion.
The morning after the election on Tuesday, Summit stated it will reapply Nov. 19 seeking a permit from the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission after being denied a permit last year. That denial was partially due to the pipeline route’s conflicts with local county siting laws, according to reports.
The project was intended to cut the environmental impacts of ethanol production by capturing emissions from ethanol plants in South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.
As the North Dakota Monitor reported, South Dakota state lawmakers and Republican Gov. Kristi Noem adopted the law last winter. It was met with a petition drive to refer it to voters.
The new law was created in response to the carbon-capture project proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions, an Iowa-based company. The firm partnered with ethanol producers to capture some of the carbon dioxide from 57 ethanol plants in several states and send it by pipeline to North Dakota where it would be stored underground.
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