A North Dakota judge handed another major setback for Summit Carbon Solutions, the company supported by Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm, in its pursuit of establishing a carbon pipeline storage network over several states.
The recent decision by South Central Judicial District Judge Jackson Lofgren was the second time in the past four months that a North Dakota judge ruled the 2009 state law is a violation of the state constitution. Another judge released a similar decision in December in a related lawsuit, filed by the Northwest Landowners Association, that directly challenged the law’s constitutionality. The law authorizes regulators to permit the storage of carbon dioxide beneath the property of nonconsenting landowners, reported the North Dakota Monitor.
“While this case presents the issue in the context of an administrative appeal, the Court largely reaches the same conclusion,” wrote Lofgren in the decision. “Because the findings and conclusions of the NDIC are not sustained by the North Dakota Constitution, they must be reversed.”
Summit Carbon obtained permits for underground carbon dioxide storage but the ruling revoked the permits after some landowners fought North Dakota’s attempt to force them to take part in the massive project. The landowners filed an appeal and won.
Kurt Swenson, one of the landowners reacted, “This decision stands as an important victory not only for our family, but for all North Dakota landowners who believe that private property rights and constitutional protections still matter.”
An attorney for the landowners said the ruling reversed a decision by the state’s Industrial Commission.
“What that means is it essentially dismissed and invalidated the decision from the Industrial Commission to issue all these permits to Summit.”
Summit promoted the $8 billion project to gather carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants in five states and transport it by 2,500 miles of pipeline to be stored underground in North Dakota. The storage would have covered 90,000 acres in parts of three counties and nearly 92% of the landowners voluntarily signed lease agreements giving permission.
Hamm, founder of Continental Resources in Oklahoma City, was a financial contributor of the project. He reportedly viewed it as an economic opportunity as well as a strategic fit with North Dakota’s Bakken shale play where his company is considered a major of oil in the state. Four years ago, a report by the Des Moines Register showed Continental Resources had committed $250 million to Summit.
Summit contends the pipeline system and carbon storage plan is “a major investment in the future of agriculture—keeping ethanol competitive and rural communities strong.”
