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Mn PUC orders environmental impact statement for CO2 pipeline project

Staff file photo by Fritz Busch Lamberton Highwater Ethanol CEO Brian Kletscher leads a plant tour west of Lamberton on Aug. 30, 2022. The plant is one of five Minnesota ethanol plants and 32 in the Midwest committed to the proposed carbon pipeline project.

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) ordered the preparation of an environmental impact statement as part of formally accepting the state’s first carbon capture pipeline project application Thursday.

Accepting the application as complete, the PUC begins the permitting process that will involve many public engagement opportunities as the record is developed.

Environmental impact statements (EIS) are reports that discuss the potential impact on the environment of proposed federal government projects. They must include a reasonable range of alternatives to the proposed action, as well as their consequences. In the draft stage, there is a public comment period.

In September, Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions filed for a permit for a liquid carbon dioxide pipeline from Otter Tail to Wilkin County that is part of a 4.5 billion project to collect carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants in Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota and store the CO2 underground in North Dakota.

The PUC has heard from hundreds of citizens, landowners, tribal representatives, labor organizations and others asking for more environmental analysis.

“We had a lot of conservation and heard from many groups and individuals wanting to make sure the state got this process right,” said PUC Commission Chairwoman Katie Sieben. “With this being the first carbon pipeline in Minnesota, the Commission wants to ensure we are setting a process that is thorough, transparent, and protective.”

An EIS comprehensively describes and analyzes a project that may have significant impacts to the environment and compares it to project alternatives. An EIS has multiple opportunities for public participation.

The project proposes 2,000 miles of pipeline connecting 32 Midwest ethanol plants, five in Minnesota, to transport sequestered carbon to a North Dakota underground storage site.

Summit Carbon Solutions’ application included a permit for 28 miles of CO2 pipeline from the Green Plains Ethanol plant near Fergus Falls to Breckenridge and into North Dakota.

Another part of the pipeline is planned for west central and southern Minnesota that would connect to the a main pipeline in Iowa. That Minnesota pipeline would be placed in Renville, Redwood, Kandiyohi, Yellow Medicine, Chippewa, Cottonwood, and Jackson counties.

During a Highwater Ethanol tour in August, plant CEO Brian Kletscher said to his understanding, eminent domain for the project is not available in Minnesota.

“I think this is a very safe project,” Kletscher said. “I look forward to working with Summit Solutions and the great opportunity for the ethanol industry as a whole to sequester CO2 in the ground. I think that’s very important.”

The pipeline made of externally-coated, high-strength steel will be placed four feet underground. Wall thickness would range from 0.189 to 0.75 inches, with diameters from four to 24 inches, according to Summit Carbon.

The project would be part of the 45Q Carbon Capture Tax Credit program in which qualifying facilities can create a tax liability offset per captured ton of carbon dioxide.

Estimated to take a year to complete, the project must be approved by the Minnesota PUC and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).

Minnesota ethanol plants part of the project besides Highwater are Granite Falls Energy, Bushmills Ethanol Inc. of Atwater, Heron Lake BioEnergy and Green Plains, Inc. of Fairmont.

Summit Carbon investors are John Deere, Continental Resources (North Dakota’s biggest oil driller), Tiger Infrastructure, TPG Rise Climate and Summit Agricultural Group.

Summit Carbon Solutions defined carbon dioxide as a non-explosive, non-combustible, dispersed as a gas when introduced to conditions outside a pipeline but with a density closer to that of a liquid.

For more information, visit mn.gov/puc.

(Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com).

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