Despite unresolved lawsuits, Summit officials say CO2 pipeline on track for 2024 completion

Ethanol producers say North Dakota project would stave off future carbon penalties

Ringneck Ethanol Power Plant President and CEO Walt Wendland points to where carbon emissions are exhausted from the 80-million-gallon ethanol production facility in Onida, S.D. Summit Carbon Solution plans to capture the carbon and transport it to North Dakota, where it would be placed underground as early as 2024. (Joe Sneve / The Dakota Scout)

ONIDA, S.D. – A 2,000-mile carbon pipeline slated to run through 18 South Dakota counties is on track to start pumping carbon to North Dakota in the next two years.

During a tour Tuesday morning with state officials and media at the Ringneck Ethanol Energy Plant, Summit Carbon Solutions CEO Lee Blank said the $4.5 billion project will begin capturing and pumping carbon emissions from the ethanol plant and 31 others along the route by the end of 2024.

That’s despite a flurry of lawsuits between landowners and the Iowa-based company filed this summer.

“I have no reason to move the schedule now based on what I see,” he said, characterizing dozens of unresolved lawsuits in which Summit is seeking access to landowner holdouts as “a process” built into the company’s timeline.

NEWS: Lawsuits fly over carbon pipeline that would run through 18 South Dakota counties