Pro-pipeline group formed to combat 'small minority of objectors'

Ethanol leaders, former ag secretary on Protect South Dakota's Ag Future board

Some prominent South Dakotans involved in the state’s ethanol industry aren’t giving up on the idea of using pipelines to capture carbon emitted by their ethanol plants.

A group of ag producers and industry heavyweights have formed Protect South Dakota's Ag Future (PSDAF), an organization that aims to push back on the “small minority of objectors” that have derailed a pair of multi-billion-dollar projects that sought to pump carbon emissions from South Dakota ethanol plants to underground storage facilities out of state.

The projects are touted as a means to maintain the ethanol industry's viability as demands for low-carbon energy production increase. The projects have faced heavy opposition across the Midwest, and their failure “could force current businesses and future development to relocate outside the state or shut down,” according to a Thursday news release publicizing PSDAF’s creation.

“The future of South Dakota’s corn production relies on access to new markets, including the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel, and access to those markets cannot happen without the proposed pipeline,” stated the release, referring to a planned aviation fuel refinery planned near Lake Preston by Colorado-based Gevo, Inc.

In October, Navigator CO2 abandoned plans to sequester carbon pumped from ethanol plants in eastern South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Iowa to underground storage in Illinois via pipeline after being denied necessary permitting in multiple states. Though a second planned pipeline has faced similar resistance, with landowners and counties voicing public safety concerns, the company behind that project — Summit Carbon Solutions — maintains aspirations of completing its project. Summit intends to store carbon captured from its ethanol plant partners in North Dakota.

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