Decision looms by Sept. 6 on pipeline permit, overruling counties

Date:

By John Hult,

South Dakota Searchlight

            The Public Utilities Commission will decide at a later date whether it will overrule county zoning officials on behalf of a carbon pipeline company.

            Friday, August 25 marked the second day of a two-day hearing in Pierre on the question of county authority, brought by  Navigator CO2 Ventures, the company behind one of two proposed carbon pipelines that might pass through South Dakota.

            Navigator wants commissioners to shoot down county-level restrictions on pipeline construction its representatives say are untenable. On the first day, a Navigator official named Monica Howard said the rules in Minnehaha and Moody counties represent uniquely targeted attempts to scuttle pipeline projects that backers see as critical to the future of the Midwest’s ethanol industry. Howard testified that the county ordinances amount to 11th-hour rule changes to the permitting process.

            Navigator’s Heartland Greenway project and a similar pipeline pitch from Summit Carbon Solutions would move pressurized carbon gas from ethanol plants for underground sequestration. That would allow for ethanol sales in states with low carbon requirements and open up billions in federal tax credits for the pipeline companies.

            On Friday, Commissioner Gary Hanson pushed Howard on the right of counties to manage their land use, and questioned her on how Navigator could characterize county zoning rules passed in 2023 as unexpected.

            The pipelines have been controversial in South Dakota. Several bills aiming to regulate carbon pipelines appeared in the Legislature in 2023, and counties along the route have heard citizen complaints about safety and land rights for more than a year.

            “It’s extremely difficult to understand how a business the size of Navigator, with all the personnel that you say are involved, could possibly have not seen this (coming) when hundreds of people were turning out and demanding that some government entity pass some rules,” Hanson said.

            Howard said counties dismissed her company’s suggestions based on “an established, vetted route” that complies with federal regulations and instead passed “arbitrary setbacks” for homes, schools, churches and cities.

            “I’m not saying counties can’t or shouldn’t enact regulation, but not at this point,” Howard said.

            Most of the day was taken up by testimony from county zoning officials from Minnehaha and Moody counties. Each testified that pipeline companies were offered ample opportunities to give feedback. In Moody County, Planning Director Kendra Eng said, the company had the same amount of time as anyone else at its pipeline ordinance meetings.

            The PUC did not make a decision on the question of preempting county ordinances on Friday.

            The commission directed lawyers for both sides to prepare legal briefs on the issue, and to file them by Tuesday. The PUC has pledged to make its decision on Navigator’s pipeline permit application, and on the preemption question, by Sept. 6.

South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence.

Share post:

spot_img

Related articles

Ethanol cooperative kicks in another $400,000 to support carbon pipeline ballot question

By: Joshua Haiar, SD Searchlight             A cooperative that owns four ethanol plants has made a second $400,000 contribution to...

Referred Law 21 Ad Exposes Dangers of CO2 Pipelines with 911 Call from 2020 Explosion

            Brookings, SD – October 21, 2024 – Dakota Rural Action, a South Dakota-based organization that has been...

Local landowners talk with experts about carbon pipeline issues

            Over the weekend local landowners met in Sioux Falls at the Riverview Barn to discuss the proposed...

Pipeline won’t capture all carbon emitted by ethanol plants

Corn fermentation emissions would be sequestered, but emissions from gas-powered machinery would go into the atmosphere By: Joshua Haiar, SD...

Log In

Latest articles

Celebrate our Veterans next Monday

Mark Williamson to be featured speaker             Veteran’s Day is next Monday, and there are two veteran’s Day Programs...

City talks Dog Park and appoints Matthew “Jake’ Jacobson to fill Tom Godbey’s seat

            Garretson may have a dog park within the next few years, if the vote taken at Monday...

Once a hospital, now a Garretson home

by Jill Meier, Brandon Valley Journal Addendum below             When Brandon Schweitzer purchased a massive house in 2016 that was once...

Trunk or Treat Fun

The Trunk or Treat in Split Rock Park and Downtown was plenty of fun for all last week,...

Mayor’s Desk for November, 2024

            I am going to deviate from my normal monthly column this month. I want to talk a...

Will GHS VB get that sweet 16?

UPDATE 11/7/24: Garretson Volleyball will be playing Baltic in Baltic at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 7. The...
s2Member®