This month and next (Aug. and Sept. 2023), South Dakota regulators are holding hearings about proposed underground pipelines that would carry carbon dioxide to underground storage. Environmental groups with concerns about the approach are keeping a watchful eye.
Guy Larson, with the Sierra Club’s South Dakota chapter, says they remain leery of these large-scale efforts to decarbonize ethanol production.
“The Sierra Club sees the whole process as another way to extend the life of fossil fuels.”
Opponents also worry about damage to farmland and potential pipeline ruptures. Project officials tout environmental and economic benefits, and insist there will be strong safeguards. Hearings on a similar proposal from Summit Carbon Solutions are scheduled for next month. That project calls for carbon to be stored underground in North Dakota, but regulators there just rejected Summit’s siting permit.
Summit plans to reapply, but North Dakota regulators noted in its first application, the company failed to show that key elements of the project would produce minimal adverse effects on the environment and the public. Larson suggests those same questions remain as South Dakota’s proceedings move forward.
“We have a lot of concerns about the safety, about what happens to it after the life of this program, about whether or not the sequestration is actually a viable way to dispose of the carbon dioxide.”
Complicating matters are emerging federal incentives for carbon capture that are helping to spur private ventures like these. But opponents say because of the unknowns, more emphasis should be placed on transitioning to renewable energy.
The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission is expected to continue Navigator’s permit hearing Aug. 24. Hearings for the Summit project begin September 11.
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