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At the Ramkota, Jeff Barth, left, was flanked by campaign assistant Pam Cole.
Jeff Barth, right, was joined at the Ramkota by Brown County Commissioner and former Democrat Dist. 3 state legislator Dennis Feickert.
On its website, Summit Carbon Solutions provided a map of its project's projected footprint.
At the Ramkota, Jeff Barth, left, was flanked by campaign assistant Pam Cole.
Jeff Barth, right, was joined at the Ramkota by Brown County Commissioner and former Democrat Dist. 3 state legislator Dennis Feickert.
On its website, Summit Carbon Solutions provided a map of its project's projected footprint.
The western fringe of the world’s largest carbon dioxide pipeline will stop about 30 miles from Pierre.
The pipeline proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions (Summit) will attach to the Ringneck Energy ethanol plant in Onida — one of seven South Dakota ethanol plants that have entered into long-term contracts with Summit. The massive “carbon capture and sequestration” will resemble an underground interstate, stretching east, from Iowa and Minnesota, westward through much of Nebraska and the Dakotas.
Though not the first of its kind, it remains the first of its scale — an enormous web of steel, shuttling 12 million tons of CO2 across five states yearly.
“By that measure, it would be the largest carbon sequestration project in the world,” Jesse Harris, director of public affairs at Summit Carbon Solutions, said.
Both the project’s supporters and opponents admit the size and expense of the project is unprecedented in the history of CO2 management — one of the few things they agree on.
Minnehaha County Commissioner and South Dakota Public Utilities Commission Democrat candidate Jeff Barth was critical of Summit’s project when his campaign contacted the Capital Journal.
“What they’re going to do is pump (CO2) up to North Dakota and inject it into the ground, supposedly to store it. In fact, according to the federal government, it's to help extract oil and gas, which absolutely defeats the green aspect that they claim,” Barth said, referring to “fracking.”
“This is, I think, a point of misinformation from opponents — one of those areas where there has been an intentional effort to mislead people about what the purpose of this project is,” Harris said. “Our project is designed to permanently and safely sequester CO2. I can say that definitively because our permits are for long-term sequestration. From a permitting perspective, and also a geographic perspective, (fracking) is just not possible.”
Informed of Harris’s response, Barth was unmoved.
“That's what they say. Will they promise they will never sell the company to someone else? Who's to say they might not even reverse it, and send oil and gas from North Dakota down to Nebraska with that same tube? There's a very good chance that this pipeline will fail and cause huge damage,” he said. “Let's say it breaks underneath the Missouri River — it turns into this bubbly stuff. Your boat would sink. You could not swim. I don't know if your cattle like carbonated water.”
The expense of the project was also an issue.
“(Summit) will do this, no matter what the cost, because they're going to get paid back by the federal government with the estimated five (sic) and a half billion dollars,” Barth added.
“That’s simply not true,” he said. “I'm continually surprised by the misinformation that comes from the other side. I mean, this is a 4.5 billion dollar private investment. We've raised about 1.1 billion dollars in capital from a wide range of investors ... we'll get bonds and borrow to do the rest. This project is unequivocally a private investment.”
Barth’s fundamental concern with safety remained. To illustrate, he offered a terrifying precedent.
On the evening of Feb 2, 2020, a CO2 pipeline burst in Satartia, Mississippi. Emergency services weren’t immediately able to pinpoint the cause behind a cascade of frantic 911 calls and reports of choking. Even after CO2 was identified, first responders had little to no experience with the gas and may have lacked sufficient equipment to respond effectively. Although no one was killed, injuries and panic were significant.
Summit Carbon Solutions had no connection to that event. It was caused by a CO2 pipe owned by Denbury Resources, now Denbury Inc. Unlike Summit, Denbury used CO2 to extract oil, and had a record of other “blowouts.”
Barth pointed to the Satartia disaster as a warning for South Dakotans.
Beyond its capacity to suffocate humans and animals, clouds of CO2 gas can also disable car engines. It is the most deadly in closed spaces, where it can completely displace oxygen. Outdoors, CO2 naturally diffuses — likely why no one died in Satartia.
Although experts have suggested CO2 might be dispersed by wind, Barth said low-hanging gas could be carried into population centers.
“If that (pipeline) erupts, a cloud of gas moving with the wind could cover a village, water park, fairgrounds or city and cause numerous casualties,” Barth contended.
He also pointed to foreign investors behind Summit, and suggested taking the challenge directly to Harris.
“Ask him who the investors are in their company,” Barth said. “They're going to tell you that they've got John Deere and stuff like that. But they also have South Korea, I believe they also have the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
When asked about investors, Harris said Summit was “enthusiastic” about those on board, and initially mentioned only domestic investors.
“We have Tiger Infrastructure, Continental Resources, and John Deere as investors. Ethanol plants that are our partners have also invested. We’re very proud of the people that have invested in us,” he said.
Responding to the concern behind of foreign investments, Harris reported that the claim usually refers to S&K (sic) Group or TPG Rise Climate.
SK Group is South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate and TPG Rise Climate is an American company. On Thursday, a TPG spokesperson was not immediately able to speak on TPG’s involvement or lack thereof with Saudi Arabia. As for Summit itself, Harris said the Kingdom is not a “direct investor.”
Instead, Harris framed Summit’s project as a boon to local American communities.
“This is an $800 million investment just in South Dakota — that’s dollars that will flow to local businesses to spur economic growth,” Harris said. “Counties our project runs through will have more dollars to invest in schools, hospitals, roads, public safety and more.”
Barth followed up his initial phone interview with a physical meeting at the Ramkota amphitheater on Tuesday afternoon.
“The whole project stinks, actually. The more you find out about it, the more crooked it seems,” he said. “I happen to know that one of my fellow commissioners had a private meeting with the Summit carbon people and, since then, nothing can be on the agenda.”
Barth framed the fight to stop Summit as something like David and Goliath.
“They’re pushing us little South Dakotans around,” he said. “Somebody needs to stop them. I feel I am that guy.”
Barth was joined at the Ramkota by his campaign assistant, Pam Cole, as well as Brown County Commissioner and former District 3 Democrat legislator Dennis Feickert.
Feickert said his primary objection to the Summit pipeline was an unfair “transfer of wealth.”
“It's going to be the little guy that's going to get his land taken away, and forced to take a pipe, and will get no annual compensation for that whatsoever. He's going to pay for it because it's going to be an inconvenience for him,” Feickert said.
Reached for follow-up on Thursday, Harris denied Feickert’s claim.
“We will absolutely compensate landowners in any area where we build pipeline,” Harris said. “The landowner has the ability to make counteroffers and negotiate a price they feel comfortable with.”
If Summit takes crops out of production to build, Harris said the company would pay 100 percent of the crop loss the first year, 80 percent the second year and 60 percent for the third year. An up front, lump-sum payment of 240 percent crop value would be offered in such situations.
Harris continued that the pipeline would ensure corn production “continues to have a strong marketplace” by boosting the value of American ethanol.
PUC chairman Chris Nelson said he is prohibited by law from speaking about “any sitting docket involving a CO2 pipeline.” Shayla Powell, a spokesperson for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, declined the Capital Journal’s request to speak about the pros and cons of carbon sequestration.
Although ethanol itself is considered carbon neutral, the production process behind it may not be — especially when diesel tractors are used for harvest and trucks for transport. If the energy required to produce ethanol is greater than the energy it ultimately offers, it remains stuck in a “negative energy balance” — an “energy-negative” fuel source.
President Biden’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, what he called a “100 percent energy-clean economy,” does not yet have a clear roadmap — but carbon sequestration could be part of it. CEO of Ringneck Energy Walt Wendland said sequestration at the Ringneck plant would negate the carbon cost of farming the corn used for ethanol production.
“Half of the industry is going to be sequestering their carbon, taking advantage of 45Q tax credits,” Wendland said. “If we don’t take advantage of it, we’re gonna be put at an economic disadvantage. It will be hard for us to survive, which means the whole area doesn’t get the corn price they should be getting. Clearly, if we can’t participate, we’re gonna be at a disadvantage to over half the industry.”
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Michael Leifer | 605-224-7301 ext. 131
Reporter Michael Leifer graduated from Fordham University with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He moved to Pierre in 2022.
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This mirrors almost to a T the same crony capitalism of big wind projects. Legislators and politicians better wake up because the people of South Dakota are. You will be displaced if you don’t start protecting South Dakotans rather than the special interests of foreign companies. Case in point, the proposed wind project in Hughes county is a French company based out of California. Certainly doesn’t fall in the lines of South Dakotans.
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