Submitted Photo
Several midwestern states, including North Dakota, have been looking over plans submitted by Summit Carbon Solutions for what’s described as one of the largest carbon capture and storage projects in the world. Photo from Adobe Stock.

More regulatory action is needed, but a controversial pipeline project in North Dakota is moving forward after a permit was recently approved.

Supporters and opponents are now eyeing the next steps.

The state’s Public Service Commission gave Summit Carbon Solutions the green light for a siting permit for its planned route in North Dakota.

The company wants to construct a multi-state pipeline in the Midwest to capture carbon pollution from ethanol plants and store the emissions underground in North Dakota.

The commission last year rejected Summit’s initial permit request.

Zach Cassidy, CO2 pipeline organizer for Dakota Resource Council, said the latest outcome raises a big question.

“Who in our state government, or our local governments, has the power to make safety decisions on this pipeline for their residents?” said Cassidy. “Because if county commissioners can’t do it, and if the PSC won’t do it, that means that no one is looking out for us.”

He’s referring to rulings that state law supersedes counties pursuing zoning restrictions.

Cassidy said in North Dakota, Summit still needs a storage permit and opponents will focus on that, along with legislative changes.

The company praised the decision, noting it will soon reapply for a permit in South Dakota, which also initially said no.

The project has led to backlash over concerns such as public safety and landowner rights.

Summit also says it has secured more than 80% of land easements needed for the North Dakota route.

Ahead of last Friday’s unanimous approval, Commission Chair Randy Christmann strongly encouraged the company not to rely on practices such as eminent domain as it keeps reaching out to landowners.

“It is something that burdens families for generations,” said Christmann. “Eminent domain should never be abused.”

Summit insists it remains committed to working collaboratively with affected landowners and communities.

Beyond the Dakotas, the company is awaiting a permit decision in Minnesota. It already secured permit approval in Iowa. Nebraska also is included in the multi-state plan.

BISMARCK — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum granted clemency Monday, Nov. 25, to a fair-feathered hen named Grace, allegedly saving the turkey from what could’ve been a fateful demise come Thursday.

Grace flocked to the state Capitol in Bismarck from Fullerton to be a part of the annual, Thanksgiving-spirited event hosted by the North Dakota Turkey Federation.

She was chosen for the gig after successfully dodging the truck that took her compatriots to “their next stop,” where they will be staged to join people for Thanksgiving in a “different way,” according to Burgum.

President George W. Bush was the first president to officially pardon a turkey, according to

White House Archives,

but Burgum said the tradition has been a part of North Dakota’s culture since the 1970s when Gov. Art Link was in office.

North Dakota produces around

1 million turkeys

every year. That’s 39 million fewer than Minnesota —

the national leader

in turkey production.

The Turkey Federation will donate 32 frozen turkeys, split evenly between the Heaven’s Helpers Soup Cafe and the Abused Adult Resource Center in Bismarck.

Michelle Erickson,

Abused Adults Resource Center

executive director, said the center is about 2,000 shelter bed nights ahead of where the center was last year — a measure that refers to a single night a person spends sleeping in a bed provided by a shelter.

“The staff is overwhelmed, to say the least,” Erickson said. “Donations like this continually help us out and help our clients.”

Heaven Helpers Soup Cafe

founder and Director Mike Meyer said he serves upwards of 350 people daily— approximately a quarter of whom he says are experiencing homelessness.

“Our numbers have really been up as costs go up,” he said.

Those interested in donating or volunteering with either of the nonprofit organizations can find more information at

soupcafe.org

or

www.abusedadultresourcecenter.com/get-involved.

A group of North Dakota tribal citizens and conservation advocates are calling on President Joe Biden to make roughly 140,000 acres of undeveloped federal land in western North Dakota a national monument.

The proposed Maah Daah Hey National Monument would preserve land recognized as sacred by members of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and other Native cultures, advocates said during a Friday press conference at the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum.

“Maah Daah Hey” means “grandfather, long-lasting” in the Mandan language.

With its close proximity to President Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the area is popularly remembered for its ties to the former president and cowboy culture.

The country should honor Native historical and cultural ties to the land as well, said Michael Barthelemy, director of Native Studies at Nueta, Hidatsa, Sahnish College in New Town.

“What we’re proposing, as part of this national monument, is a reorientation around that narrative,” Barthelemy said. “When you look at the national parks and you look at the state parks, oftentimes there’s a singular perspective — as Indigenous people, we kind of play background characters.”

The monument would include 11 different plots of land along the Maah Daah Hey Trail between the north and south units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Badlands Conservation Alliance Executive Director Shannon Straight likened the proposal to “stringing together the pearls of the Badlands.”

The tribal councils of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, the Spirit Lake Nation and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have passed resolutions supporting the creation of the monument.

“It is important that the Indigenous history of the North Dakota Badlands is formally recognized,” state Rep. Lisa Finley-DeVille, D-Mandaree, said during the presentation. “If created, the Maah Daah Hey National Monument would also allow Indigenous people to reconnect to our ancestral lands.”

The land is managed by the United States Forest Service. Turning the 11 plots into a national monument would protect them from future development, according to the group’s proposal.

The land is surrounded by oil and gas development, maps included in the proposal show.

In addition to being an area of significant cultural heritage for Native tribes, it’s also home to sensitive ecosystems, unique geological features and fossil sites, the proposal indicates.

Dakota Resource Council Executive Director Scott Skokos said Friday the group has visited Washington, D.C., twice so far to speak with President Biden’s administration — including the U.S. Forest Service, Department of the Interior, United States Department of Agriculture — about the proposed monument.

“The reception has been pretty good,” Skokos said.

He said the group hopes to see action from Biden on the monument before he leaves office in January, but is also open to working with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration on the project.

“We believe this is a good idea, regardless of who’s president,” Skokos said.

Advocates said the designation would not impact recreational access to the land, and that cattle grazing would still be permitted.

In a statement to the North Dakota Monitor, U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., called the proposal “premature at best.” He said he was not convinced the proposal had sufficient local support from North Dakota residents and worried the project would “lock away land as conservation.”

“Any proposal should have extensive review as well as strong support from local communities and the stakeholders who actually use the land,” he said.

When asked for comment, the North Dakota governor’s office provided this statement from Gov. Doug Burgum, who Trump has chosen as the next Department of Interior secretary: “North Dakota is proof that we can protect our precious parks, cultural heritage and natural resources AND responsibly and sustainably develop our vast energy resources.”

To learn more about the proposal, visit protectmdh.com. The website also includes a petition.

Presidents can designate federal land as national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906. The first land to receive this status was Devils Tower in Wyoming, which Roosevelt proclaimed a national monument that same year.

Should Maah Daah Hey become a national monument, it’d be the first of its kind in North Dakota.

Like the SC Daily Gazette, North Dakota Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: [email protected]. Follow North Dakota Monitor on Facebook and X.