North Dakota
Gov. Burgum says Summit carbon pipeline will get approval in ND; Iowa hearings set to begin
DES MOINES, Iowa — Campaigning in Iowa for the Republican presidential nomination, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said he is confident that a controversial carbon pipeline will be built despite a setback.
The
North Dakota Public Service Commission on Aug. 4 rejected a route permit application
from Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions. In North Dakota, the three members of the PSC are elected, unlike Iowa, where the governor appoints the three members of the IUB.
Iowa Radio quoted Burgum f
rom the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 10 as saying, “I have every expectation that pipeline is going to (be) approved in North Dakota. There is going to be a reconsideration of that process I’m sure, and as they have done in the past, they’ve been super accommodating in routing around. If you’ve got a farmer that doesn’t want a big check for an easement, their neighbor probably does and they’ll keep making adjustments.”
The
Iowa Utilities Board is set to begin its hearing process on the Summit permit application
on Aug. 22.
Live video will be available through the IUB.
Summit’s project is one of three carbon capture projects in the works in Iowa. Iowa is the nation’s top ethanol-producing state, but the Sierra Club has led landowner resistance to the hazardous liquid pipelines.
“We have been fighting the same fight in Iowa as North Dakota,” the Iowa Sierra Club said in its August newsletter. “If Summit failed to meet the burden of proof there, they have failed to meet it here as well.”
The possible use of eminent domain to force landowners to provide a right of way for the pipeline has been a primary issue for landowners, along with concerns about safety, damage to farmland, and property values.
Summit had originally hoped to start construction in 2023 on what it calls the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project, piping greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol plants in five states to an underground storage site in western North Dakota.
Summit says the project will benefit the ethanol industry, corn growers and the environment.
But Summit has yet to obtain permits for its 2,000-mile pipeline and will need to restart the permit process in North Dakota.
Burgum has been a vocal supporter of carbon capture projects and joined Summit CEO Bruce Rastetter in North Dakota to help announce an investment by oil company Continental Resources into the project.
Burgum also sits on the three-member North Dakota Industrial Commission that has authority over carbon sequestration permits in the state.
Summit has partnered with Minnkota Power Cooperative to have access to their sequestration site, Project Tundra. The company says it has acquired nearly 90% of the pore space rights within its own sequestration sites in North Dakota.
Summit says it has obtained 80% of the voluntary easements for its pipeline route in North Dakota, but that route is subject to change after the PSC’s ruling.
Summit says it plans to reapply for a route permit in North Dakota and address concerns of the PSC, including an alternate route around the city of Bismarck.
“Summit is looking at plans again and will address those issues in our reconsidered application, including reroutes. The company is determined to get this right for everyone involved,” the company said in a news release.
Meanwhile, the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission is set to restart hearings on the Navigator CO2 carbon pipeline project on Aug. 24.
That five-state pipeline has a planned sequestration site in Illinois.
Reach Agweek reporter Jeff Beach at jbeach@agweek.com or call 701-451-5651.
North Dakota
Illinois State Gets 1st Win Over North Dakota, 35-13
(AP) — Wenkers Wright ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns and No. 13 Illinois State knocked off North Dakota for the first time, 35-13 in the regular season finale for both teams Saturday.
The Redbirds are 9-2 (6-2 Missouri Valley Conference) and are looking to reach the FCS playoffs for the first time since 2019 and sixth time in Brock Spack’s 16 seasons as head coach.
Illinois State opened the game with some trickery. Eddie Kasper pulled up on a fleaflicker and launched a 30-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Loyd to cap a seven-play, 70-yard opening drive.
Simon Romfo tied it on North Dakota’s only touchdown of the day, throwing 20 yards to Nate DeMontagnac.
Wright scored from the 10 to make it 14-7 after a quarter, and after C.J. Elrichs kicked a 20-yard field goal midway through the second to make it 14-10 at intermission, Wright powered in from the 18 and Mitch Bartol caught a five-yard touchdown pass from Tommy Rittenhouse to make it 28-10 after three.
Seth Glatz added a 13-yard touchdown run to make it 35-10 before Elrichs added a 37-yard field goal to get the Fighting Hawks on the board to set the final margin.
Rittenhouse finished 21 of 33 passing for 187 yards for Illinois State. Loyd caught eight passes for 121 yards.
Romfo completed 11 of 26 passes for 135 yards and a touchdown with an interception for North Dakota (5-7, 2-6).
Illinois State faced North Dakota for just the fourth time and third time as Missouri Valley Conference opponents. The Redbirds lost the previous three meetings.
North Dakota
Photos: Championship scenes from North Dakota Class A, Class B state volleyball
FARGO — Top-seeded Langdon Area-Munich lived up to its billing Saturday night at the Fargodome.
The
Cardinals earned a 15-25, 25-16, 25-15, 25-16 victory
against No. 2-seeded South Prairie-Max to earn the North Dakota Class B volleyball state championship.
Bismarck Century spoiled West Fargo Sheyenne’s bid for a three-peat. The
Patriots scored a 25-21, 18-25, 25-15, 25-22 victory
for the Class A state championship.
Century won its 10th state title in program history.
Below are championship scenes from Saturday night at the Fargodome:
Peterson covers college athletics for The Forum, including Concordia College and Minnesota State Moorhead. He also covers the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks independent baseball team and helps out with North Dakota State football coverage. Peterson has been working at the newspaper since 1996.
North Dakota
North Dakota Badlands national monument proposed with tribes’ support
A coalition of conservation groups and Native American tribal citizens on Friday called on President Joe Biden to designate nearly 140,000 acres of rugged, scenic Badlands as North Dakota’s first national monument, a proposal several tribal nations say would preserve the area’s indigenous and cultural heritage.
The proposed Maah Daah Hey National Monument would encompass 11 noncontiguous, newly designated units totaling 139,729 acres in the Little Missouri National Grassland. The proposed units would hug the popular recreation trail of the same name and neighbor Theodore Roosevelt National Park, named for the 26th president who ranched and roamed in the Badlands as a young man in the 1880s.
“When you tell the story of landscape, you have to tell the story of people,” said Michael Barthelemy, an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and director of Native American studies at Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College. “You have to tell the story of the people that first inhabited those places and the symbiotic relationship between the people and the landscape, how the people worked to shape the land and how the land worked to shape the people.”
The U.S. Forest Service would manage the proposed monument. The National Park Service oversees many national monuments, which are similar to national parks and usually designated by the president to protect the landscape’s features.
Supporters have traveled twice to Washington to meet with White House, Interior Department, Forest Service and Department of Agriculture officials. But the effort faces an uphill battle with less than two months remaining in Biden’s term and potential headwinds in President-elect Trump’s incoming administration.
If unsuccessful, the group would turn to the Trump administration “because we believe this is a good idea regardless of who’s president,” Dakota Resource Council Executive Director Scott Skokos said.
Dozens if not hundreds of oil and natural gas wells dot the landscape where the proposed monument would span, according to the supporters’ map. But the proposed units have no oil and gas leases, private inholdings or surface occupancy, and no grazing leases would be removed, said North Dakota Wildlife Federation Executive Director John Bradley.
The proposal is supported by the MHA Nation, the Spirit Lake Tribe and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe through council resolutions.
If created, the monument would help tribal citizens stay connected to their identity, said Democratic state Rep. Lisa Finley-DeVille, an MHA Nation enrolled member.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service. In a written statement, Burgum said: “North Dakota is proof that we can protect our precious parks, cultural heritage and natural resources AND responsibly develop our vast energy resources.”
North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven’s office said Friday was the first they had heard of the proposal, “but any effort that would make it harder for ranchers to operate and that could restrict multiple use, including energy development, is going to raise concerns with Senator Hoeven.”
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