Voluntary Pipeline Easements Don't Equal Endorsement, Landowners Say

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Todd McMichael has been a vocal opponent of the carbon capture pipeline routed through his family’s land along the Sheyenne River in southeast North Dakota.

But his family signed an easement agreement with Summit Carbon Solutions anyway.

“My family signed an easement based on the fact that they don't want to deal with eminent domain. So they told me to go and negotiate with Summit,” McMichael told the North Dakota Public Service Commission during an April 11 hearing in Wahpeton, North Dakota.

In a followup question, PSC Chairman Randy Christman pointed out that McMichael showed up to testify against the project even though his family had signed an easement agreement.

“One of my biggest issues is the fact that as a landowner, why do we have to get an attorney? We want to say ‘no.’ Why do we have to get an attorney?” McMichael asked. “It's always nickel-diming the landowner, attorney, attorney, attorney, attorney.”

“So essentially you've acquiesced to an easement which you really didn't want?" Christman asked.

“I have an easement that I feel we did our due diligence on and probably have a very, very strong easement. Am I happy about having a pipeline going across family land? No,” McMichael answered.

McMichael isn’t the only landowner who had signed an agreement with Summit only to testify against the project at one of the PSC hearings. The PSC conducted the hearings take testimony from the public and Summit officials as it considers Summit’s route permit application.

Summit has touted progress in obtaining voluntary easements as a sign of support for what it calls the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project, taking greenhouse gases from ethanol plants in five states and sending it to North Dakota for underground storage.

In recent news releases about the addition of ethanol plants in South Dakota and Iowa , Summit that it had acquired 70% of the five-state pipeline route through voluntary easements with nearly 2,500 landowners.

Source: agweek.com