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Navigator submits PUC permit application for CO2 pipeline

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A second company has filed paperwork with the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission to construct a carbon dioxide transmission pipeline. 

Navigator Heartland Greenway LLC officially submitted its application request to the PUC on Wednesday, asking for 111.9 miles of CO2 pipeline in South Dakota. The Navigator CO2 pipeline aims to span 1,300 miles across five states to capture CO2 from 21 ethanol and fertilizer plants. You can view the application in the document below. 

The PUC will hold public input meetings on Navigator’s application in November. The first one is Nov. 21 at the Canton Performing Arts Center in Canton, the second is set for Nov. 22 in Flandreau and the third will also be on Nov. 22 at the Ramkota in Sioux Falls. You can also view application supporting documents on the PUC’s website.

“At the meetings, Applicant will present a brief description of the Project, after which interested persons may appear and present their views, comments, and questions regarding the Application and the Project,” the notice of the application for the PUC states. 

Navigator is the second company looking to build a CO2 pipeline in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. Summit Carbon Solution filed its application in February and was granted an extension by the PUC in June. The Summit pipeline is about 2,500 miles with 469 miles in South Dakota.

Sioux Falls-based POET, the world’s largest biofuels company, plans to use 18 of its 33 ethanol plants. In June, POET announced its partnership with Navigator and POET CEO Jeff Lautt said POET assessed Navigator’s project for more than a year. 

Lautt said the Navigator CO2 project will increase the value of ethanol and corn.

“Today, the market for CO2 is only so large,” Lautt said. “Down the road (there is potential) for CO2 to be used in hydrogen and green methane.”

Opponents of the Navigator proposal and other CO2 proposals such as Summit Carbon Solutions’ project say that CO2 is a safety and health hazard and that pipelines are at risk of leaking or rupturing. Others have said they are concerned about the use of eminent domain to secure easements for the pipeline or that large companies will reap big financial benefits at the expense of landowners.