How South Dakota Changed the Math on Carbon Pipelines

Summit Carbon retools its pipeline vision in South Dakota, aligning innovation with new laws and landowner collaboration

17 Mar 2025

Summit Carbon Solutions is reworking the design and delivery of its carbon capture and storage project in South Dakota, reframing it as a more collaborative and adaptive infrastructure effort rather than a fixed pipeline build.

The $5bn project involves a planned 2,000-mile network to transport carbon dioxide captured from ethanol plants across five Midwestern states to permanent underground storage in North Dakota. In South Dakota, the company is adjusting its approach after recent changes in state law prompted a broader reassessment of how the project is structured and presented.

Summit said it is using the moment to refine routing, land access and community engagement, aiming to develop a model that places greater emphasis on voluntary participation and local input. The company asked state regulators earlier this year for time to review its plans, signalling a willingness to modify the project rather than force it through unchanged.

“This is a chance to deepen our relationships with landowners and local leaders,” said Paul Bachman, Summit’s director of regulatory affairs. “Our mission hasn’t changed. We are focused on delivering real environmental and economic gains, and we are committed to doing so in step with community values.”

The shift highlights a broader trend in large-scale clean energy and decarbonisation projects, where technical ambition is increasingly paired with flexibility in execution. Rather than treating the pipeline as a single, rigid asset, Summit is exploring design adjustments and phased development that it says could improve efficiency and local acceptance.

Elsewhere in the region, the project continues to move forward. Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota remain key pillars of the network, with regulatory processes advancing and storage planning in North Dakota progressing as expected.

Industry analysts say such projects are testing new ways of building shared infrastructure for climate goals, particularly in rural areas. Rival developers, including Navigator CO₂ and Wolf Carbon Solutions, are pursuing similar networks and closely watching how Summit adapts its model.

Federal tax incentives and climate targets continue to underpin investment in carbon capture, especially for ethanol and other hard-to-abate industries. Summit’s evolving approach in South Dakota suggests that innovation in this sector is extending beyond engineering, towards new methods of project design, local partnership and long-term integration.