ONIDA, S.D. – A 2,000-mile carbon pipeline slated to run through 18 South Dakota counties is on track to start pumping carbon to North Dakota in the next two years.

During a tour Tuesday morning with state officials and media at the Ringneck Ethanol Energy Plant, Summit Carbon Solutions CEO Lee Blank said the $4.5 billion project will begin capturing and pumping carbon emissions from the ethanol plant and 31 others along the route by the end of 2024.

That’s despite a flurry of lawsuits between landowners and the Iowa-based company filed this summer.

“I have no reason to move the schedule now based on what I see,” he said, characterizing dozens of unresolved lawsuits in which Summit is seeking access to landowner holdouts as “a process” built into the company’s timeline.

NEWS: Lawsuits fly over carbon pipeline that would run through 18 South Dakota counties