Noem on pipelines: 'I stand with the landowners'

Republican governor had been quiet on use of eminent domain for carbon sequestration projects

Gov. Kristi Noem says she has no authority to stop a carbon sequestration pipeline from being built through 18 South Dakota.

The second term Republican governor Monday morning during a radio interview with a Watertown radio station pushed back on assertions she’s not done enough to help rural landowners standup to Summit Carbon Solutions, an Iowa-based company planning to pump carbon emissions from ethanol plants to North Dakota where it would be stored underground.

The multi-billion project has splintered the Republican Party in South Dakota, as affected landowners and a handful of state lawmakers criticize Summit’s eminent domain powers afforded to pipeline companies in state law.

“There were several bills that came to the Legislature this year that would have addressed this, and the Legislature killed them all,” Noem told KWAT News. “None of them made it to my desk.”

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