South Dakota regulators deny Navigator's CO2 pipeline application

via Sioux Falls Argus Leader
by Dominik Dausch
Sept. 6, 2023

Navigator Heartland Greenway, LLC.'s, application to build their ambitious and controversial carbon capture pipeline system was officially denied.

Navigator received the thumbs-down Wednesday from the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission to build their Heartland Greenway System pipeline following a unanimous 3-0 motion.

At the same time, the commission also unanimously denied Navigator's motion to preempt local ordinances through federal law as a means of circumventing what the company considers overly restrictive setback distances.

PUC Chairperson Kristie Fiegen, in her motion to deny the application, said Navigator did not meet the burden of proof on any of the four subdivisions of South Dakota Codified Law 49-41B-22.

This statute lays out four standards in which a proposed project must meet. This includes complying with applicable laws and rules, not posing a threat of serious injury to the environment nor social and economic conditions of affected landowners, not substantially impairing the health, safety or welfare of the inhabitants, and not unduly interfere with future development by municipalities.

Commissioners Fiegen and Gary Hanson both also pointed to the challenges PUC staff faced in receiving responses to questions regarding the project.

Fiegen said she was concerned Navigator's lack of prompt response and objections to several staff questions and discovery attempts would raise issues with the company's willingness and ability to comply with applicable laws and rules in the future.

"They were not prompt, and they even struggled with administrative tasks of notifying landowners to routes and public input meetings," Fiegen said. "Two hundred and four landowners were not notified of the public input [meetings], and 92 of those landowners were not notified to the route."