Summit Carbon Solutions’ massive carbon dioxide pipeline proposal would need to be reassessed if the United States repeals tax credits for carbon capture and storage, a company attorney said.
Summit intends to capture carbon dioxide from 57 ethanol plants across the Midwest and transport it along a pipeline more than 2,000 miles long to North Dakota to be stored underground, in what would be the world’s largest project of its kind.
The proposal relies on the 45Q tax credit program, which was expanded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, offering $85 per metric ton of sequestered carbon. However, President-elect Donald Trump has promised to rescind all unspent funds from the IRA, arguing that President Joe Biden’s landmark climate-change law is expensive and unnecessary.
Summit attorney Christina Brusven said at a hearing before the Minnesota Commission that the tax credit is important to the company’s business model and a repeal “would definitely cause a reassessment.”
The commission voted to permit a 28-mile segment of the pipeline in Minnesota, while Summit also received approval from North Dakota’s Industrial Commission to inject and store its captured carbon underground.
The project’s future could be uncertain if the tax credit is repealed, with Summit relying on the incentives to make the project financially viable.