(Bloomberg) -- The head of a more than $8 billion proposed carbon pipeline that has seen numerous delays amid landowner resistance had a request this week for corn ethanol officials counting on the project: “Pray for us.”
Lee Blank, Summit Carbon Solutions chief executive officer, was referring to 23 public meetings starting next week in Iowa as the company once again works to win over landowners across the US Corn Belt. The roughly 2,500-mile pipeline to trap and capture carbon emissions from US biofuel plants was originally expected to start operating this year, but that has been pushed to as late as 2027 amid regulatory hurdles and opposition.
In June, Iowa approved Summit’s pipeline plan, pending some changes and permissions from the other affected farm states. Summit also needs Iowa permits after adding top US ethanol plant owners to the route.
“Not everyone there is all that happy to think about a project coming across their particular property,” Blank said Thursday at an ethanol conference in Nebraska, one of the five states the pipeline is planning to run through.
Farmer opposition in South Dakota, which rejected the pipeline last year, also remains a top challenge. Blank previously said Summit planned to reapply for approval in July. The company now hopes to “very soon,” he said on Thursday.
Blank said he met last week with landowners in the state who “simply don’t like us.” The company, which has said it can’t do the project without South Dakota, will move the route if it goes through the property of an opponent.
The CEO said it’s endless work, but also the approach is “how we win.”
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