North Dakota Court to Hear Landowners, Burleigh County Appeal of PSC’s Summit CO2 Pipeline Permit on July 14
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 9, 2026
North Dakota Court to Hear Landowners, Burleigh County Appeal of PSC’s Summit CO2 Pipeline Permit on July 14
Court hearing will be live-streamed on YouTube
Bismarck, ND – North Dakota landowners facing eminent domain seizure of their property against their wishes for Summit Carbon’s proposed multi-state CO2 pipeline are scheduled to deliver oral arguments in Bismarck on July 14 in their appeal of the North Dakota Public Service Commission’s (PSC) approval of a permit for the project.
The consolidated appeal before a district court judge in the South Central Judicial District will also include arguments from Burleigh County, which is appealing the PSC’s permit approval as well.
The appellants are appealing certain findings of the PSC; the PSC’s ability to preempt local ordinances and regulations; and the PSC’s decision to keep confidential the findings of a study on the impacts of a potential pipeline rupture and how far the gas plume may travel. Summit Carbon and the PSC are opposing the appeal.
WHAT: Summit CO2 Pipeline North Dakota Permit Appeal Hearing
WHO: Appellants – North Dakota landowners, Burleigh County
WHEN: Tuesday, July 14, 2026, 1:30 p.m.
WHERE: (Attend in person): Burleigh County Courthouse, 514 E. Thayer Ave., Bismarck, ND 58501
VIEW LIVESTREAM: https://www.ndcourts.gov/court-locations/south-central
(YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKIUvjBir8uP5RZJ4yS1OEA)
“After five years of North Dakotans having their rights trampled on by an out-of-state corporation, we are hopeful that the court will agree with the arguments put forth by landowners and Burleigh County,” said Emma Schmit, Bold’s Pipeline Fighters Director. “Across the midwest, landowners and legislators have made it clear that we must protect our lands and legacies ahead of the private profits of the pipeline industry.”
The ND PSC Commissioners previously unanimously rejected Summit Carbon’s first attempt to obtain a CO2 pipeline permit in 2023, but ultimately approved a renewed permit application from Summit in November 2024. That permit decision by the ND PSC is being challenged at the July 14 hearing.
Summit also obtained a permit for planned CO2 injection wells from the North Dakota Industrial Commission in December 2024. But, after the citizens of South Dakota voted overwhelmingly to ban the use of eminent domain to seize landowners’ private property for CO2 pipelines, Summit was confronted with a “pipeline to nowhere,” as its plan was to pipe the CO2 through South Dakota into North Dakota.
Now, Summit says its new plan is to instead attempt to obtain a pipeline route directly across the entire state of Nebraska, to an alternate underground CO2 waste dump site in Wyoming. The company will also switch focus from offering ethanol plants a way to improve their “carbon scores,” to “enhanced oil recovery” as a potential use for the captured CO2 – erasing whatever climate benefits the company and its ethanol plant partners are claiming from the project, if the CO2 will instead be utilized to extract and burn more oil.
Bold’s Easement Teams in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota have been organizing landowner opposition to the Summit CO2 pipeline for years. The Easement Teams are helping fund attorneys who have represented landowners at agency hearings that resulted in pipeline permit rejections in North Dakota and South Dakota, and the most-contested project in the history at the Iowa Utilities Commission, where landowners with the Iowa Easement Team also continue to challenge Summit’s pipeline route approval in the courts.
About Bold’s Easement Action Teams:
The Easement Action Teams are a project of the Bold Education Fund. The EATs work with local communities to provide immediate legal representation to landowners facing pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Our first priority is to protect landowners’ property rights and water. We believe landowners should have the ultimate right of what does and does not happen on their land. We stand against the use of eminent domain for private gain. (https://easementteams.org) The first landowners legal co-op formed was the Nebraska Easement Action Team, which successfully organized landowners to fight the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, and currently works with landowners fighting carbon pipelines in the state. (https://neeasement.org)
About Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub:
The Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub, a project of the Bold Education Fund, provides technical, legal, story telling and organizing assistance to any community fighting pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, with the goal of protecting the land and water. (https://pipelinefighters.org)
About Bold:
The Bold Alliance and Bold Education Fund are coordinating state-based groups with our Pipeline Fighters Hub and landowner legal groups called the Easement Action Teams to stop pipelines from using eminent domain for private gain. (https://boldalliance.org)
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