Port: Demise of carbon capture project is nothing to celebrate

MINOT — The story of carbon pipelines in the year 2023 is one of rank protectionism and spite.

That was driving some political factions' jubilant reactions to the news that Navigator CO2 Solutions is canceling their carbon pipeline project. Navigator cited an expensive, uphill regulatory battle as their reason for withdrawing.

Reports indicate that the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, which has faced similar political headwinds, may well be delayed to 2026 as well.

Friends, this is not a good portent for the economic health of our region.

The Navigator and Summit projects were and are, respectively, aimed at the ethanol industry. Ethanol producers tell us, correctly, that global demand for their product is skewing toward a desire for less carbon-intensive production. They don't feel as though they can compete if they can't capture the carbon ethanol production produces.

They can't capture that carbon and transfer it to places where it can be stored without these pipelines.

Corn is, by far, America's largest crop. About 94.1 million acres of corn crops were planted this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, almost 13% more than soybeans, which was in second place. The USDA also tells us that about 40% of that production goes to ethanol.

I can hear objections in my ears as I write those words. Ethanol demand is a government construct, you'll tell me. A house of cards built on the back of subsidies.

You're not wrong, but it's also a reality. I can't unring that bell, and neither can you. A not small chunk of our regional economy is tied up in producing ethanol, for better or worse.

Ethanol represents the largest source of demand for America's largest cash crop, but ethanol producers are going to be at a competitive disadvantage because we can't build carbon pipelines thanks to a strange coalition of cranks, who think climate change is a hoax, and green industry protectionists, who are afraid carbon capture technology will make help energy sources like coal remain competitive and relevant.

Which is a point to keep in mind. These specific carbon pipeline projects would serve the ethanol industry, but the concept of capturing, transporting, and storing carbon is a much larger one.

North Dakota is a production state, be it energy or crops or manufactured goods. If the expectation in the national and global markets is that our production be carbon neutral, that's a reality we must contend with.

Our state has boomed, in recent years, thanks to resurgent oil and gas production, among other things. Our population is at historic highs. Opportunities in our state abound. But that doesn't mean we can afford to have spiteful, ideological opposition to new technology like carbon capture and storage.

Unless we want to go back to the bad old days, when our state's population was shrinking, and our communities were dying, and our children went elsewhere to find the opportunities North Dakota didn't have for them, then we have got to embrace carbon capture technology.

Don't let the paid-off flacks and Luddite curmudgeons tell you otherwise. Carbon capture is the technology on which our state's future hinges.