Burgum Set to Decide on Massive Pipeline Project that’s Pitting His Rural Constituents against GOP Megadonors

by Allison Gordon and Casey Tolan (CNN) As Donald Trump is considering him for his vice-presidential pick, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum could play a deciding role in allowing a massive carbon dioxide pipeline project – backed by GOP megadonors who have given to Burgum and Trump’s campaigns – to seize property rights from rural landowners in his state.

Burgum’s vocal backing of the project so far is a sign of his transformation over the last decade, from a gubernatorial candidate who originally criticized the political influence of the energy industry, to one who’s used his close ties with oil executives, including a major investor in the pipeline project, to boost his vice-presidential prospects.

Critics say the project could have a detrimental environmental impact in North Dakota, and a group of landowners have strongly resisted the company’s plans to build a pipeline across or store carbon dioxide under their property. That’s put political pressure on Burgum, who’s part of a three-member state committee set to vote this fall on a permit that would pave the way for the project to use a form of eminent domain power.

As governor, Burgum has tried to play both sides of climate policy. In 2021, he set an ambitious goal for North Dakota to be carbon neutral by 2030, and he signed a bill in 2017 to create North Dakota’s first Department of Environmental Quality.

But as he’s stepped onto the national stage and ingratiated himself to Trump after dropping out of the Republican presidential primary, critics say Burgum has shifted to emphasize his support of oil.

A former tech executive who hails from North Dakota’s east, not the oil country in the state’s west, Burgum is an unlikely champion for the energy industry. When he first ran for governor in 2016 against the state’s then-attorney general, Burgum received virtually no donations from energy companies, and blasted his rival for taking money from an industry he was in charge of regulating.

Burgum quickly changed his tune after he won the GOP primary that year, accepting more than $100,000 in donations from the industry for his campaign and inaugural committee, the Associated Press reported at the time.

Summit Carbon Solutions, the company that plans to build 2,500 miles of pipeline across five states, has pitched it as a way to trap carbon dioxide from ethanol plants around the Midwest and store the gas deep underground in North Dakota, preventing the emissions from accelerating climate change. It would be the world’s largest carbon capture system, according to the company.

The project, known as the Midwest Carbon Express, is set to benefit from financial incentives for carbon capture included in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act – which Burgum and Trump have opposed. Summit could receive up to $1.5 billion annually in tax credits thanks to the law.

Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it seemed unlikely that Burgum would have to recuse himself from the pipeline decision based on the investors’ political donations or oil money the governor is receiving from Continental. But she said it could raise questions about whether Burgum is “so entangled with these individuals and their companies – from a political and financial perspective – that he really can’t serve the public interest.”

Summit’s pipeline project will likely depend on support from the North Dakota Industrial Commission, a three-person body chaired by Burgum that also includes two other Republican elected officials, the state Attorney General Drew Wrigley, and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring. The commission is expected to vote this fall on whether to grant Summit a permit for subsurface storage of carbon dioxide, which would allow it to use amalgamation, a form of eminent domain, to force property owners into a deal with the company.

So far, Burgum has avoided taking a stance on eminent domain, suggesting that if landowners don’t want to sign a deal with the company, Summit could convince their neighbors instead.

“I support private property rights,” he said at an Iowa event during his presidential campaign last year, in response to a question from a pipeline opponent. “Just say no, and they’ll move it to your neighbor and your neighbor can get the big check.”

His administration has also helped the project move forward, Forbes reported in 2022, including by petitioning the federal government to let the state oversee carbon dioxide injection wells. In 2019 – the same year that Summit began developing plans for the project – the state legislature passed a law allowing oil and gas operators to use the “pore space” beneath the land and preventing landowners from demanding they be compensated for it. The bill was strongly pushed by Burgum’s administration, said state Sen. Jeff Magrum, a conservative Republican who has clashed with Burgum and opposes the pipeline project. The state Supreme Court later struck down the law.

Summit’s proposal has created unlikely alliances in North Dakota politics, uniting left-wing and right-wing groups in opposition, with Burgum’s more business-minded wing of the GOP in support.

Environmental groups have raised alarms about safety and water concerns from the Summit project, and also suggested that the carbon dioxide could eventually be used for oil drilling in North Dakota’s Bakken Formation, where Hamm’s company has a significant presence – ultimately prolonging the life of a polluting energy source. Summit has said there are no plans for the carbon dioxide to be used for drilling, and its business model is based on sequestering the gas underground.

Conservatives, meanwhile, have focused on property rights. A majority of the state GOP convention voted for a resolution objecting to the use of eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines this spring, although the resolution failed to pass because it fell a few votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority.

In recent weeks, Summit has faced several highly contentious permit hearings, in which landowners in the rural central North Dakota counties where the company plans to lay pipelines and bury its carbon dioxide complained of feeling “bullied by billionaires.”

A Summit spokesperson declined to comment on the criticism the project has received or the company’s negotiation tactics. At the public hearings, company executives have emphasized its economic benefits and noted that they changed the proposed pipeline route in response to local concerns.

According to Summit, the company has already signed easements with landowners covering 83% of the pipeline route and leases covering 92% of the land area that would be used to store carbon dioxide. Supporters say it will be an economic driver for North Dakota and help reduce emissions across the Midwest. READ MORE