Incumbent Republican Legislators Suffer Losses as Pipelines and Property Rights Surge to the Fore

June 07, 2024

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by John Hult, Joshua Haiar and Seth Tupper (South Dakota Searchlight) At least 14 Republican legislators lost their races against fellow Republicans on Tuesday in the 2024 primary election, with a controversial carbon dioxide pipeline among the top wedge issues to emerge.

Voters also ousted two of the state’s Native American lawmakers (a mother and son), and brought back a Republican who served as speaker of the House until two years ago.

Some of the victors leaned heavily on their opposition to Summit Carbon Solutions’ carbon capture pipeline, a multibillion-dollar project that would collect CO2 from ethanol producers in South Dakota and other states and move it through an underground pipeline for sequestration in North Dakota.

The project has caused more than two years of legal and legislative wrangling over landowner rights and eminent domain, the legal maneuver through which a company can seize property for projects in the public interest.

Some of the losing incumbents endorsed Senate Bill 201’s “Landowner Bill of Rights,” a compromise bill adopted last winter that’s aimed at boosting landowner protections while maintaining a path for the pipeline project. Ethanol boosters have argued that carbon sequestration – and the tax incentives that would make it profitable – is critical to the corn-based fuel’s future in South Dakota. Project opponents are seeking to refer the new law to a public vote in November.

There were 44 Republican legislative primary races Tuesday and only one Democratic primary race. Winners advance to the Nov. 5 general election. One top finisher from each party advances in Senate primaries, and two top finishers from each party advance in House primaries (except for “split” House districts, where only one from each party advances). Residents of each district are ultimately served by two representatives and one senator.

Statewide voter turnout was 17%, according to the Secretary of State’s Office, which ranks low compared to past primary elections.

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Sen. Erin Tobin, R-Winner, fell by 48 votes (which is within the possible recount margin) to a political newcomer from Bonesteel named Mykala Voita, who campaigned on the primacy of landowner rights.

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Rep. Byron Callies, R-Watertown, lost by 21 votes (pending a possible recount) to a Hayti doctor named Josephine Garcia, who spoke out against carbon pipelines and the Landowner Bill of Rights. Also winning a seat in the district was the top vote-getter, former Watertown City Attorney Matt Roby.

All results from Tuesday’s primary are unofficial until the election is canvassed.

Callies pondering recount

Callies’ narrow loss could end up in a recount should he choose to ask for one, but he said Tuesday night that he hadn’t made up his mind.

“Typically, the counting machines are pretty accurate,” said Callies, who was targeted by mailers in recent weeks over his votes on education funding and the Landowner Bill of Rights. “If the voters have spoken the way it’s indicated so far, I was pleased and proud to serve South Dakota.”

Roby said he escaped being targeted by the kind of attack mailers used against Callies because Roby hasn’t cast any legislative votes. He supports the Landowner Bill of Rights and said he values compromise.

“I managed to steer clear of that shrapnel,” Roby said. “Hopefully that’s not evidence that that stuff works.”

Garcia had the support of South Dakota Right to Life PAC and Liberty Tree PAC, both of which backed anti-pipeline candidates. Garcia said she ran a positive campaign. The only mailers she authorized were the ones from her own campaign, which reported less than $9,000 in income in the pre-primary campaign finance disclosure. She said she wasn’t involved in mailers decrying Callies’ pipeline vote.

“I ran a poverty campaign,” Garcia said. “I had very minimal funding over the past six to eight weeks. I had not been preparing, like the others, for over a year. It wasn’t about the money. It was about the people.”

When asked how important the pipeline debate was in the District 5 race, she said “tremendously important.”

If Callies chooses not to do a recount, Roby and Garcia will face Democrats Amy D. Rambow and Diane M. Drake in the general election. READ MORE

Related articles

A potential Trump VP pick backs a controversial CO2 pipeline favored by the Biden White House (Associated Press)
Sustainable jet fuel company contributes $167K in defense of carbon pipeline law (South Dakota Searchlight)
Petitions filed to refer carbon pipeline law to ballot; Summit plans to reapply for SD permit (South Dakota Searchlight)
Company behind proposed Lake Preston jet fuel plant buoyed by federal carbon credit ruling -- Gevo says 2024 carbon intensity model a nod to value of ‘climate smart’ agriculture (South Dakota Searchlight)
Biofuel groups envision ethanol-powered jets -- But fueling the effort has not been easy (AgriNews)

Excerpt from Associated Press: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is one of Donald Trump’s most visible and vocal backers, sprinting around the country to drum up support for the former president’s comeback bid while auditioning to be his running mate.

Far from the glare of the campaign trail, however, Burgum is wrestling with a mammoth carbon dioxide pipeline project in his home state. The $5.5 billion venture has split North Dakota and left him straddling an awkward political divide as Trump and President Joe Biden offer voters starkly different visions about how to deal with climate change.

A Republican little known outside North Dakota, Burgum is a serious contender to be Trump’s vice-presidential choice. The two-term governor has stood out in the narrowing field of choices due to his executive experience and business savvy. And Burgum has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs whose money Trump wants to help bankroll his third run for the White House.

Burgum is championing the pipeline project, which would gather planet-warming CO2 from ethanol plants across the Midwest and deposit the gas a mile underground. The pipeline aligns with Biden’s push to tackle global climate change, a position that could put him at odds with Trump.

In backing the pipeline, Burgum is navigating the tricky issue of land ownership in deep-red North Dakota and the politics of climate change inside the GOP.

While Burgum has outlined plans to make North Dakota carbon neutral by 2030, he’s steered clear of describing the pipeline or other carbon capture initiatives as environmentally friendly. Instead, he touts them as a lucrative business opportunity for North Dakota that might ultimately assist the fossil fuel industry.

“This has nothing to do with climate change,” Burgum said in early March on a North Dakota radio program. “This has to do with markets.”

The pipeline

The CO2 pipeline, known as the Midwest Carbon Express, is financed by hundreds of investors and will be built by Summit Carbon Solutions of Ames, Iowa. The 2,500-mile pipeline route snakes through Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota before ending in west central North Dakota, where up to 18 million metric tons of CO2 would be entombed each year in underground rock formations.

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The North Dakota Industrial Commission, which Burgum chairs, is expected to decide in the coming months whether to approve Summit’s application for a permit to store all the CO2 it collects. Regulators in nearby states are also weighing approval of the pipeline.

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The company said it has no plans to use CO2 in oil drilling, which is known as enhanced oil recovery, or EOR. But a carbon dioxide storage permit application drafted by Summit appears to leave open the potential for the CO2 to be used for that purpose.

“Our business model is for 100% sequestration,” the company said in an emailed response to questions. “No customers have ever approached us to move their CO2 for EOR.”

For several environmental and public interest groups, providing tax credits for more climate-polluting oil is a handout to oil drillers that upends the goal of weaning corporations and consumers off fossil fuels.

“It’s just not the right answer,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. “You’re incentivizing the extension of the use of fossil fuels for many more years or decades to come.”

Burgum’s office declined a request to interview the governor for this story. He has hailed his state’s underground CO2 storage capacity as a “geologic jackpot.” North Dakota, according to Burgum, has the capacity to store 250 billion tons of carbon dioxide underground.

That message has been amplified by North Dakota’s mineral resources department, which has estimated CO2 can help extract billions more barrels of oil from the rich Bakken shale formation. The Bakken is a 200,000-square-mile deposit that spans North Dakota, Montana and southern Canada.

Pipeline blowback

In North Dakota, the blowback to the Summit project has been intense, with Burgum caught in the crossfire.

There are fears a pipeline rupture would unleash a lethal cloud of CO2. In 2020, a pipeline carrying compressed carbon dioxide ruptured in Satartia, Mississippi. At least 45 people required hospital treatment and 200 more had to be evacuated from the area, according to the federal agency that oversees pipeline safety.

Summit said the CO2 line in Mississippi may have contained high amounts of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas. Its system will transport nearly pure carbon dioxide, the company said, and any hydrogen sulfide or other elements in the stream “will not be considered impactful.”

Landowners also worry their property values will plummet if the pipeline passes under their property. And they’re outraged over what they allege are hardball tactics employed by Summit to secure easements for the project.

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Burgum has largely avoided the dicey subject of eminent domain. If landowners don’t want the pipeline on their property, he’s said, the route can be shifted, and someone else can get the “big check.”

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Summit said it has signed easement deals with landowners along 82% of the pipeline’s route in North Dakota and obtained 92% of the lease agreements needed at the storage site. The company added that the project also is supported by state lawmakers and emergency managers.

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Gaylen Dewing, who has worked as a farmer and rancher near Bismarck for more than 50 years, criticized Burgum for what he sees as the governor’s tilt to the left. Burgum’s embrace of carbon neutrality has put the governor in cahoots with the “Green New Deal people,” he said.

Concerns over Summit’s project in North Dakota’s second most populous county, Burleigh, led the county commission to approve an ordinance restricting the pipeline from running too close to residential areas, churches and schools.

Not a climate warrior

When he’s out stumping for Trump, Burgum doesn’t sound at all like a climate warrior.

Speaking at the North Carolina Republican Party Convention last month, Burgum accused the Biden administration of trying to shut down the oil and gas industries and declared that Trump would reverse the federal rules and mandates that he said are stifling energy companies.

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Oil and gas interests have already donated nearly $8 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, according to the political money website Open Secrets.

Burgum, with his close ties to his state’s dominant industry, is the type of running mate who could help boost such donations.

If Burgum is not selected to be the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee and does not take a job in a second Trump administration, he can always return to North Dakota to finish out his last term, with key decisions looming for the pipeline. READ MORE

Excerpt from South Dakota Searchlight: Disclosure was made on the day of the June primary election --

A company aiming to produce aviation fuel from ethanol in South Dakota has contributed $167,000 to defend a new carbon dioxide pipeline law that voters could be asked to reject in November.

The company, Gevo, made the contribution to a ballot question committee called Protect South Dakota’s Ag Future. The contribution was not affected by any limits, because there are no limits on contributions to ballot question committees in South Dakota.

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The chairman of Protect South Dakota’s Ag Future is Walt Bones, who formerly served as South Dakota’s secretary of agriculture. He did not specifically address the allegation but did describe the sequence of events affecting the timing of the contribution’s disclosure.

Bones said Gevo authorized the contribution on May 13, but the money had not reached the committee by the time of its required May 20 pre-primary campaign finance report. So that report showed no contributions. After the contribution arrived on June 3, the committee disclosed it in a supplemental campaign finance report filed on June 4, the day of the primary election.

Bones said the money is being used to inform voters about the importance of a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline and the benefits of the new pipeline law. Public records on file with the Federal Communications Commission show the effort has included television advertising.

“This committee is about more than just the pipeline. That’s just part of it,” he said. “We see this whole debate as a threat to all value-added agriculture going forward.”

Kent Hartwig is the treasurer of Protect South Dakota’s Ag Future and director of state government affairs for Colorado-based Gevo, which wants to build its Net-Zero 1 sustainable aviation fuel plant at Lake Preston. The plant would contribute carbon dioxide to a pipeline proposed by another company, Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions. Hartwig said Gevo wants to educate South Dakotans about the pipeline’s importance to the future of the farm economy.

“In addition to our work bringing people together, Gevo has invested dollars in trying to get the message out to ensure South Dakota’s agriculture industry remains competitive and open to opportunities,” he said in a statement to South Dakota Searchlight.

The Legislature and Gov. Kristi Noem adopted the new pipeline law last winter. It includes protections for landowners and local governments. It also preserves a path toward regulatory approval for Summit and its proposed $8.5 billion pipeline.

The pipeline would capture carbon dioxide from the aviation fuel plant and dozens of existing Midwestern ethanol plants, and transport the carbon to an underground storage site in North Dakota. Federal tax credits available for the project are intended to incentivize the removal of heat-trapping carbon from the atmosphere. Critics have pointed out that the sequestration site is near oilfields, and carbon dioxide can be injected into aging oil wells to make them more productive. READ MORE