North Dakota Attorney General Says Legal Action Against South Dakota Pipeline Law Not an Option

North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley. (Photo by Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said Monday he does not see a legal option for suing the state of South Dakota over that state’s eminent domain law regarding carbon dioxide pipeline projects.

Wrigley had made comments on a Fargo-based radio station earlier this month that he felt a South Dakota law enacted earlier this year may infringe on interstate commerce and was researching possible legal action.

“Our conclusion has been that there is not, at this time, a legal avenue available to us,” Wrigley told the North Dakota Monitor on Monday.

Carbon pipelines have become a hot political topic in the two states in recent years as Iowa-based company Summit Carbon Solutions seeks to build a multi-state pipeline to capture carbon emission from ethanol plants. Summit plans a network of pipelines that would send the CO2 to an underground permanent storage area in western North Dakota.