North Dakota Negotiated Better Terms With Summit

Derrick Braaten. (Photo by Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – Landowners forced to participate in Summit Carbon Solutions’ planned carbon dioxide storage project in North Dakota are claiming the state received more favorable contract terms than private property owners were offered.

The state’s contract with Summit grants the company permission to store carbon dioxide under public lands and includes provisions for additional insurance and legal and environmental protections that were not granted to private landowners.

Some of these protections are similar to what private landowners asked for in a lease, but Summit wouldn’t negotiate their inclusion, attorney Derrick Braaten said.

“It’s sort of like salt in the wound, because we tried really hard to negotiate with them. They absolutely stonewalled us,” Braaten said. “These are very real and significant protections that were, to some extent, at the crux of what we were trying to negotiate.”