(AMES, IA) — Summit Carbon Solutions is significantly redrawing one of the most contested infrastructure projects in the Midwest, announcing this week that it will reroute its proposed carbon dioxide pipeline west through Nebraska to a new sequestration site in Wyoming — bypassing South Dakota entirely and shelving, for now, its plan to bury captured CO2 in North Dakota.
The Ames, Iowa-based company filed updated plans with the Iowa Utilities Commission on Wednesday that removes eight Iowa counties from the project, scales back mileage in four others, and drops more than 400 landowners from the project footprint. In total, the revised route cuts roughly 200 miles from the proposed pipeline.
Summit says the slimmed-down project will still connect 27 Iowa ethanol plants and remains, in the company’s words, “the largest single private infrastructure investment in Iowa history.”
What’s Changing in Iowa?
Summit will remove proposed pipeline routes entirely in Shelby, Pottawattamie, Montgomery, Adams, Page, Fremont, Mitchell and Worth counties, and reduce pipeline mileage in Crawford, Floyd, Sioux and Dickinson counties.
Four ethanol facilities will no longer be connected under the revised plan: Absolute Energy, POET Corning, POET Hanlontown and Green Plains Shenandoah.
“This allows us to focus on the core infrastructure that makes the most sense today and move through the process faster and more efficiently,” Summit Carbon Solutions said in a statement.
The company framed the move as a response to economic pressure on agriculture and a need to get ethanol producers into emerging low-carbon fuel markets, including sustainable aviation fuel.
Why the Route is Changing?
The bigger story is what’s happening outside Iowa.
Under Summit’s original plan, captured CO2 from ethanol plants in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota would have flowed north for underground storage near Bismarck, N.D. That plan ran into two walls.
In South Dakota, a property rights revolt led by affected landowners culminated last year in a state law banning the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines.
In North Dakota, two state judges have ruled that Summit’s underground storage permits — and the laws authorizing them — are unconstitutional. Appeals are headed to the state Supreme Court.
Experts say this move essentially takes South Dakota out of the picture while Summit says North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota all “remain important” and could return in future phases.
What’s Next for Ethanol — and the Project?
The pipeline is designed to capture CO2 from ethanol production and bury it underground, lowering ethanol’s carbon score and unlocking federal tax credits as well as access to low-carbon and sustainable aviation fuel markets. Summit is also evaluating enhanced oil recovery — pumping CO2 into oil wells to push more crude to the surface — as a complementary use.
Iowa lawmakers introduced several bills this session aimed at restricting eminent domain for carbon pipelines, but none passed both chambers. A similar measure reached the governor’s desk in 2025 but was not signed.
Summit says it will file updated maps and amended exhibits with the Iowa Utilities Commission in the coming weeks. Regulatory approval of the revised route is still required before construction can begin, and legal challenges tied to Iowa’s permitting process remain pending.
For roughly 400 Iowa landowners, the pipeline may now be off their property. For the broader Midwest fight over carbon pipelines, property rights and eminent domain, the next chapter is just opening — this time in Nebraska and Wyoming.
