Summit Carbon Solutions announced a major milestone this week in its carbon capture, transportation, and storage project, securing agreements for more than half of the proposed pipeline route project wide. the company has now secured approximately 3,400 easement agreements totaling 1,030 miles across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.

Summit Carbon Solutions is partnering with dozens of ethanol plants across the Midwest to develop the largest carbon capture and storage project in the world. Through a multi-billion-dollar private investment, these partners will be able to sell their product in the growing number of markets that pay more for low carbon fuels. California, the largest ethanol consuming state, and Canada, the largest U.S. ethanol importer, have both adopted policies that incentivize the use of low carbon fuels. Access to these markets is essential to the long-term viability of the ethanol industry that today purchases approximately 40% of all the corn grown in the United States and remains a key driver of commodity prices and land values.

In addition to driving growth in the ethanol and agricultural industries, Summit Carbon Solutions will support local economies across the Midwest by investing an average of $45 million in each of the 82 counties where the project is located during construction, which are dollars that will flow back to hotels, restaurants, hardware stores and other local businesses to generate ongoing economic growth. After construction, according to a study by global accounting leader Ernst & Young, Summit Carbon Solutions will pay an average of $930,000 in new property taxes annually to every county where the project is located, helping communities support key local priorities such as schools, road construction, public safety, and more.