Summit Carbon Solutions, the Ames company seeking to build a $9 billion carbon capture pipeline across five states, including Iowa, has hired a new CEO who’s reaching out to landowners, saying his leadership represents a “fresh chapter” for the embattled company.
Summit said in an email Wednesday, Aug. 6, that CEO Joe Griffin brings almost 40 years of experience “delivering complex infrastructure projects” in the natural gas industry.
Before joining Summit, Griffin founded or led about a half-dozen energy companies over two decades, including Hiland Partners LP, a company owned by oil and gas billionaire Harold Hamm, who’s also an investor in Summit Carbon Solutions.
Griffin sent letters to Iowa landowners, both those with agreements to allow the Summit to use their property for the pipeline and those with whom the company is seeking terms. He told them the company is preparing to announce business plan updates that “will open new markets and create greater opportunities for the region.”
Griffin also told the landowners with whom Summit is seeking agreements they will receive revised right-of-way proposals “in the coming weeks that reflects our commitment to offering terms that better support landowners and their long-term interests.”
Summit didn’t elaborate on those plans Wednesday. It reiterated its contention that the pipeline, which would carry carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to a sequestration site, would enable the fuel they produce to be used to make sustainable aviation fuel and be sold in California and other markets that require low-carbon fuel.
Carbon capture and sequestration projects also qualify for lucrative federal tax credits.
Iowa is the No. 1 U.S. maker of ethanol, devoting about half its also nation-leading annual corn crop to producing the renewable fuel. But the pipeline proposal has run into heavy opposition, including a movement to stop Summit from using state-granted eminent domain powers to secure land from unwilling property owners.
South Dakota’s governor signed a ban into law in March. Iowa lawmakers also approved restrictions on using eminent domain, but Gov. Kim Reynolds vetoed the legislation in June. It remains a contentious issue among members of the GOP-dominated Legislature.
A Summit attorney acknowledged at a South Dakota regulatory meeting in April the company will have to provide richer easement offers to win over resistant landowners there. It also still needs to obtain a permit to build the pipeline in South Dakota, which has twice turned it down.
Reason for prior Summit CEO’s departure not given
Griffin replaces Lee Blank, a veteran agribusiness executive. Summit declined to comment Wednesday about Blank’s departure.
Its 2,500-mile pipeline across Nebraska and Minnesota as well as Iowa and South Dakota would capture carbon dioxide emissions from nearly 60 ethanol plants. The underground sequestration site is slated to be in North Dakota — if the pipeline can be built across South Dakota to reach it.
Opponents have vowed since its announcement in 2021 to stop the project, which has been plagued with concerns about safety, property rights and potential damage to farmland. Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf Carbon Solutions eventually dropped similar carbon capture pipeline projects.
“There is nothing that Summit can do or change to repair the bridges they have burnt over the last four years,” Jess Mazour, a spokesperson for the Sierra Club’s Iowa Chapter, said in a statement. “Iowans have made it loud and clear, we do not want carbon pipelines and we do not want our land stolen for Summit’s for-profit private project.”
In his introductory letter, Griffin said he’s driven by “being part of the hard work and real-life challenges that come with building something meaningful.”
“I’m the kind of person who’s not afraid to get out in the fields and help alongside the farmers, someone who understands that this project is about more than pipes and technology — it’s about people, land, and communities,” he said.
Most recently, Griffin’s served as the CEO and co-founder of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Intensity Infrastructure Partners, a company established in 2023 that develops and builds pipelines. He was CEO of Sendero Midstream Partners from about 2021 to 2022, when it was sold.
From 2015 to 2022, Griffin served as CEO and was co-founder at Intensity Midstream, which was part of a sale to Energy Transfer LP. From 2007 to 2015, he was the CEO and a board director at Hiland, Hamm’s company. It was sold Kinder Morgan Inc.
In 1989, he co-founded Lumen Midstream Co., holding senior management positions and serving as a director until it was sold to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in 2004. He continued working at the company until 2007, serving as executive vice president overseeing multiple aspects of the business.
Griffin received a Bachelor of Science degree from Oklahoma State University.
Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Summit hires new CEO, promises fresh chapter for embattled carbon capture pipeline project
Reporting by Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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