North Dakota is appealing court orders requiring the state to reimburse landowners about $707,000 in two challenges to its underground carbon-storage law.
The North Dakota Monitor reports South Central Judicial District Judge Jackson Lofgren awarded about $429,000 to landowners who successfully challenged state permits issued for Summit Carbon Solutions. Northeast Judicial District Judge Anthony Swain Benson awarded another $278,000 to the Northwest Landowners Association and North Dakota Farm Bureau in a separate challenge to the same law.
Both judges found the law unconstitutional because it allowed the North Dakota Industrial Commission to approve the use of privately owned pore space for underground carbon dioxide storage without guaranteeing compensation determined by a jury. Pore space refers to small openings within underground rock formations.
The North Dakota Attorney General’s Office says it will challenge the fee awards as part of broader appeals now before the state Supreme Court. The fee awards would also be reversed if the Supreme Court overturns the lower-court decisions.
Including approximately $266,000 awarded in an earlier, related pore-space case, North Dakota could be responsible for nearly $975,000 in legal fees and costs.
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