ONIDA, S.D.(DRGNews)- Officials with Summit Carbon Solutions and the Ringneck Energy ethanol plant at Onida invited media, legislators and various other folks to take a tour Tuesday in an effort to provide more information about the carbon capture pipeline Summit is proposing to build.

Summit’s storage project would connect 32 ethanol biorefineries across five states in the upper Midwest– Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. Ringneck is one of the plants that have signed on to the project.

Walt Wendland is the President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Ringneck Energy. He says allowing the carbon emitted by the plant to be captured will make an efficient plant even more environmentally friendly.

Wendland says low carbon fuel is becoming a requirement in some parts of the country– and world.

Summit Chief Executive Officer Lee Blank says Ringneck Energy and the 31 other plants that have agreed to participate play a “very important role to the partnership.”

Blank says the ground in North Dakota makes it an idea place to store carbon.

Blank says Summit’s proposed project will cut the carbon footprint of partner ethanol plants in half, which will help ensure the long term environmental and economic sustainability of the facilities. Blank says so far, 45% of the landowners along their proposed route have voluntarily agreed to easements.