Just as the South Dakota’s Governor’s Office of 2009 foresaw the need for carbon dioxide pipelines to come under the purview of state regulators, so too did this year’s legislative body decide the same for hydrogen transmission.
House Bill 1034, a bill requiring hydrogen pipelines to be permitted by the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, was passed on a 27-5 vote by the South Dakota Senate on Wednesday.
HB 1034 now awaits Gov. Kristi Noem’s signature to be made law.
The legislation was largely uncontested in the House, as it received a unanimous “yea” vote from the Commerce and Energy Committee on Jan. 12 and a 66-3 vote from the chamber on Jan. 16.
But in the equivalent Senate committee, the bill had a narrower split, earning a successful 5-3 vote to send it to the chamber floor.
In 2009, South Dakota lawmakers passed House Bill 1129, which established the PUC’s authority over carbon dioxide pipelines 13 years before they ever received a formal permit to build such a transmission network.