South Dakota’s highest-ranking state senator is not happy about a decision by the state’s Public Utilities Commission to deny a permit to Summit Carbon Solutions, and he let at least one of the state officials who stood in the way of the project hear about it.
Disclosures by the Public Utilities Commission made Thursday, Oct. 26 relating to the carbon sequestration pipeline company’s hearing last month before the PUC revealed correspondence between Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck and South Dakota Treasurer Josh Haeder that took a heated turn.
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In a series of text messages between the two on Sept. 14, three days after Summit’s route permit was unanimously rejected by the PUC, the Watertown Republican accused Haeder of being anti-ethanol and said that he was no longer a friend.
“U anti ethanol people need to be out of public office. Bad for South Dakota,” Schoenbeck wrote.
As the exchange continued, Schoenbeck texted Haeder, “Don’t call me friend. My friends have spines.”
Both Schoenbeck and Haeder declined to comment for this story when contacted by The Dakota Scout.
Landowner group calls on Schoenbeck to resign
Spink County landowner Ed Fischbach, a vocal opponent to the Summit pipeline, released a statement calling for Schoenbeck to resign.
“This is intimidation and totally unacceptable behavior from a sitting senator in a leadership position. Because of this, our landowner group is calling for Senator Schoenbeck to resign,” a statement released by Fischbach reads.
Haeder, who’s served as South Dakota treasurer since 2019, temporarily replaced Public Utilities Commissioner Kristi Fiegen on the commission during the Summit hearing due to her conflict of interest.
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Assuming the responsibilities of a commissioner, the second-term Republican was required, by law, to disclose all direct correspondence he’d received related to Summit’s pursuit of a route permit to pump carbon emitted from ethanol plants to underground storage in North Dakota.
That included the text messages Haeder received from Schoenbeck.
Scott Waltman of The Aberdeen Insider contributed to this report.