BISMARCK, N.D. (KXNET) — The City of Bismarck is attempting to lawyer up as many landowners and citizens are worried about the CO2 pipeline project. 

But there are others that are for the pipeline.

KX News sat down with State Senator David Hogue, who says he not only supports pipelines in general but thinks they’re necessary.

“As a State Senate leader, I look at the big picture and what is best for all of North Dakota, not any particular individual or industry. If I do that, I know that we all support interstate highways. We need interstate highways even though public land has to be taken for those interstate highways. You can’t move goods conveniently if you don’t have interstate highways that are well-constructed and maintained. We need interstate transmission lines because we generate a lot of electricity in that state. It is one of the products that we produce well, but we need to sell our excess electricity out of state. So we need transmission lines. We also need interstate pipelines and interstate pipelines are an efficient and safe way to move liquids and gas across the United States,” said Hogue. 

Hogue says we have more than 300,000 miles of interstate pipelines that move hazardous materials.

And, he says they don’t take ownership away from landowners.

“For the most part, it’s not like an electrical transmission line that farmers have to farm around. It’s not like a highway system that takes away their land. It’s below ground and it’s a safe, reliable way to move liquids,” said Hogue. 

Hogue shares that major industries are advancing and developing, and we need to have the infrastructure in place to support it.