BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota utility regulators granted approval on Friday for a span of a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would cross five Midwestern states — a key victory for the company that has faced vociferous landowner objections and various hurdles and setbacks in its plans.

The state Public Service Commission voted unanimously to approve a siting permit for Summit Carbon Solutions’ modified, 333-mile route in North Dakota. The company’s proposed $8 billion, 2,500-mile pipeline system would carry tons of planet-warming CO2 emissions from 57 ethanol plants in five states for storage deep underground in North Dakota.

No construction has begun anywhere on Summit’s proposed route. Iowa has approved the project, but other hurdles remain in North Dakota as well as South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebaska.

The approval is a win for the company after North Dakota initially denied a permit in 2023, shortly followed by rejection in South Dakota. Another company, Navigator CO2 Ventures, canceled its project around the same time due to the “unpredictable nature of the regulatory and government processes involved, particularly in South Dakota and Iowa.”

Supporters cheer carbon capture projects as a way to combat climate change, with lucrative federal tax credits available for such efforts. The ethanol industry sees Summit’s project opening up sustainable aviation fuel markets, a boost for ethanol and No. 1 corn producer Iowa.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, now President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Interior Secretary, a position with wide influence over natural resources, has touted his state’s underground CO2 storage potential as a “geologic jackpot.” Carbon-capture skeptics say the technology is untested at scale and allows the fossil-fuel industry to continue largely unchanged.