Hyperion Refining sent out a press release late Wednesday boasting it would be the first  North American oil refinery to use thermal oxidizers to burn off what it called the “small amount of vapors” coming from storage tanks of liquids such as crude oil and gasoline, rather than let them ooze into the air and contribute to its planned refinery’s emissions.

To the company’s credit, it does note that that use of the thermal oxidizers were not in its initial preconstruction air quality permit application, but were added later as a condition of receiving that key permit from the state DENR’s Board of Minerals and the Environment, something it accomplished earlier this month after a final hearing before that board in Pierre.  Read the rest of this entry »

YUMA, ARIZ. — Hyperion Refining watchers might be interested to know that the oil refinery/energy center the Texas company is planning for Union County may not be the first from-scratch refinery to be built in the United States in more than 30 years, as is oft recited.

Arizona Clean Fuels CEO Glenn McGinnis said Friday that his company is filling in some specifics and wrapping up negotiations with “several investors” to build a refinery near Yuma, Ariz. That project could break ground as soon as late next year, McGinnis said. Read the rest of this entry »

Several opponents of the proposed Hyperion Refinery seem to be mentioning frequently the fact that the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources allowed Hyperion to use air quality data for Sioux Falls when figuring the composite amount of pollution the refinery’s emissions would mean for the air in Southeastern South Dakota.

They argue that Sioux City is twice as close to the site just north of Elk Point, S.D., as is Sioux Falls. And, and since the atomoshpere doesn’t respect state lines, it is Sioux City’s (much dirtier) air quality that should be included in the formula. The total projected pollution would likely prohibit construction of the refinery here, they say, due to federal limits.

Read the rest of this entry »

 So here it is, the paragraph correcting my error in Sunday’s preview of what is anticipated to happen this week at the contested case hearing on Hyperion Refining’s preconstruction air quality air permit application. The hearing is set to re-convene Tuesday in Pierre before the DENR’s Board of Minerals and Environment. That’s the board that will grant, or not grant, the required permit for the proposed oil refinery/energy center:The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources has not made changes to the air-quality permit being sought by Hyperion Refining since the start of a contested case hearing in May and did not meet with a Hyperion consultant earlier this month. The meeting took place June 14-15, 2008. A story headlned “Battle Over Hyperion Air Permit to Resume” on Page A1 of the Journal’s June 21 edition contained incorrect information. Read the rest of this entry »

DAKOTA DUNES — The Dakota Valley Business Council sent out a message Monday urging its members to voice their support for the $10 billion, 400,000-barrel-per-day when the state South Dakota Department Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Board of Minerals and Enviornment holds public comment meetings Wednesday and Thursday in Elk Point, S.D.

The DVBC took that stand about a year ago and spoke in support of the project before the public hearings on rezoning the 3,292 acres for the project held by the county zoning board and board of county commissioners.

DVBC President Greg Miner said in a statement that the business council wants its members to voice support for the project and to ask the DENR “to objectively evalutate the Hyperion Air Quality Permit and act on it without delay.”

Following the two days of public comment in Elk Point and a tour of the proposed site about seven miles north of there, the BME will hold a trial-like contested case hearing on the air quality permit over two weeks, one each in May and June, in Pierre. There’s no telling how long the board will review the evidence and application before ruling on it.

Hyperion needs the permit before the project can proceed.

PIERRE, S.D. — The South Dakota DENR has answered two of the outstanding questions regarding the public comment meetings scheduled for April 15-16 in Elk Point by its Board of Minerals and Environment.

Sara Raeburn, spokeswoman for the South Dakota Attorney General’s office, said the board will not announce the format of its public comment sessions or whether it will limit the time alotted to each speaker until the actual event.

Raeburn also said that a transcript of the public comments will be prepared. It will become part of the hearing record and will be considered by the Board.

The answers are coming through the attorney general’s office rather than the DENR because of the contested hearing status of the legal action on Hyperion Refining’s air quality permit. All the information on the issue must come through the attorney general’s office. At least that’s the case when it’s reporters who are asking for it.

Hyperion vice president Preston Phillips, who spent time at the company’s Elk Point office last week and will be there again this week, said Hyperion has also been calling supporters, asking them to express their views at the meeting.

Read the full story here.

To hear a two-part exclusive Journal interview, use the audio players below:

 

 Pt. 1: Preston Phillips interview [9:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Pt. 2: Preston Phillips interview [4:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Unless the Canadian government steps forward to provide more infrastructure assistance, an opportunity to expand Alberta’s oil sands industry and create hundreds of high-paying jobs will almost certainly be lost foreover, a report released this week said, “Future of oil sands depends on government intervention”

The Alberta Federation of Labour commissioned the report, dubbed “Lost Down the Pipeline,”  which found that despite the global recession, energy companies are proceeding with aggressive plans to dramatically expand U.S.-based refining capacity, and American-bound pipeline capacity. 

In its report, the AFL listed U.S. refiners planning to tap into Alberta’s vast oil sands reserves, including Hyperion Refining, which proposes to build a 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Union County, S.D.  The Texas-based firm is in the midst of applying for an air permit from South Dakota regulators.

“What our research shows is that American refineries will have the capacity to process all of the expected increase in oil sands output from Alberta,”  AFL president Gil McGowan said. “As a result, unless the Stelmach government steps in much more aggressively than it has, the raft of upgrader postponements we’ve seen here in Alberta will almost certainly turn into permanent cancellations. We’ll be losing literally thousands of jobs down the pipeline.”

Unless the Canadian government steps forward to provide more infrastructure assistance, an opportunity to expand Alberta’s oil sands industry and create hundreds of high-paying jobs will most certainly be lost foreover, a report released this week said, “Future of oil sands depends on government intervention”

The Alberta Federation of Labour commissioned the report, dubbed “Lost Down the Pipeline,”  which found that despite the global recession, energy companies are proceeding with aggressive plans to dramatically expand U.S.-based refining capacity, and American-bound pipeline capacity. 

In its report, the AFL listed U.S. refiners planning to tap into Alberta’s vast oil sands reserves, including Hyperion Refining, which hopes to build a 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Union County, S.D. 

“What our research shows is that American refineries will have the capacity to process all of the expected increase in oil sands output from Alberta,”  AFL president Gil McGowan said. “As a result, unless the Stelmach government steps in much more aggressively than it has, the raft of upgrader postponements we’ve seen here in Alberta will almost certainly turn into permanent cancellations. We’ll be losing literally thousands of jobs down the pipeline.”

KSFY-TV out of Sioux Falls devoted a recent story to pinning down whether South Dakota is really the site for Hyperion Refining’s proposed $10 billion, 400,000 barrel-per-day, oil refinery and energy center. There’s not much new here. The Journal has long reported the same sort of thing and nothing’s changed. Hyperion has said southern Union County in South Dakota is the place, if it can get the pre-construction air permit it needs from the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It supposedly continues to pursue other potential sites, possibly including one in northeast Kansas. That parcel is reportedly vast, but belongs to a single owner, making it much easier to keep under wraps than our local Gorilla proved to be. The company’s site search is either very stealthy or has slowed/stopped, pending the nailing down of the project’s status in South Dakota.