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.

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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.

The beginning of either a potential end of Hyperion’s refinery project — or its acceleration — is finally at hand. We’re less than a month from the business meeting and public hearing set for April 15 and 16 in Elk Point, S.D. by the South Dakota Department of Natural Resources’ Board of Minerals and Environment.

The board will meet both days at the Elk Point-Jefferson High School, 402 Douglas St., in Elk Point. The public hearing will precede the more technical contested case hearing on the project’s required pre-construction air quality permit, without which the company won’t put so much as a shovel in the ground.

For now, here’s the proposed agenda for the local, public hearing, which includes board business besides Hyperion Refining – it could change:

* 10 a.m. Start time on Wednesday, April 15

* Roll call

* Minutes

* Mining issues

*Oil & Gas contested case

* Hyperion motions hearing and prehearing conference

* Lunch break

* 1:15 p.m. — site tour, BME, staff, representatives of the parties. Public can trail along but not participate

* 3 p.m. – Begin the public comment portion of the meeting

* 5 p.m. — Adjourn for dinner

* 7 p.m. — Reconvene for public comment

* 9 p.m. — Adjourn

Thursday, April 16

* Reconvene for public comment

* Continue as needed but no later than 5 p.m.

The more definitive contested case hearing on the air quality permit is set for May 19-22 and June 23-26, in Pierre.

It will examine the specifics of the pre-construction air quality permit, which Hyperion must have in order to begin construction of the 400,000 barrel per day oil refinery it is proposing for southern Union County. The contested hearing is a legal proceeding; all parties must be represented by an attorney.The dates may only be changed for only by the hearing chairman and only for “good cause,” according to the DENR. The Journal will keep you posted.

It will examine the specifics of the pre-construction air quality permit, which Hyperion must have in order to begin construction of the 400,000 barrels per day oil refinery it is proposing for southern Union County. The contested hearing is a legal proceeding; all parties must be represented by an attorney.The dates may only be changed for only by the hearing chairman and only for “good cause,” according to the DENR. The Journal will keep you posted. 

Refinery opponent Doug Maurstad said this week he’s taking a break from the fight.

“I’m burned out,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Been on this subject for over two years and I’m convinced it will never happen, and if it does, I can’t control it anyway.”

Maurstad said he regretted that his argument was reaching such a small audience, but remained philosophical. “This refinery is never going to happen,” he wrote, “and look how many lives are in turmoil because of it.”

He said the Journal should continue to ask where the oil is coming from – he doesn’t think the Alberta tar sands are a viable source; how refinery products will leave the refinery, and the literal money question – where is the $10 billion coming from.

For now,  Hyperion is sticking with the tar sands and has said it will both pipe and truck out finished products. As for financing, if any is in place the company is not revealing its source. The fact is, that none of those answers will matter if the company can’t get the pre-construction air quality permit it needs to move ahead on the project. It doesn’t make sense to pour more money into pipeline development or rights of way or preconstruction activity until that permit is locked in.

So, is Maurstad mistaking this lull — at least in what the public sees – as the project’s demise? Or is it the calm before the flurry of preparations to build?

YUMA, Ariz. — Arizona Clean Fuels appears to be on track to be the first company to build an oil refinery from scratch in 32 years. If it is successful, Hyperion Refining, the Texas company proposing to build a $10 billion, 400,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery in southern Union County, S. D., would have to let go of its own aspiration to be the first.

“We’re very close to finishing our financing,” Clean Fuels Vice president David Treanor, told me recently. “We hope to wrap things up in the next month then move forward with construction in the second quarter of `09.”

The project got started in 1999, so that would make it a 10-year journey from start to shovel in the the ground. Hyperion’s work, at least what the public is aware of, looking back, started sometime in 2006. (more…)

James Heisinger, chairman of both the Living River Group and South Dakota chapters of the Sierra Club, sent out a press release this morning commenting on a couple letters from federal agencies that found a number of shortcomings in Hyperion Refining’s draft air quality permit and the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ handling of it. Its content is no surprise. A story detailing the lengthy (more…)

Outspoken Hyperion opponent Doug Maurstad of Alcester, S.D.  raised a common concern about Hyperion Refining in a conversation with this reporter this morning. It’s one that opponent Burdette Hanson brought up Thursday night in his remarks at the meeting of the Clay Rural Water System Board. Money.

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The $10 billion Hyperion Energy Center has competition in its bid to become the first all-new U.S. oil refinery in more than 30 years.

A 150,000-barrel-per-day refinery planned for near Yuma (Ariz.) gained a key victory this week, as the Yuma Sun reports, ”Refinery moves closer to reality.”

As we have reported previously, the Arizona Clean Fuels project has been beset by a series of problems since it was first proposed in the late 1980s. Plans now call for construction on the $3 billion refinery to begin in 2009, with the refinery up and running by 2012.

That schedule would be about a year or so ahead of the proposed 400,000-barrel-per-day Hyperion refinery, which would be built on a rural Union County site just north of Elk Point. C

Texas-based Hyperion is currently in the process of applying for its air quality permit from the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

In print and online today, Land near refinery site goes on sale, I reported on three tracts of mostly ag land in southeast Union County, totaling 675 acres, being put on the market for $71,874 per acre. The biggest selling point: the property’s close proximity to the site of the proposed Hyperion Energy Center.

The three tracts up for sale are owned by Paradigm Business Park LLC, a local investment group, looking to capitalize on energy-related support businesses that likely would sprout up if Hyperion eventually builds its $10 billion oil refinery and power plant on a 3,292-acre site just north of Elk Point.

Lloyd Companies, a Sioux Falls-based real estate firm, recently put up large signs on the highly-visible property, located at the intersection of Interstate 29 and South Dakota Highway 50.

To view the Lloyd Companies’ brochure of the parcels, open the attached pdf.

golden_land_near_hyperion.pdf

Today’s story about Hyperion Refining’s over estimating the emissions from its proposed IGCC – a gasification plant that would burn petroleum coke, a byproduct of oil refining, to produce electricity to power the refinery –  points to one reason the permitting process takes so long.  It’s complicated.

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