more conspiracy

April 3rd 2008
Chapter 5: Conspiracy

Well folks, it’s time to shift into 3rd gear. I made a statement two weeks ago that all this refinery business in Union County was just a ruse and it was really going to be into Kansas. As you know it is turning out to be the other way around. This makes me wonder; could there another conspiracy?
I live conspiracies; it’s kind of like writing your own book, and this one could be a lulu. Think about the following facts and draw your own conclusions.
What I’m really trying to do is to get you to think about what is happening around here so when you hear strange things that people say, remember what could really be going on. When you read the newspapers, read between the lines and you might be surprised. It all connects together, one way or another.
Let’s try this on for size. Just last week Governor Rounds signed into law a means to make it easier for the DME railroad( which runs from Wyoming through Brookings through Rochester Minnesota to end up at a point in Illinois) to condemn land by using eminent domain. To make a long story short, this railroad is carrying “clean” coal to power plants in the Chicago area to burn to reduce the pollution in the area. This coal is supposed to have very little sulfur and is supposed to burn so clean that it has become the solution to pollution in the Chicago area. Now let’s talk about what he isn’t saying. DME can’t get across South Dakota to points east without eminent domain, so he made it easy for them. He might be saying DME, BUT, He is really setting precedence for Hyperion to take advantage of this eminent domain law.
There was talk about 2 years ago to reinforce the railroad running through Yankton, Vermillion, Burbank and Elk Point, so trains could carry heavier loads. One of the reasons for this was that someone (Hyperion) was buying land between Elk Point and Burbank. We didn’t know this was Hyperion, but someone was taking options on land between Elk Point and Burbank. They still hold these options, which is about 8-9 miles away from the refinery site. The rumor had it that the Wyoming coal was going to be dumped here to be stored for use in Illinois. This would be a relay station so that coal was always readily accessible to Chicago. This was the “clean” coal that was in such demand. Better yet, whoever this was that was buying the land was going to build a power plant like the one at Port Neal, only twice as big. The coal wasn’t going to be stored here; it was going to be used here. Hyperion is planning to build a coal fired power plant. There is part of your 10-12 million barrels a day of water for cooling.
Want a little trivia? Ever wonder why the towns in Union County and Southeast South Dakota are always 8 miles apart? That is how far a steam engine could travel before ran out of water and had to fill up with water to keep going.
If you look at the application for Hyperion, they can build anything they want and have the discretion to put it where they want. Their master plan calls for what is called an IGCC power plant, but this could just as easily be a coal plant. One of the reasons Hyperion pulled out of Kansas is that they attached a 1000 megawatt coal fired power plant in conjunction with the refinery application. The commissioners, the legislature and the Governor said “NO.” Hyperion found out in Kansas that they should have asked for it in the beginning by just saying they were going to build a power plant much as they are planning to do here. If they had done that and the commissioners were as smart as they are here, it would have been a slam dunk. I sent an email to the reporter that broke the story asking if there was a lot of secrecy involved in the Hyperion deal in Kansas. I got a response back from him that it was so secret that nobody knew anything about this until the story broke in the legislature. How’s that for being sneaky and underhanded.
Well, anyway, back to the eminent domain thing with the DME railroad. This deal sets a precedence for (Yup you guessed it) Hyperion to come in and say “Instead of an IGCC”, which we don’t know if it will really work, we will build a Coal Plant, and since you’ve already approved our planned development, there isn’t a damned thing you can do about it because that is what it says in the application. Section C: PERMITTED USES AND STRUCTURES (a) Refineries, power plants, and all related appurtenances and supporting infrastructure. So, back to Eminent Domain. They don’t need to do this yet because the railroad east and west already exists, they just need to reinforce it to handle many, many trains a day dumping the coal for the power plant down by the Missouri river. But what they do need is a rail spur from Spink to the connecting point with Sioux City via Richland and Elk Point. HA! Eminent Domain! And now we have the rail spur they needed for the oil cars. Is this great or what?
Now switch to the TransCanada Keystone pipeline. Governor Rounds said again that someone, not necessarily Keystone is going to lay 2 more pipelines in the trench. One, to serve Hyperion, and one spare. Here comes Eminent Domain again. We have to get the pipeline from Yankton to Spink, and Hyperion will just declare Eminent Domain and the deal is done. Neat, Huh? They can get the land through Gayville, Meckling, Vermillion and right into Spink. Now they have the means to get the pipeline out to the gas pumping storage areas. More Eminent Domain , right along side the rail spur. If ever this were the perfect opportunity to do this, it just fell into place.
When this whole mess started, I asked Hyperion: “You don’t have any way to get the oil in and how are you going to get the gas out. I guess they are starting to answer the questions. This would be less painful if they would just come out and tell us how they are going to do it. This way we can be pissed off all at once instead of being pissed a little at a time. That gal last week was right. We are stupid. S L A M D U N K ! ! !

Till next week
“All Aboard”

Doug