Let's call a spade a spade

<$BlogMetaData$>Calling a Spade a Spade


The time has come to quit pussy footing around and tell it like it is. The state of South Dakota BME met in Pierre this week to make a final decision as to whether or not to grant an 18 month extension to Hyperion to begin construction on their oil refinery. After 4 days of testimony the BME decided to wait until September to render a decision.

The only flipping reason they are going to wait until September is because if they rendered their decision now construction would have to start in January of 2013. Who wants to begin construction in the coldest month of the year? If they wait until September then construction can begin in March of 2013.

Hyperion has no intention of building a refinery anyway. I have been saying for over 4 years that they have no skills, expertise, manpower or money to build a doghouse let alone a refinery. And to top it all off, Mr. Bob Graham who is the lead attorney from Jenner and Block in Chicago made a statement in the opening days proceedings that were nothing short of stunning.

One of the reasons Hyperion has not begun this process is to keep businesses that will have ancillary industries from hording. The pollutants from the refinery will affect other industries. They have given no assurance they will commence construction. They have not broken any ground. They have no onsite agreements. They have no construction schedule.

Now look at this from another perspective. If in fact they were serious about building a refinery, they have had 4 years to draw up contracts, draw blueprints, make arrangements for delivery of crude, and make plans for a rail line and line things up for a water permit. They would have made some kind of arrangements for a trucking company to haul oil. After all, they say there will be over 100 trucks a day in and out of the facility. And what have they done? NOTHING….

If you were looking at building a refinery would you hire Hyperion to do it for you? Not in a million years. In 4 years they have done nothing. Absolutely nothing moving towards a refinery. I get so tired of repeating myself, but now that BME is asking questions that I asked 4 years ago, maybe something is moving off of center.

What does this tell you? It tells me they have absolutely no intention of building a refinery. They are merely acting as a middleman for someone to buy them out and commence whatever. It doesn’t have to be a refinery, it could be anything. Hyperion will make out whichever way it goes. 149 acres of land in my township just went for $5100 an acre. If Hyperion had an auction tomorrow, they would make a little over $17 million dollars, and that is at $5100 an acre. I would surmise that land down there which is the richest ground in the state would easily go for $7000 - $8000 or even more.

Okay, we’ve beaten that horse to death, let’s look at a topic that is so sensitive that people in the county really get upset when you want to talk about it. I’m talking about the “flood” at Dakota Dunes. As of this week the dunes has spent somewhere around $7-8 million dollars on the levy system on the Missouri river. When the governor activated the National Guard it was supposedly to protect the infrastructure in the dunes. My ass. If this was done just to protect the infrastructure there would be more than 5 or 6 houses affected by the flood. I’m not even sure it is that many houses. Everything else is damaged by the groundwater level raising.

When FEMA came in and said they would not pay anything to rebuild damaged houses, people started screaming like a mashed cat. Even if FEMA were to make a payment, it would only be $3000 to $5000 per incident. I’m here to tell you the rest of the county is going to get stung with humongous repair bills before this is over. Which leads me back to the question myself and everyone else is asking. “Why would anyone build in a flood zone.” There are people who built in the dunes who plead ignorance about this saying they didn’t know it was a flood zone. They are standing just a few feet from the river and don’t know it is a flood zone. Come on, let’s get real here. I really find it hard to have any sympathy for the people down there. Empathy yes, sympathy no. I can see lawsuits flying in the court house for years to come. Believe me this isn’t over by a long shot. The dunes has spent millions to build the levy, what do you think it is going to cost to tear it down once the flood abates?

You hear all this crying and gnashing of teeth from the dunes, and what they should really be caring about is river-land estates and wynstone. They are right next to the dunes, and didn’t get squat from the state to protect themselves. Now that is a crying shame. It just goes to show you that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

You know, a couple of years ago when Sioux City wanted to build a bike path through the dunes, people complained like crazy that they didn’t want this ‘type’ of people riding through the dunes. The bike path was rerouted through North Sioux City. They didn’t have a problem with this ‘type’ of people when it came to saving their property though. And one wonders why there is little if no sympathy for the dunes.

Like it says at the end of my emails, IT IS WHAT IT IS!