Old Cranky

Posse Comitatus

2011-12-25T06:47:00.000-08:00

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One thing about writing this column is that It doesn’t leave much margin for error. Even though it is the Holiday season and we thankfully celebrate the birth of our Christ, this column isn’t always a joyful one. Fun for me to write; not always fun to read.

There was action taken last week by the United States Government that really bothers me, and that is that the Congress AND the President has given authority for the United States Military to detain United States citizens believed to be involved in terrorist activities. This is tantamount to a phrase I thought I would only read about in books; called Posse Comitatus.

Posse Comitatus was a law passed back in the late 1800’s that forbids the federal military forces from intervening in maintaining law and order in the civilian community. It derives its name from the old west when the sheriff would round up a “posse” to hunt down the bad guys.

President Eisenhower used the Posse Comitatus act to enforce desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1958. He brought in the federal troops to maintain order in Little Rock (George Wallace).

The closest I ever saw this law being used was during the Watts riots in 1964. I was stationed in the Air Force at March AFB, in Riverside California. When the people in Watts (a suburb of Los Angeles) went nuts and started looting and burning, the National Guard was called into service to assist the police in controlling the carnage in Los Angeles. Needless to say we were briefed about being called into assist if needed, and the Posse Comitatus was pounded into our heads that we had to be very careful about our role in this.

Under the current laws and administration, the department of Homeland Security, which includes the Coast Guard, is exempt from this law. This is fine, but here is the problem. Congress and the President has authorized the Army to detain United States citizens accused or believed to be involved in terrorist acts to be detained at GITMO. They can be held indefinitely and there is no deadline on bringing them to trial or into the legal process. This is the first step to a police state and quite frankly, scares the hell out of me. Can you imagine being picked up; whisked away and nobody explaining to you what or why this is being done?

To even talk about this coming into being is abhorring to me. What is this country coming to? To even have such a scenario on the books is absolutely nutty. The old saying that “Hello, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” Phrase is a distinct reality. This is a situation that, if it were to get out of hand, could have devastating effects on the people of this country.

Well, enough of the bad stuff, let’s get to my favorite subject – The commissioners. At their meeting back in the end of November, commissioner Karpen made the statement that Mr. Roggow needs to look at all county property and see if there is any property out there that could be leased or put up for auction. “We need to get these properties back on the tax rolls.” I just about cracked up when I read this. That statement is coming from a commission that purchased a lot across the street from the court house for $64,000 and turned it into a parking lot which they subsequently lease to Thermo bond for the ungodly price of $100 a month. Now is that getting a good return on your money or what? Why, they will have the lot paid for in another 63 years at this rate. I will be kind and stop talking about the commissioners now; my Christmas present to them.

Julie Madden had an article in the “hometowner” a few weeks ago about Tony Heisterkamp (The Barn) and his nursery farm over by Big Springs Church. That article was intriguing and I called Tony and he gave me a tour of his farm. He has grapes, 1,500 apple trees, gardens and most curious of all, 3,500 Aronia Berry bushes. The Aronia berry is very high in antioxidants. They are even higher in antioxidants than blueberries. Curiosity got the best of me and I bought a quart of the berries to give them a try, and hopefully they will be as healthy for me as Tony claims. Some people say these are wild chokecherries, but these are a berry, not a cherry. They are very tart and bitter tasting, but if you add a sweetener like apple cider or apple juice, they are really good, and good for you. I hope they do the job and really make me healthy, wealthy and wiser than I already am. (a little play on words there!) Google them on the internet and Tony will be more than happy part with this precious berry. (For a price that is….)

Merry Christmas everyone and have a blessed new year 2012. See you after new years.

cookin the books

2011-12-13T20:06:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>It is nice to be writing articles once again. I really missed it. My articles are written under “Doug Sez”. I would really like to label it “The truth hurts doesn’t it.” Let’s get it on.

I was casually reading the unofficial minutes of the county commissioners for the 29th of November on the Union County website the other day and everything was going along just fine until the last paragraph when “up jumps the snake.” Just before adjournment, the commissioners voted new pay raises for next year for the county employees. The county employees overall will receive a pay raise of 2.1%. (Here comes the good part) in addition to the 2.1% pay raise, some department heads will receive an additional raise in their salary. Additional

Increases were included for the following department heads: Auditor-$3,640; Treasurer-$1,300; Sheriff-$1,300; Emergency Manager- $5,200.

Now, I don’t call this a real and honest pay raise, I call it cookin the books. If we list the actual percentage of pay raise that these department heads got it paints a whole new picture. I won’t go into a lot of facts and figures on this, I’ll just give you the quick and dirty of what this actually is, and you make up your own mind just how big these pay raises are. The auditors base salary went from $41160 to $45,664, so she really got a pay raise of 9%. Sounds a bit different now doesn’t it. The sheriff went from $52,188 to $54,584 for a 9.5% raise, the treasurer went from $39,384 to $41,511 for 9% and the Emergency Manager went from $12096 to $17,550 for a whopping 68% pay raise. Granted, the Highway administrator and the Emergency manager are one in the same, but his paycheck is split according to what hat he happens to be wearing at the time. Up until now, the Emergency Managers job was what I would consider “additional duty”, because he didn’t really devote that much time to ‘disasters’ other than making sure the county conformed to FEMA’s standards and also hold training sessions for the volunteer EMT’s around the area. But suddenly, here come ‘da flood. And everything changes. The Emergency Manager’s salary went from $12,096 to $17,550. WHOO-HOO!

I called my district commissioner (milt Ustad) and asked him about these raises, and his response is somewhat surprising. He told me the raise for the auditor was because she opted out of the retirement system and this is money that would have normally been given to the state for her retirement but since she opted out they voted to give the money directly to her instead. (Are you kidding me here?) Now that is what I call a really good deal because just a year ago the auditor asked for the same thing because she had opted out of the system, but the commissioners voted no. I wonder what happened in the course of a year that changed their minds. Hum-m-m-m.

Anyway, the sheriff and the treasurer both got $1300. No big deal - except – what have they done to deserve this. If it is because of merit, then instead of the 2.1 percent they actually got 9%. Why beat around the bush.

Now here is the kicker. The Highway administrator wears 2 hats. He is the highway administrator and the county Emergency Manager. The emergency manager gets a $5,200 raise. It all goes to the Highway Administrator but to be given a $5,200 is a humongous raise (68%)any way you look at it.

I asked my district representative if this was kosher and he told me that Mr. Roggow put in a lot of hours down at the dunes because of the flood and he is not an hourly employee but salaried. I didn’t dispute that, but did he receive any additional monies or compensation for his work at the flood site. Mr. Ustad would not respond other than to say he doesn’t get overtime. I asked if he got comp time. Again he didn’t respond. I commented that I couldn’t believe someone could or would work many hours beyond the normal 40 hour week for almost 5 months and not receive compensation of some kind. I asked him if this was a reward for his work during the flood. He didn’t respond. Then I asked if Mr. Roggow’s assistant received overtime pay for filling in while doing his job and Ray’s job while Mr. Roggow was gone. He didn’t know.

Now then, there are 6 elected positions in the county besides the commissioners, so why didn’t the Union County State’s attorney and the Register of deeds get pay raises along with the other department heads? Is it because they both just happen to be Republicans? Naw that couldn’t be it. Could it be cronyism? Hum-m-m. It just so happens that the treasurer and the sheriff are Republican and got the $1,300 raises and the Auditor and Highway Superintendant are Democrats and got the big money. The chairman of the commissioners is a staunch Democrat and controls the purse strings regardless of what anyone else says. What he says goes, and don’t you forget it. Ask the commissioners why the disparity and Mr. Karpen will give probably give you the proverbial answer. “They are the commissioners and it is their prerogative as the county commission as to who gets what.” But, to quote Mr. Karpen, “it isn’t their job to micromanage each department.” So how did they arrive at these figures for the department head raises?

I think we need some new blood in that room.

The perfect Con

2011-11-20T19:55:00.001-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>“The Perfect Con”

I’m not winning any friends here and I’m probably going to lose the ones that I have, but I feel very strongly about this and things need to be said.

If we had done nothing to stop the Hyperion refinery back in 2007, they would be gone. In their application back in 2007, the refinery was to begin construction in 2009 and be fully operational by 2014. They were bluffing! They raised the bet in the Texas Hold ‘em game and they had nothing in their hand.

They didn’t have the money then and they don’t have the money now. As I just said if we had done nothing, their application would have expired almost 3 years ago and they would be gone. Are we stupid or what?

They didn’t give a rip about the application for an oil refinery then and still don’t. If they did, they would have been more concerned in getting this thing accomplished. They would have also had oil people up here continually, making their presence known. Have you seen anyone from Hyperion lately?

What they want is our money. They obtained options on over 3000 acres of prime South Dakota farmland for $4000 an acre, sometimes more. Five years ago, $4000 was top dollar for farmland. Today it is over $7000-10,000. This isn’t about oil; it was never about oil. This is about making money by optioning land they didn’t even own, and then selling it for huge profits.

If you will look back at my blog (Old Cranky) on the internet you will find an article written when this first started that I loved conspiracies and this was nothing more than a big conspiracy for Hyperion. If you ever watched the movie “The Entertainer” with Robert Redford and Paul Newman”, this is a perfect parody. We are about to get entertained.

They have destroyed friendships, split communities, churches and anything else you can think of all because they promised us the moon, and we ate it, hook, line and sinker. They are not an oil company, but a real estate development company that just happens to have ties to oil money.

I said years ago that Hyperion had no intention of building a refinery. This is nothing but a Texas scam. At the public hearing in January of 2008, I asked 4 questions to Preston Phillips and company. 1) WHERE IS THE OIL COMING FROM? 2) HOW IS IT GOING TO GET HERE? 3) WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM? 4) HOW IS THE OIL GETTING OUT OF HERE? Those questions still have not been answered as of today.

The reason those questions have never been answered is because they don’t know the answers to them either. They are a real estate development company. They don’t know squat about oil refineries.

Here is one more for you that I have asked over and over again. When are you going to say that you are definitely coming to Union County? They have never answered that question. Why, because they never intend to come here.

Our Mickey Mousing around has given them an additional 4 years to build the pot.

Maybe we should do nothing. Nothing has worked so far.

They say the perfect con is when you are giving them your money with a big smile on your face the whole time you are getting scammed, and saying Thank You!

IT IS WHAT IT IS…

But look at the bright side

2011-10-10T23:48:00.000-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$> Look at the bright side

it is really amazing what money can do in the political arena. Take a look at Governor Doo good's latest pronouncement. "I heartily endorse the Keystone XL pipeline effort as a great economic boost for the state of South Dakota."

Nebraska has taken TransCanada to the state supreme court; people are demonstrating all over the United States and Canada because it could harm the Ogallala Aquifer and what is South Dakota doing? Bring it on Canada, this is going to bring millions of dollars in taxes and jobs.

But look at the bright side. it will only kill us once.

Let's call a spade a spade

2011-07-30T19:42:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>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!

empathy or sympathy

2011-06-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$> this weeks article is controversial to the point that the paper would not print it. i tell it like it is, and i always tell the truth. the opinions expressed are mine and mine alone. i make no excuses. if you don't like what i write i appreciate the comments, but that doesn't change anything. it is what it is.

June 15th, 2011

Empathy or Sympathy

Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings (such as sadness or happiness) that are being experienced by another sentient or semi-sentient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion

Sympathy is a social affinity in which one person stands with another person, closely understanding his or her feelings. Also known as empathic concern, it is the feeling of compassion or concern for another, the wish to see them better off or happier. Sympathy not only includes empathizing, but also entails having a positive regard or a non-fleeting concern for the other person.

The people in the southern part of the county are experiencing a horrendous situation right now with the flooding of the Missouri River. The county’s personnel, state’s reserves and National Guard has responded admirably in supporting the attempt to save ones possessions and stop further destruction by building the levee to hold back the floodwaters.

I’m sure there will be lawsuits in the courts for many years to come, and we may never actually learn the reason for the floods. Here is where the empathy or sympathy steps in. I have empathy for the people who have lost their worldly possessions. Things can be replaced. I have no sympathy for the people along the river. It might be okay to have a cabin along the river to enjoy the ambiance it offers, but your permanent home? Not a chance. Why anyone would build on a floodplain is way way way beyond my comprehension. And don’t give me any of this “I didn’t know this was as flood plain” talk either. When you can stand on a banks of the river in what was once blow sand and cottonwoods and not know this area is not a good place to live is pure ignorance on their part. I certainly have no compassion for their situation either. This is a case of pure and simple stupidity.

When one looks back at the process that brought the dunes to life, the blame can be laid squarely on the planning and zoning commission and the county commissioners. I believe the dunes was developed by Midwest Energy. They went to the planning and zoning and I’m sure they sweettalked the commissioners into believing this was the cow that laid the golden egg. Think of the tax base this would build for the county? Think how beautiful this area would be to draw people to live in the county. Think what a legacy you will leave for future generations in the state, and think how this will enrich your lives.

Stupid is, stupid does. There is no way the planning and zoning should have allowed this area of the county to be rezoned into a planned development. There was a reason this area was never farmed or occupied by housing. THE RIVER FLOODS! It may not flood every year, but if there isn’t enough dirt on the dunes to grow crops, there sure as hell isn’t enough solid ground to support housing. The silt and sand washes with the will of the river. One might be able to make it work for awhile, but eventually the river will have its will. And will it did. Or it is in the process of turning the dunes back to what it was; hills of sand and silt and cottonwoods.

The cost of building levees to hold back the flooding is costly. Before a spade of dirt was put down, Governor Daugaard pledged $5 million immediately and another $5 million if they need it. If they need it? They are going to go through that $10 million like crap through a goose. This is going to cost BIG BUCKS before it is over. I haven’t been down there to see the carnage, but I have talked to people who have, and I seriously doubt the dunes will ever be what it was before. The infrastructure will literally be gone. They are sandbagging and building levees to keep the water out, but this will also keep the water in. Groundwater will be lying around for months, and even longer. The water is going to stagnate and stink. It will be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and anything else that comes along. It isn’t going to be a pretty sight.

I imagine that with the loss of houses, the people that owned them will walk away from them because they will owe much much more than the house will be worth. When the flood is over and everything is cleaned up, the banks will move in. what was once a $500,000 home will now be worth about $200,000 and who in their right mind would buy a home in an area that had just experienced not a 100 year flood, but a 500 year flood. Who is to say this won’t happen again in a person’s lifetime? Who is to say this won’t happen on a yearly basis?

If the planning and zoning grant building permits for anything in the future of the dunes they have lost what little minds they have left. They should deny any effort to rebuild because we the taxpayers cannot afford to support them. People said when this flood happened, 25% of the tax base in the county was lost. If that is the case, you can kiss any road repairs or infrastructure repairs goodbye because you have reached the tipping point on how much blood you can get out of the stones that are left.

This mess is going to take a long time to clean up and what is left after all the debris is gone isn’t going to be pretty. So, what is it you have for the people on the river, empathy, sympathy or nothing at all?

To put all this in perspective to our fight with Hyperion, is the shoe now on the other foot?

I just don't get it

2011-06-05T02:21:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>June 8th, 2011

I just don’t get it

For the life of me, I just don’t get it about the pro’s of the keystone XL pipeline and the arguments people are trying to jam down our throats about how wonderful this will be. Baloney! Pete Carrels of the Sierra Club sent me a great article about the goings on in Nebraska with the pipeline and I’m using parts to enhance my viewpoint about this whole stupid mess.

Meanwhile, other supporters of the pipeline held a press conference in Lincoln, Neb., to make their case that the project would wean the United States off of foreign oil, and create thousands of jobs along the construction route(1). I would be more apt to believe those that tout these wonderful jobs if it was a job that was stable and permanent, but these jobs will be nomadic, far from permanent and dangerous. That is of course unless you choose this type of life as your vocation. If you are young, single and want to wander for a couple of years, then maybe this could be the job for you, but this is not the case. The other part of that statement really galls me. CANADA IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY for crying out loud!

Just for kicks and grins let’s say you want the best for your family and sign up to work for XL. Next week maybe you start work in North Dakota and will work your way down to Texas, and this will span the course of 2 or 3 or 4 years. Then what? Your job is finished, and what do you do now? When you are working, you will be working 12 hour shifts for days on end. Will you have time for your family? Yes if they are traveling with you, otherwise, Nah ain’t gonna happen. This is not something I’m pulling out of my hat, this is what Preston Phillips says employees at the refinery will be doing, and the pipeline won’t be any different. Is this your idea of a job? Certainly isn’t my idea of a grandiose work environment if you ask me.

I think it would be nice if we could hear from those that are directly involved in this type of operation rather than lobbyists. These lobbyists don’t know squat and are just doing what they are paid to do and that is get XL through. Nebraska is flooded with them right now trying to convince lawmakers this is a good deal. I wouldn’t give you 2 cents for betting that the pipeline is not going to leak into the Ogallala aquifer. There goes the water quality in 5 states from manipulators who are looking for endorsements of putting this through northwest Nebraska. Guess who is the decision maker on this pipeline? – Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State for the United States of America. Argh-h-h-h-h-h..

Here is the State Department standing on the XL Pipeline (2) - The department found in the recent statement that oil-sands oil does have a higher carbon footprint in the production process than traditional oil, but concluded that those emissions don't need to be considered as part of its decision on the $7 billion project. Hello-o-o-o-o Hillary, what part of Carbon Dioxide pollution don’t you understand? Hyperion will be emitting 19 million tons of the stuff on a yearly basis. What do you think the rest of the refineries are going to be doing, spewing perfume?

Just to refresh your memory, Keystone has been in operation for only a year and already they have had 12 oil incidents. They (keystone) say this is normal, and previous statements on file with the state of South Dakota say that leaks of this type are normal because the amount of oil spilled is minimal and within the specs of the operation. After the entire pipeline is only under 1400 PSI and the walls are surely thick enough. What about the welds? It only takes one mistake and kaboom.

Oh what’s a few million tons of carbon dioxide? It’s just a greenhouse gas. What the heck. I think they call it climate change. Now don’t go telling me there isn’t such a thing either because that is just B.S., because it is happening. You might as well throw the other word in as well, because it is synonymous, Global warming. There I said it. Climate change and Global warming are fact, and if we don’t do something we may live to regret it.

We can start here by doing several things right off the bat. Quit making those unnecessary trips with your car and conserve water, electricity and the land. That last part is a slam dunk, but don’t get me going there. Start a garden, drive slower, turn up the temp on the air conditioner in the summer and turn down the heat in the winter. When I was a kid, the only cool place was under a shade tree. I’m getting off track here, sorry.

Why is it that all things that are bad for us are being dangled in front of us like a carrot that it is good? That is like Michael Douglas in the movie ‘wall street’ “Greed is good”… that is like saying Hyperion and XL is wonderful and will create life ever after.

If you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig.

(1)(2) LOBBYING: Fight over oil sands pipeline broadens (06/02/2011)

Christa Marshall, E&E reporter

zao shang hao

2011-06-01T01:33:00.000-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>zao shang hao

That phrase is good morning in mandarin Chinese. Get used to it; you may hear it a lot, especially if the Hyperion project is sold to the Chinese.

.

But first let’s get something straight. This article is an educated guess, coupled with news clips from the papers and special documents.. After researching many articles on the current status of American Oil Companies (AOC’s) I am going to spend the next few minutes writing about what could possibly happen with Hyperion. As you know, I love conspiracies and this one could be a script from ‘star wars.’ This is strictly an idea of mine, but mind you, something that could very well happen if and when the Chinese makes up its mind what it is going to do.

I just finished reading a handbook given to me by Victoria Winteringham in Vermillion. It is a handbook for citizen participation in the Permitting of Oil Refineries under the New Source Review Provisions of the Clean Air Act. It is a document that gives a lot of ho-hum information that I have seen many many times. Suddenly on page 70 is the conclusion and Wham, Bam, Thank you ma’am I got hit right in the face what this whole damn thing is about. This book is all about the Clean Air Act, and granting permission for these oil companies to pollute. Let me state this one more time. This whole governmenting process is giving permission for oil refineries to POLLUTE. What we are doing is restricting the amount they may pollute. That sentence is like slapping me in the face with a ball bat.

All this time we have been working to ensure they adhered to the EPA standards of the Clean Air Act of 1994, and not to step one toe across the line. What I didn’t realize is that we were giving them carte blanche to pollute; they just have to stay below the standards we set with the EPA. This really torks me off. Here we are saying ‘oh go ahead and pollute, just do it a little bit. Don’t kill me all at once; just kill me a little bit at a time. Don’t ruin this area all at once; just do it a little bit at a time. WE HAVE BEEN DUPED! Sneaky sneaky sneaky.

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst, this area is a1 on the scale. The air is so pristine that the refinery can practically disregard all measures to control emissions and still be within the limits the EPA sets for them. And we are letting them do it with our blessings! GR-R-R-R- how stupid can we get? Just the mere fact we don’t want them here isn’t enough. We want pollution levels to stay the same as they are now. Here we are going to meetings, hearings, government public hearings, court appearances and for what? So that we can ALLOW them to pollute more.

What really irks me is that we are not experts in the field of environmental safety and depend on folks in the federal government who are supposedly experts in this field to watch out for us and that is like the fox guarding the chicken house after he has eaten all the chickens. The mere fact that the clean air act isn’t so much about restrictions on pollution it is the fact that we are giving companies permission to do it legally. Why? Is it because if we don’t have some kind of law they will just run rampant and do whatever they feel they can? That really bothers me and bothers me a whole lot. This whole process is just eyewash.

Anyway, back to the Chinese. China is far exceeding the rest of the world in growth of the use of oil products. They are buying up every oil company that comes on the market in Europe and Southwest Asia. They are looking in the United States for a market and look what is sitting in little ‘ol South Dakota. Hyperion has the air permit and an extension to build until late 2013. Hyperion doesn’t have a source of Tar Sands, no matter what they say. Hyperion now says they will build a bullet line to Elk Point, but you haven’t seen anything coming out of TransCanada that says this is so. This is just more hyperbole coming from Hyperion. EXXON MOBILE controls almost all the pipelines in Canada. They go under the name Enbridge. Of the top 20 pipeline companies in Canada, these companies control 99% of the export of ‘tar sands’ to the United States. TransCanada or Keystone is mentioned only 1 time in the report that I just finished reading about distribution of tar sands to American Refineries. Enbridge has sewn up 95% of the tar sands coming to the United States and the only way China is going to get into the business is to buy a company that is just starting up; doesn’t have a lot of money but has all the necessary permits to begin refining. Well, lookey here folks, Hyperion has the necessary permits but hasn’t started yet and they supposedly have a contract with TransCanada for 400,000 bbl daily. Here is what they have been looking for, and instead of pipelines to oil refineries, they will just rework it to southern or western ports and ship it all to China. China (PETCO) must be careful here. They cannot make a treaty with the United States for a line crossing the Canadian border. Hyperion has to do that, and once it does it still has to maintain part ownership in the company so they will make money any way the wind blows. So, China waits for Hyperion to get all the ducks lined up then make a deal and viola, they are in. they have the money; they have the manpower; they have everything and Hyperion is the middle man getting all the permits and then it is a slam dunk. The reason for the delays is political, not as we first thought about raising money, but it’s about getting all the legal work set up.

Hui Tao Jian (see you later)

is the whole world going nuts

2011-05-15T23:46:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>Is the whole world going nuts?

Have you ever had the feeling that no matter what you said that it didn’t mean squat? Well, after over 350 people and companies submitted letters to the state of South Dakota DENR, they came out with a ruling this week that doesn’t surprise anyone. Hyperion is allowed an 18 month extension from the date of the awarding of the clean air permit. This means that construction doesn’t have to start until sometime in 2013 or possibly 2014, depending when the Board of Minerals makes its ruling. If ever there was a kangaroo court, this is the perfect example of how it works. Whatever Hyperion wants, Hyperion gets, and pretty baby little Hyperion wants you!. (Paraphrase of whatever Lola wants.) For the life of me, I do not understand what it is that Hyperion has over the state officials, but it must be a doozie. After the last batch of comments, there is no way the DENR should grant or even consider an extension to Hyperion. Why are we the only people in the state that is concerned about the dangers of what the heck is coming down the road? If this was good for the state and good for Union County, I’m sure we would not have the attitude that we have, but it isn’t and we are not giving in.

Guess what I have been seeing on TV commercials for the last week. Not one time, but at least 3 or 4 times a night for an entire week? EXXON MOBIL has been advertising the great advantages of refining tar sands! As far as I can determine, EXXON doesn’t even own any refineries that have anything to do with tar sands. This is really weird. What scares me about this is that this is a precursor to buying/partnering Hyperion. The sickening part of that whole deal is it is our money that is making this possible. $4 a gallon gas is just plain stupid.

There were 5 BIG oil CEO’s who testified before congress last week about the paltry bonuses they received last year. ($ millions) They deserved every penny they got. How crazy is that? It isn’t their fault that we are paying over $4 for each gallon of gas. It is the fault of speculators and investors in 401’s. Are you kidding me? Did they ever mention once; shortages - - no because there isn’t a shortage. They made these bonuses because they are astute businessmen.

TransCanada has a pump station fail last week and there was a 500 barrel oil spill. This is just one incident of 10 last year. The problem is that the pipeline has only been running one year. This is just ludicrous! Somebody needs a good dose of reality. How about castor oil? (Little play on words there)

North Dakota has started an official investigation into the Keystone pipeline. They say that the tar sands are too corrosive for the pipe and that it causes undue stress and premature failure. Guess what TransCanada’s response is? Not true! This is no more corrosive that anything else. What a load of crap. I cannot understand where common sense disappeared to in this whole rotten mess. How can anyone be so naive as to believe this system is safe? And this comes at a time when negotiations for the XL pipeline are crucial for them to ship tar sands across the international border.

This is total insanity. President Obama has borrowed a page from Sarah Palin. It is DRILL BABY DRILL! In his radio address last Saturday he is advocating offshore drilling in the Arctic, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific. There isn’t any place left. If there was a shortage of oil I could almost understand this, but there is no such thing.

The argument that Hyperion is using that this will be the greenest refinery because a refinery hasn’t been built in 35 years. Has anyone ever asked why no refineries have been built? It is because the refineries that we have now are either closed or operating at half capacity because there is a glut of oil on the market. Hello!

Well folks, I got all that off my chest for this week didn’t I? I still am unable to understand why people cry and poop in the corner about the high price of gas but continue to drive like there is no tomorrow. If you drive 65 on the interstate, people will pass you like you are going backwards. The oil companies must be paying lobbyists a ton of money to make sure oil keeps plugging along. I hate to show my age, but mandatory speed limits of 55 and rationing of gas isn’t pretty. They always say be careful what you ask for because you might get it. Well watch out America!

the chickens are coming home to roost

2011-05-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>The chickens are coming home to roost.

In my continual searching for news about the Hyperion refinery I am really encouraged by the results that public opinion is finally finally turning around. People are starting to figure out what we have been saying for over 4 years that this is a ‘never going to happen’ venture by Huddleston.

In the SCJ Hyperion blog last week, all comments were negative about Hyperion and people who were signing the blogs were folks that in the past have always been sure that they were coming. Now it looks like they are starting to have serious doubts about it. Well DUH. I wonder what part of this pipe dream they didn’t understand before. Do you suppose they are coming to the realization that this is just another lost cause on the part of Mr. Huddleston?

The biggest part that people still don’t understand is that the 1800 permanent jobs has never been about making more jobs, it is just shuffling people from a job in one place to a job with Hyperion. The only thing was is that it would be leaving someone holding the short end of the stick. Not that many people would be moving here, they would just be changing how far they have to drive to get to work. It doesn’t take rocket science (I’m getting tired of that term) to figure out what is happening. Ask yourself how many people moved here when gateway was going full blast? At their peak, they employed somewhere around 5,000 to 6,000 people; most of them from the local area. What makes people think Hyperion would be any different? Other than the fact they would need people with specialized skills, of which I’m sure people in this area have. Would you leave the security you have now for a job of uncertainty with Hyperion? I sure wouldn’t, but then what do I know?

There was a letter to the editor in the Argus leader last Saturday from a lady traveling through Kansas and stopped to fill gas. She asked one of the employees there why the price of gas was so high when there was a refinery right there in town. The person replied that all the gas produced by this company was being exported to Italy and that none of the gas stayed locally. Again, this is what would happen here if the refinery came here. Gas goes on the commodities market and is sold to the highest bidder. Do you think for one minute Al Huddleston gives a rip about people in this area? He is from Texas and is out to make a killing and it is going to come at our expense. This isn’t any different from any other refinery. Another statement in that letter was that one of Obama’s richest supporters in the last election was just given a billion dollar loan to build a refinery in Brazil. NowTHAT gas might make its way back to the United States. This is how the oil game is played. Big refineries don’t care how far or who the gas goes to. They just worry about profit margin. Do you wonder why the price of oil dropped almost $10 a barrel last week? The refineries have a glut on gas because people are starting to conserve because they are being forced to with the high cost. Now the price is starting to come down because there is an excess. Who can figure this out? I know I can’t. I do know this; we are still being played for suckers and it is going to cost us dearly in the long run.

I got a reply from the state of South Dakota DENR last week on a letter that I submitted during the open question period for Hyperion’s Air Permit. Instead of addressing my question I got the whole 9 yards, and it still didn’t say anything that hadn’t already been said before. They still won’t answer or acknowledge that they made a mistake. Governor Daugaard stated in the news last week that he would cut the red tape to ensure this refinery is going to be built. Ex-Governor Rounds said the same thing and it still hasn’t been started. Does that mean ‘damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead.’ He is ignoring our objections to this to ensure “economic progress” for the state. Again, it cost the state mucho dinero to send me a response to my letter. I don’t know why they took the time and expense to send this out. They could have done this with a one page letter. “We are ignoring your questions and are going to build this thing whether you like it or not, so get used to it.”

To use another euphemism, I think the worm is starting to turn, and the chickens are starting to come back to their nest. Public opinion does win sometimes, so let’s hope this is one of them.

But...but....but

2011-05-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>May 3rd, 2011

But…but…but

What does a 400,000 barrel a day refinery say? Evidently not much, if you listened to the debate between Hyperion and the Sierra club on PBS radio the other day. Preston Phillips and Eric Williams said the same thing last Wednesday that they’ve been saying for the last 4 years NOTHING. Well, they did say that they are asking for another 18 month extension from DENR to begin construction AND that they plan to begin construction this summer – all in the same breath. I don’t know why they just don’t come out and say they don’t have a clue because they also admitted they’ve never built a refinery before. (Isn’t that comforting?). Of course they aren’t going to build it anyway, so I guess one true statement out of the hour long diatribe doesn’t hurt anything. (Ain’t ever, ain’t gonna,) you could tell from the sound of Preston’s voice that he was trying very hard to come across with a positive attitude, but I think his attitude sucks. Anyway, between Preston and Eric they weren’t very convincing. It certainly is refreshing that a couple of dunderheads are leading the pack. I wonder what the rest of the company has for an attitude. I’ve always been told that attitude is everything when it comes to being successful. No wonder Hyperion is what it is.

I ran into Jim Heisinger a couple of days later and congratulated him on pinning their ears back especially on the carbon capture statements that Hyperion has made in the past. Those statements seemed to get their hackles’ up a bit. They insisted again that they said they would be carbon capture ready. Whatever that means anymore. I did learn an interesting bit from my discussion with Jim, and that is that Hyperion's heavy sour crude contains the sluggish, tarry bitumen recovered from the tar sands deposits. It will not reliably flow through pipes without heating it so it is diluted with lighter hydrocarbons decreasing the pressure needed to pump the abrasive mess and that there is only one company in Canada that makes Dilbit or Dilsynbit, and Hyperion will have to do a contract with them to get them to up their production. Do you remember from last week what I said about dilbit? Dilbit is a light hydrocarbon liquid mixed with the bitumen, if synthetic oil is used synbit is produced. Hyperion claims it will use a 50/50 blend of the two. It currently appears as if it is only produced by one Canadian upgrader. That upgrader currently makes about 200,000 barrels/day. Hyperion has not documented that is can reliably secure 400,000/barrels/day and, of course, it still does not have a pipeline, only a pipe dream.. (One more piece of the puzzle) – One more bottleneck for Hyperion to worry about.

Will Hyperion’s supply of tar sands be a spur from Keystone XL? I personally don’t think so, since Eric Williams insisted that they will build a ‘bullet’ line from Canada to Union County. (Great choice of words there isn’t it?) Hyperion said it will take 4 ½ years to build the pipeline and 4 ½ years to build the refinery, so it should all be completed at the same time. (Right) Why do I get the feeling we are listening to a stand-up comedian when he says something like this?

One thing I do know is that Hyperion can say whatever it wants to, but the general contractor (who they haven’t named yet by the way) is the one who is going to tell Hyperion what to do. (I know what I’d like to tell Hyperion what to do.) Isn’t it funny that Hyperion can say there will be 4,500 workers and that this project will make 1800 permanent jobs and nobody has asked the general contractor if this is true? I guess I could pick some numbers out of the air and say the same thing, since Hyperion has never built a refinery before, how the hell do they know what this project is going to do? To use an oil euphemism, this is all smoke and no blow. Why doesn’t somebody call them on this, after all, this is the biggest part of the economic development program? What are the specific numbers? What are the actual number and type of jobs that will be created? I really get tired of being like Hyperion and saying the same things over and over, but we are being taken to the cleaners and I don’t like it.

I guess a 400,000 barrel a day refinery is like an 800 pound gorilla, it can say anything it wants to. But…but…but…I don’t have to believe it!

Let's call a spade a spade

2011-04-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>April 29th, 2011

Let’s call a spade a spade

Let’s quit playing patty cake about oil and oil refining and call it what it is. It is a Dirty, Disgusting, Debilitating, Diseased gut wrenching industry that preys on communities such as ours and turns them from beautifully landscaped farms and rolling hills to a pariah sucking the very life out of everyone around.

Let’s go to where all this filth begins and follow it to the refinery. The Boreal forests of Canada are pristine wildernesses that are vital to the ecosystem of the world. It is being raped, pillaged and plundered for the wealth that lay below this vital beautiful land. The Athabasca region in Canada, and now the northern Great Plains are home to strip miners that are systematically destroying one of the great wonders of the world. Once the forests are gone they will never be replaced.

Canadas claim that this area contains more sludge than any other part of the world is not going unnoticed. China has also discovered Boreal Forests in their region of the world that has even more sludge than Canada and I’m sure they will commence to mine this as well to satiate their country’s demand for more oil products. Can you see where this is leading?

The vision that I have of these forests being systematically being destroyed is like a scene from an old movie where ‘Fat old king Cole’ is slouched in his big overstuffed chair eating a big hunk of greasy slimy meat and throwing the bone to the dogs. I think this is a great analogy of what the industry is doing to greedy little oil companies that are trying to convince us this is all being done in the name of ‘Economic Development’ for our county. They are tossing us the bones.

The bitumen (tar sands) that is mined in an open pit is not viscous enough to be sent down the pipeline by itself. It must be diluted with other toxic chemicals and heated to enable it to flow to the refinery hence a new acronym is added to your overflowing dictionary. It is called dilbit (diluted bitumen). Kinda like Dilbert (you know the knucklehead that you give this polite name to). That was my first impression when i heard the name. Remember this name, because you are going to become very familiar with it.

The following article was sent to me by one of my readers. This excerpt is taken from the ‘PRAIRIE FIRE’ article written by Julie Meyers. In it she gives a very painted description of Dilbit. “Unlike conventional crude, Dilbit is

• 15 to 20 times higher in acid concentrations.

• Contains 5 to 10 times as much sulfur.

• A high concentration of chloride salts, which can lead to chloride stress corrosion in high-temperature pipelines, and

• Higher quantities of abrasive quartz sand particles.”

Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that with all this corrosive ‘junk’ coming down the line, pipeline failure is going to happen more frequently. Dilbit has been used for years in Canada, and the failure rate of the pipeline is 16 times higher than pipelines in the United States that do not use dilbit. Again, it is not a case of if it fails, it is ‘when’ it fails, and the spills could have catastrophic consequences.

Look at what is happening now in the state of Nebraska. The lawsuit is going all the way to the state supreme court because of the Keystone XL pipeline going across the sandhills. The Ogallala aquifer is very shallow there, and a rupture in the pipeline could have devastating effects on the drinking water in many states, as the aquifer is one of the largest in the United States. This is not something to mess around with folks, mother nature can really get mad. XL is going to rely heavily on computers to monitor the system to enable the folks in the control room to isolate the spill faster to minimize the spill. You can see that they are already planning on spills, it is just how much can they limit it to.

If a pipeline were to come to this area, it would be using dilbit technology because Keystone I pumps regular ‘sweet’ crude. XL is the only one pumping dilbit. Even if Hyperion were to run its own pipeline, it would use dilbit technology because they are pumping tar sands, not crude.

When dilbit gets to the final destination, all those toxic chemicals must be removed before the bitumen can be refined.

Now let’s look at this from another angle.

Thanks to the Madville Times for the following article from The Economist. It gives credence to strengthening my hypothesis (gut feeling) that Hyperion will never show its ugly refinery in union county.

“The refining business has suffered from chronic overcapacity, and thus weak margins, since the 1970s oil shocks, which led to a slump in the use of oil-based fuels for generating electricity and heating homes. A respite came in 2005-07, as a buoyant rich world and increasingly thirsty emerging economies boosted demand. But that was a high point that the rich world may not hit again. Demand for petrol in America has fallen, and may never regain its previous peak. Refining margins, having touched $4.50 a barrel, are down to one-tenth of that and still falling.”

When people read this they are going to think twice about investing in a risky venture where they will not get any return on their money until the refinery starts ‘pumping.’ Big oil companies in the United States are not going to invest because they are trying like hell to dump their refineries and invest in alternative industries like wind and solar. At least they can see the handwriting on the wall. Emerging third world companies are the ones buying up the oil companies that are getting off. That means Hyperion is merely a middleman that will sell their company once they get their permit. So, let’s get it right and call a spade a spade.

If not me who?

2011-04-18T22:20:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>If not me who?

Here are many phrases I thought of for this week’s article and take your choice which fits best for you. If not me who? If not now when? – Whatever happened to Randolph Scott? – Start early and avoid the rush. - Have you lost your mind? – Have you taken leave of your senses? It’s easier said than done.

What I’m eluding to here is that if something isn’t done and done now about conserving our gas, we are merely giving impetus to both little and big oil companies to get behind Hyperion and build this oil refinery in Union County. Preston Phillips said 5 years ago when all this started that the refinery wouldn’t be profitable until oil reaches $70 per barrel. Then a year later he said $90 a barrel and then $100 a barrel. Well guess what folks? Last week oil hit $107 a barrel. And why is this? It is because we are so pampered that we are consuming gas at an alarming rate and not only is demand going up but the short sellers on the commodities market are driving it up. Supply is still the same. There is a glut on the market because of the 147 refineries in the United States, most of them are either shut down or are operating at 60-70% capacity. To have to face reality and blame myself for the refinery isn’t good. In fact, it makes me kind of queasy.

For what it’s worth, here is my take on this whole situation. If the gas were to come off the commodities market and go according to the laws of supply and demand, there would be plenty and I’m sure it would be considerably less than we are paying now. There was an interview with a Saudi Sheik on TV about a year ago and he said countries are completely stupid. The price of oil should be about $20 per barrel, (last week, it was $107) but because we are so greedy it is going where it is. He isn’t going to complain because he is getting richer off of it. It is costing the same to produce oil today as it was 50 years ago. The oil just comes gushing out of the ground and all we have to do is tap it. Well, you can imagine what happened to that interview. It was never shown or referred to again.

One of the dumbest things I hear on TV is for people to scream for not opening the oil reserves, thinking that if the reserves opened up the, the price would go down. W R O N G! Opening the reserves is just a drop in the bucket, and does nothing for both the short term and the long term situation. Evidently young people and us older folks as well, forget about gas rationing back in 1973-1974. Just let that happen again and watch people howl. And that was when gas was a whopping $.55 a gallon. The oil companies used to come into gas stations and top off their tanks and lock them and tell everyone ‘sorry, no gas today.’ When the price got to where the oil companies want it, suddenly there is plenty of gas for everyone. Nobody asked why the sudden change. 1973 is when OPEC was formed.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that if the profit margin increases, the prices will drop. We cannot tax ourselves into prosperity either. Money that is going to taxes is money that is not being used for purchases. Do people realize that about $.50 per gallon or more is just tax going to the state and federal government? I don’t mean to sound like I’m preaching from the pulpit or anything, but I get so damned mad at the media for using such scare tactics. Pretty soon people will start believing this crap. We are our own worst enemy.

Sometimes I wish that I could go back in time to when life wasn’t so hectic. At least it wasn’t when I was 16. All I worried about then were girls. Anyway, family was the center of my life. My mother insisted that we do things together. It wasn’t a case of all the kids scattering to the winds, because we only had ONE car. That was sufficient, and we didn’t think about needing 2 cars. That was extravagance and that wasn’t right. Both boys and girls rode their bikes wherever we needed to go and never thought anything about going in a car.

We didn’t go to town on a whim “just” to shop or pick up one item. We waited until Saturday. Only then did we have an excuse to go somewhere. Sunday was definitely family time and we never gave a second thought to doing something on our own. Do you remember “Blue Laws?” Today that thought never comes into one’s mind. And I absolutely hate this word ‘bonding.’ That is almost as bad as ‘time out.’ “Just wait till your father gets home” was enough to scare the heck out of me.

Anyway, what is wrong with trying to conserve on gas. Trying to conserve isn’t the end of the world you know. If we were really serious and did that, the price of gas would drop in a heartbeat. There would be such a glut on the market, the oil companies would be screaming like a mashed cat. So called shortages and sky high prices would be a pipe dream and we would once again be less conscious of the high cost of living because it would actually be cheaper. Why be forced to do something when we don’t have to. I would rather do it on my own volition than have somebody hold a gun to my head and demand that I do it. It is a dirty word to “deny ourselves” and blame it on the other guy for our misgivings. IF NOT ME WHO? IF NOT NOW WHEN?

What price - Economic Development

2011-04-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>April 13th, 2011

What price – Economic Development?

Since 2006 there have been many people and families whose lives have been disrupted by the proposed economic development in Union County and the surrounding areas. What price have they had to pay for this coming development? Families and friends have become alienated by a difference of opinion. All in the name of progress. People are afraid to plan their future because of the possibility it can all be dashed by the decisions of those who have no connection with them whatsoever. And for what? Economic development in my mind is fast approaching an unspeakable term. It is a disgusting phrase and an even more disgusting idea. When one considers what this area of the world is like, economic development doesn’t fit. We have successful farmers who bring thousands of dollars to the local economy. We have couples who are raising families in a peaceful and loving atmosphere until economic development becomes the main topic of conversation. What price do people who are opposed to economic development have to pay to keep this from happening?

Hyperion was the tip of the iceberg, and I wrote an article back in early March about reaching the tipping point when other industries will be coming and lo and behold, there are rumors daily about a ‘kosher’ meatpacking plant coming to Union County. Now we are going to be having more people experiencing the economic development being felt in the townships immediately to their south. Where are our elected officials and the influential people in the county when it comes time to listen to their constituents?

Economic development is not always a good thing. My wife and I moved to this area to allow us to enjoy the peace and quietness and clean air that comes with it. We moved here with a special purpose in our lives; that to allow us to be in a community that was friendly and focused on building on that idea. We developed friendships where no matter where we went, we knew each other by first names and greeted each other with laughter and smiles on each other’s faces. A place where a handshake was your bond. It was a time in my life where I felt it was time for me to escape the hustle and bustle of big city living and we found that on our acreage. We felt closeness to nature and our God that had never been experienced before. Our lives became almost calm and serene. This sounds almost like the ideal way to live out one’s life. And now this is about to be destroyed b y “Economic Development.”

Who is giving these people the right to destroy this image? Who is giving these people the right to come in here and destroy communities, families and friends all in the name of economic development? Who are these people that are coming in here forcing me to make choices that I do not choose to make? Who are these people that are coming here to line their pockets with money and change the demographics of this community forever at our expense? Who are these people who are coming here thinking they know what is best for our lives? Would someone please explain to me why I am spending so much time and money to protect my little corner of the world all in the name of “Economic Development?”

What is the price that we must pay for” Economic Development?”

this will not be a slam dunk

2011-04-06T06:16:00.000-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>April 5th, 2011

This will not be a slam dunk!

I don’t normally write about rumors, but this rumor has been confirmed many reliable sources, so I am going to spend a few minutes explaining what is going on that you may not know about , but I cannot imagine that you don’t.

A Real Estate agent from Rochester MN has secured an option on 280 acres of land five miles south of Beresford at the I-29 and Alcester exit to build a “Kosher” meat packing plant between the interstate and old Hwy 77. The fact that it is a kosher plant may raise a few eyebrows, but the rest of the facts should raise everyone’s eyebrows. If I’m wrong you can guarantee I will hear about it. That’s okay, but I don’t think I am. If I am, it will get the true facts out in the open for everyone to know.

Let me give you the facts as I know them, and you decide whether or not this is going to be beneficial to the community or whether we are in between a rock and a hard spot.

1. This will be a kosher meat packing plant run by a group of Muslims. Those two facts right there don’t make sense, but this is what it is.

2. They will be processing up to 7000 head of cattle per week.

3. The area they are going to purchase is 280 acres at the junction of I-29 and the Alcester exit.

4. One of the items that isn’t clear is that a mosque will be built to service the employees. Whether or not it will be built on site or in Beresford isn’t clear, but it will be built.

5. The plant will build a wind farm to provide its own electric service.

6. There will be 65 trucks in and out each week

7. They will build a 12 foot fence around the entire area to close it off. They have done a terrorist threat level check of this area and have determined this area is rural enough and far away from potential terrorist activity not to be a problem.

8. They may provide onsite facilities for living quarters for the employees and their families.

9. The land went for $8000.00 an acre for a total of almost $3 million dollars. (give or take)

The one thing about this deal that really blows my mind is that they held a meeting in Beresford last Wednesday and were selling the visitors to the meeting shares in the company. I don’t know why they would be doing this other than to ensure their acceptance into the area.

Now that I’ve given you all the facts, I’m going to put my spin on this and see how close it comes to what may or may not happen. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what is going to happen.

The initial offer was made to the Larsen’s and they turned the offer down. I am so thankful to them for doing this and everyone should also thank them. It would be tough to turn down an offer for $3 million, but they thought more of this community than their personal gain. They can always build it someplace else and for Larsen’s to turn this down is magnanimous on their part.

If I’ve said this once, I’ve said it many many times that this is ag country and farmers are not comfortable with refineries and now a meat packing plant right in the middle of everything. Granted there was Morrells in Sioux Falls and Sioux City and the Lamb slaughter in Hawarden, but this is Union County. I hate to use this term, but it is cropping up again; NIMBY!

Remember back when, when so many of us were called NIMBY’s because of the refinery. I wonder how many people in Beresford are going to wake up one of these mornings and decide we didn’t have such a bad idea after all. I can use the same reasoning for the packing plant as I can for Hyperion. We cannot afford this. I don’t know how many people will be moving to this area, but the school budget just cut back on teachers and funds for other activities and now the school may increase in population by 50 to 100 or more. The school just opted out not too long ago and the state and county economy can’t take much more before things start to cave in. If they have on site living facilities, the town won’t be stressed for housing, but if not the town will be inundated with people looking for places to live. One has to ask themselves how this will change the demographics in town.

Do you remember when Hyperion was coming to town and everybody was passing rumors? I have to ask myself why is the county being so secretive about transactions like this. Whoever this company is, they have to get approval from the planning and zoning to change from ag to commercial or industrial. They have to have a public hearing and we get a say in what happens. Of course to expect them to turn this company down is not going to happen. You know they have talked to Mr. Henze and I know for a fact they have talked to one of our commissioners, so why the secrecy? I can guarantee you the public hearing this time will not be like the one for Hyperion. They may come here, but this time they are going to answer questions before things get approved. It Sounds like I’m against this doesn’t it? Damned NIMBY’s. This will not be a slam dunk!

You are my Sunshine, my only sunshine

2011-03-29T09:35:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>March 30th, 2011

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE, MY ONLY SUNSHINE!

Last week was Sunshine Week. This is celebrated by newspapers, reporters and people associated with making government “TRANSPARENT” for reporting accurately what is happening with our government agencies on the federal, state, and local level. Well this next part deserves to be in bold print because some county officials are NOT being transparent and this deserves to be brought to the public’s attention. They are laughing at us. We can’t threaten them, they are government. So There!

MARICARROL KUETER FROM THE “ARGUS LEADER” WROTE IN HER ARTICLE ABOUT TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT THAT SHE CALLED THE UNION COUNTY AUDITOR AND ASKED FOR

· DOCUMENTS OR CORRESPONDENCE DEMONSTRATING EFFORTS BY UNION COUNTY OR STATE OFFICIALS TO EVALUATE THE FINANCIAL SITUATION OF HYPERION REFINING LLC. IN ADDITION, WE ASKED FOR INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY'S PLAN FOR FINANCING CONSTRUCTION OF AN OIL REFINERY IN UNION COUNTY. THE UNION COUNTY AUDITOR DENIED OUR REQUEST AS DID THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

Shame, shame. Well, so much for the county helping Hyperion and their mission of ‘transparency’. Common decency should prevail here and they should give us an explanation. It is either that or they will be admitting by their silence that the county is about to give us the big one (shaft). You don’t suppose the county and Hyperion are in collusion do you? This has been a put up job since the very beginning. Is this state and this county hurting for money so badly that they will grovel to such low standards just to get “economic development” and to let Hyperion get their grubby paws in here? It is unconscionable that Ms. Klumper and the commissioners remain close mouth about this since the county approved Hyperion both at the Planning and Zoning level and at the Commissioners level. It is a done deal as far as they are concerned, so why can’t they release what the Argus is asking for. We have a right to know what they are doing. This is after all, still a democracy.

What does the county have to hide in its dealings with Hyperion? Or should it be turned around? Is it finally coming out of the mouse’s corner that this is a sham? Hyperion has no more intention of building a refinery than pigs can fly. Oh but there’s more. There was an ad in the Sioux City Journal Friday from Hyperion saying that they are in fact coming. They even have an office in Elk Point and it has been there since 2008. Here is the link if you would like to read OLD news. http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/special-section/local/rec/pdf_90d30d68-56fc-11e0-9862-001cc4c03286.html

When is this Silliness going to end?

I was sitting at the commissioners meeting all fat, dumb and happy when I heard the chairman asking for a motion to approve the states attorney to sign a real estate contract for purchase of 8 acres of ground at Load King for $150,000.00. I almost dropped my teeth. There had been no previous discussion about this purchase (executive session maybe), but never in public. They didn’t mention where the money was coming from; whether or not money had been budgeted for this purchase (it wasn’t); whose budget it was coming out of, or why they were going to purchase this property.

It turns out that the property is being purchased for the highway department to have more room. They thought the Load King property would be perfect since there was an offload station for trains to dump sand, gravel, rock, rip rap, and whatever to save transportation costs on stuff coming in for them to use. This is about as close as I can get to why they purchased this property. I talked to Mr. Roggow and he assured me that the opt out money is not being used to acquire this land. I thanked him for that. He said that he stands by that because he mentioned at all the meetings last summer before the vote that all the opt out money would be used for repair of roads and bridges. I told him I would be putting that in my article this week because sure as heck people are going to think it is coming from opt out funds. I still wanted to know where the money was coming from so I called Milt Ustad and he told me that it would be coming out of contingency funds.

Here is the definition of contingency funds. Pay close attention to the last sentence in this definition.

There are two reasons why families need contingency funds: for emergencies and for major expenditures.

Emergencies. A contingency fund is first an emergency fund for dealing with the unexpected. By having this money set aside and readily available, emergencies can be paid for without having to borrow.

Major expenditures. A contingency fund also can be used to finance major expenditures that are not in the operating budget:.

Whether contingency funds are used for emergencies or for major expenditures, a good rule to follow is that whenever funds are withdrawn from contingency accounts every effort should be made to rebuild the fund as quickly as possible. Naw – ain’t gonna happen.

I would imagine that the main reason for taking money out of the contingency fund is because this purchase was not allocated in the budget AND if they waited until next years budget, the property might already be sold. Now having said that, are the commissioners going to take $150,000 out of the highway department budget next year to pay for this? FAT CHANCE!

I found out by talking to Mr. Roggow that he has been saving money each year to build a new facility. He has been putting $75,000 away each year to enable him to do this. I understand he has been saving this money each year for 6 or 7 years. I was always under the presumption that if money is left over at the end of the year it goes to the general fund. Is that kosher? If that is the case, is he over estimating his budget by that much every year to have that money available?

And the beat goes on.

Who's in charge here?

2011-03-14T18:28:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>Who’s in charge here?

Last Tuesday’s Argus Leader had the most interesting article about the Hyperion situation. First of all, there was a statement from the Clay County commissioners that said they submitted a formal letter to the state DENR against the Hyperion project. HOLD ON here, they did what? Yes folks, all the members of the Clay County commissioners signed a letter to the DENR stating that Hyperion will bankrupt Clay County. The letter went on to say that they cannot afford the infrastructure requirements that Hyperion would press upon them. They cannot afford the emergency services, schools, roads etc that will be forced to be upgraded because of Hyperion. You can read their letter on the DENR website. Wonder when Union County Commissioners will figure this out??

Here is another article in last Tuesday’s Argus that really blows my mind. There is a quote from Union County Commission Chairman, Doyle Karpen and Elk Point Mayor, Isabel Trobaugh about the status of Hyperion. "We’re just kind of sitting and waiting," he said. "I mean, it's been three years now. (Actually it’s been 4 years Mr. Karpen) You guys know more about this than we do.”, Karpen said, adding that he's "sort of in the dark" about Hyperion's plans. He's not even sure whether the refinery is permitted. It's not."Evidently they lost my phone number after the election," he said, laughing. Mr. Karpen must have lost their number too.

Elk Point mayor Isabelle Trobough must be rowing the same boat that Mr. Karpen is on. Trobaugh said “planning for Hyperion's arrival has involved only upgrading Main Street and the city's water and sewer lines”."We're just waiting, like everyone else, to see what happens," she said. "I don't think it's going to hit us as hard as many people think. But there’s that if – are they coming in? They say they are. I don’t know.”

We supposedly have had a $10 BILLION industry coming into Union County since 2008 and our civic leaders say they don’t have a clue what is going on. The public might be dumb, but we aren’t stupid. Now really, do our commissioners and the mayor in Elk Point expect us to believe all that mumbo jumbo? Maybe they do. I’m sorry but this is no laughing matter and for Mr. Karpen to be so flippant about the situation makes one wonder whether or not he is the right man for the job. Let him keep his job as commissioner, after all he was elected by the people in his district, but replace him as the chairman. He obviously isn’t up to the job. OR, maybe he is being like Hyperion and holding proprietary information confidential because he doesn’t want the competition to know what is going on. (R-i-g-h-t)

Do you mean to tell me the only reason the mayor of Elk Point upgraded the streets, sewer, and water is for Hyperion and not for the well being of the citizens of Elk Point who pay the taxes? Ooh-h-h-h-h-h Isabelle! The mayor has a short memory. Do you remember when Ms. Trobaugh said Hyperion was coming and they had the money to build because Al Huddleston was an honorable man and she has no reason to doubt him, and that Hyperion was going to pay the $3 million to upgrade Main Street? C’mon---

My God folks, if our leaders are this out of touch, can you imagine what is going to happen when things start going wild around here?

Another thing that happened at the commissioner’s meeting was the subject of the bridge on 475th Ave. and 315th st. States Attorney Mr. Miller stated that even though this is in the Planned Development area, Hyperion doesn’t own any land there so the bridge is still the responsibility of the county. So if the county still owns the bridge and the rest of the infrastructure in the planned development because Hyperion doesn’t own any land, then it seems only logical to me that they can’t have this area zoned as a planned development because they don’t own the land. Does this make sense? If it does then p&z needs to correct themselves and remove it. (Fat chance)

Another subject that was broached at the meeting was an invitation by SECOG (southeast council of governments) to provide 4 free hours of their time to REDISTRICT the county and then only charge $50 per hour after that. Remember back before the election for commissioners that I said this was a very important election because of redistricting. Well, it seems that the commissioners were talking before the meeting and it looks like they are going to have 2 commissioners in the dunes, 1 in North Sioux City, 1 in Elk Point and 1 for the rest of the county. To me, that means that everything north of Highway 50 to the Lincoln county line and the Iowa border will have only one commissioner. Perish the thought! I have suggested in the past that this was going to happen and they should increase the number of commissioners from 5 to 7. This would soothe some of the ruffled feathers that are going to come about because of redistricting, and give us adequate representation to the commission board. Surely we are not going to sit back and take this without a say so in the process are we? We do have the VOTE!

My real question is why they are letting SECOG do it. Maybe the commissioners just don’t want to take the guff from people who will be upset with the changes. I don’t think the commissioners are up to redistricting and I don’t think they are up to handling Hyperion. They will just make things worse. So my question is still, who’s in charge here?

when do we reach the tipping point?

2011-03-09T14:23:00.001-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>When do we reach the tipping point?

I have been mulling over in my mind the events of the last 4 years and suddenly wondered when we will reach the tipping point on industries coming into Union County. For me this whole scenario started with the new zoning ordinance allowing Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s) to be built closer to homes (acreages) than previously allowed. I fought long and hard to get the new ordinance defeated. We carried petitions and worked the county hard and we won, but it took its toll. It was a very stressful time in my life. We did it once and succeeded, do we have to do it again?

It ended up that we had the ordinance repealed by a vote of the county. But wait a minute, during the latter days of the campaign we learned that there would be an oil refinery coming to union county and it would be a HUGE one. They were called Hyperion Resources, from Dallas Texas. Now in addition to the CAFO’s we had a refinery to worry about. We were rewriting the ordinance and now had to worry about how Hyperion was going to fit in. They were taking out options on thousands of acres of land until they got land that was contiguous, then they quit.

We went through a public hearing joke with the Planning and zoning, and then it was chapter 2 with the County Commissioners. This issue was brought to a vote and heavy voting by Dakota Dunes carried it through and lo and behold the county approved an oil refinery. This is where all of us opposed to the refinery started to puke. Mind you, this was 2007. Then it was 2008 and Hyperion got the vote of the county to build. 2009 was the Board of Minerals and Environment with the air permit. Then in late 2010 they announced it wasn’t economically feasible to build a refinery because of the state of the economy and it would be built in 2012. Well, late in 2010 Mr. Eric Williams and Dick white announced that shovels would be in the ground in the summer of 2011. It is like waiting for the other shoe to drop. They are just waiting until we give up. There are so many stories going around that one doesn’t know what to believe anymore.

What I’m alluding to in all this is do we have enough fight to try to battle other industries that may be coming to Union County. What kind of opposition will there be? Are we becoming elitists and saying we don’t want any economic development here? Is there anything worse than a refinery? How do we decide what is acceptable and what isn’t? Are we going to go through the turmoil again of friends and neighbors not speaking to each other because of what may or may not be coming to Union County? Where does it end? It is like someone has opened Pandora’s Box and we can’t close it now.

If something else comes in and trust me, they will be coming; do we resign ourselves that this is economic growth? We could find each other on opposite side of the fence again. I think we need to do some soul searching and decide what each of us is willing to give up being able to live the rest of our lives in peace and harmony. What are you willing to accept as a standard for what is allowable in the county and our lives? Like, who died and left us in charge?

We are going to have to do this with every industry that might come along, and they are all going to come to Union County for one reason. We have laws that are not written for anything but agriculture and a p&z that will allow a dog to get a permit.

They have waged a successful campaign so far, and like the old saying goes, if they have the money, you can’t stop them. We can have this in the courts for the next ten years and what have we gained? Zilch, nada, zip cause they have made up their minds this is where it is going to be and that’s it. While we are fighting one industry, another will just take its place.

So I guess I’m just facing reality and resigning myself that the world is changing; some for the better and some for the worse. I only hope those who make these decisions do it wisely. I guess quality of life and love of the land doesn’t mean squat. If we are not good stewards of the land, we will suffer the consequences.

In the SCJ on Sunday was an article about Hyperion. They were quoting Cindy Schield from API (American Petroleum Institute), that the high gas prices will have little to do with whether or not Hyperion decides to build a refinery. The local economy will not see low gas prices even if Hyperion builds because of two issues; the law of supply and demand, and that gas prices are controlled by the speculators in the commodities market. I have been saying this forever, and it is really nice to see someone who works in the industry to be saying this. She does not see Hyperion as a player, because Hyperion doesn’t even belong to the API. Now what does that tell you?

What is our destiny in life? Is it behind door #1, door #2, or door #3?

You can't push a rope uphill

2011-03-01T20:35:00.001-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>You can’t push a rope up the hill.

I swear, the way the County Commissioners treat a budget is like trying to push a rope uphill. They really got their knickers in a wad this year and emphatically said to the county employees “no raises.” And that is where it ended. Oh, that didn’t include a $100 dollar a month stipend increase for the chairman of the commission. Ross Jordan said that the commissioner works so hard and puts in so much extra time that he is deserving of an extra $100 a month, so slam bam thank you ma’am they gave Doyle a raise. AND he humbly accepted it, thank you. I would think he would want to set an example for the county employees that the commissioners should take a cut in pay not a raise. He just sat there and had a little smirk on his face.

I guess there is no such thing as a budget being set in stone is there? It was just 2 months ago that the sheriff came to the commissioners and asked for a new Pick-up truck because one of the sheriff’s cars is on its last leg, and the department wants to start converting the fleet to pick-ups to make it easier to traverse the back roads of the county to better serve the residents. He also advised the commissioners that he had extra money in the budget to pay for it. So rather than turn the money back into the general fund like he should do, the board said to go with it. The sheriff had already been looking for a replacement vehicle because Fanta-C-Auto had one that was just what the sheriff needed. So again, slam bam thank you ma’am the deal was done. Now, I’m not 100% sure that the deputies get to take these vehicles home with them when their shift is done, but I think they do.

Well, at the commissioners meeting this week, the commissioners were talking among themselves that there was a request before the commission for a new 4 x 4 vehicle, preferably a pickup, so that the county employees and the county assessor could make better use of the employees time by having a pick up to drive around in so they didn’t have to pack a car full of the stuff they needed to do assessments of the homes in the county. The commissioners joked about them wanting a Suburban or a Tahoe. (Chuckle chuckle) they couldn’t really decide what to get and to go out for bids they had to be specific because they can’t just call a dealer and say ‘hey I need a pick-up.’ So they called Dot Kistner up to the meeting to talk about her needs. She said they needed a bigger vehicle so they could all fit into it with their stuff when they go out assessing. The commissioners asked her how many miles she would drive a week, since this would be a big factor in deciding what type of vehicle to get. (We haven’t even talked money or budget yet). She told them they just finished doing Wynstone and are going into North Sioux City and that would be mostly city driving. The commissioners asked how fast they needed to go and Dot replied 65mph. (speed limit on county roads is 55) but that most of the time they would be just parking the vehicle and walking. She also said that it would be 3 to 5 years before they got out into the rural areas. The commissioners thanked her for her input. Doesn’t anyone worry that with the price of gas headed to $5 a gallon that a pick-up or SUV might be a bit expensive to operate? Or doesn’t the county worry about things like that since they buy bulk gas?

Whoa here Nelly! Is Dot trying to say the Assessor’s office will be driving more than 40,000 miles a year? That is a lot of miles when you don’t even leave the county. I don’t believe the assessor’s office has someone in the field 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. The commissioners were inferring that in three to five years they would get her a new vehicle for driving in the rural areas? I could hardly believe what I was hearing. BUDGET GUYS, BUDGET! Where the heck is all this money coming from to buy all these new vehicles? Does anyone in the county keep track of the maintenance costs on a regular basis for each vehicle? Is it really necessary we travel in such comfort? Do we really need a new vehicle for the assessor or can we make do with maybe a good USED vehicle? This county just had to opt out for $550,000 because there isn’t enough money in the coffers to keep up with trying to make sure the infrastructure doesn’t take a dump on us and the commissioners are talking getting some NEW (different) vehicles. My-my -my -my -my.

There was an article in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader last month about the Minnehaha commissioners shuffling money between agencies in the county to enable them to complete certain projects before the bad weather sets in. there are other examples but the ruling that came down was yes, the commissioners can do this IF it means not having delays etc. I think our commissioners eyes lit up when they read this, because they have been shuffling money in the county for years.

Last year, they took $46,000+ from the budget of Mr. Sexton (building custodian) to pay for the parking lot across the street from the court house. They took $25,000+ from the budget of Mr. Roggow (Highway department) to pay for the easement of the old weigh station down in North Sioux City. They still have to find the money to build the road because nothing has been budgeted for this year. Now maybe one can understand why I go to all these meetings, when all this money can be spent and they blame it on the employees for overspending and not themselves for being so frivolous. Just goes to show you, that you CANNOT push a rope uphill.

You say Tomato, I say Tomahto

2011-02-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>February 23rd, 2011

You say Tomato, I Say Tomahto

As the days go on and on and on since we first heard the ugly word “Gorilla”, things are becoming more convoluted. Over the last 3 years our people have been saying on an almost weekly or daily basis what is wrong with having an oil refinery in Union County converting the ugly tar sands from Canada to gasoline products. Time sure flies don’t it? It is hard to believe we’ve been at this since 2007. We have said time and time again, with accurate information I might add, the harmful effects of the emissions from the refinery. We have reported on the dangers of the pipeline. We have emphasized the negative effects this will have on the community and infrastructure. What more do we need to do to convince people this is not a good thing? This is not economic development folks, this is economic disaster.

With up to 10,000 workers in this area for the 5 years it will take to get this behemoth up and running, it is plain and simple, we can’t afford it. We can’t afford it health wise, we can’t afford it economy wise, and we can’t afford it environmentally. So my question is: WHY WON’T PEOPLE LISTEN? We are screaming from the rooftops, but everyone must be like me; hard of hearing. Either that or they don’t want to listen.

One has to wonder what benefit there is for people to be so all fired up over something so harmful. We must remember that even though the unemployment rate in this area is under 5%, to be employed by the refinery one must have the skills the refinery is looking for. It always amuses me when I read the application that Hyperion submitted, that one of the many benefits they continually emphasized was that farmers and their wives could all work at the refinery on their off hours. What a joke. It just shows to go ya how much they know about the people in this area. What do they think farmers do all day?

One cannot invest in the refinery because Hyperion is a privately owned company. ALL the money is headed for Texas. So what is the big deal? I know it isn’t cheap gas because I printed a chart in one of my other articles what the price of gas is around other refineries.

So where is the economic development? Oh, I forgot. The workers need someplace to release all that pent up energy from working all day, so bars, night clubs and restaurants are going to sprout up all over the place. Kinda like what is happening at Garryowen.

I do know that there will be more jobs because our infrastructure cannot support an additional 5,000 to 10,000 immigrants, (that is a bad word isn’t it?), migrant workers. This means the private sector will be building AND PAYING for the infrastructure to support Hyperion. My only concern is how is this economic development when we have to build the entire infrastructure to support the refinery. Is this a lose-lose situation or what?

I’m sorry to be so cynical about this whole deal, but the Sioux City Journal last Sunday printed this article about the ‘bullet’ pipeline coming from Canada and touted the fact that Hyperion said again that construction will start with vigor in August 2011. What a load of crap. I’m getting really tired of reading the same thing over and over. I suppose you are getting tired of me saying the same thing over and over as well. I say it because we must persevere. I still want to know Why Union County. It makes absolutely no sense.

The Board of Minerals and Environment met last Thursday in Pierre. I don’t know what the outcome is going to be but I can guess. The vote will be 9-0 to grant the extension. Starting last Friday and for the next 30 days is the comment period on the request. Then if there is no objection, the panel will vote. I know there will be objections, so then there will be another 30 day waiting period for the BME to respond, then it will go to a contested hearing, then we will end up in court. Where have you heard all this before?

An article in this month’s Union County Electric magazine, written by Robert B. Laughlin, entitled “What the Earth Knows” says it is up to each one of us to decide whether climate change and global warming are in fact happening, or is it just a fact of the earth’s natural cycle. He said that the geologic record suggests that climate ought not to concern us too much when we’re gazing into the energy future, not because it’s unimportant, but because it’s beyond our power to control.

Well, ashes to ashes and dust to dust, this is one piece of dust that isn’t giving up without a fight, no matter what. Are you with me?

I'm really torqued off

2011-02-13T21:07:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>I’m really torqued off!

How do you say ‘I’m really pissed off’ in English? I take great pride in the fact that information in the articles that I submit to the paper is correct. I may add quirky little quips after some of the things I say. My remarks to articles that I write about have a biased slant to them; that is the whole purpose of this column, but I print the facts. I may not agree with them, but I print them. If I agree with my sources, I say why. If I disagree, I say why. If I write it, you can be assured that what I’m saying is correct. (Sgt Joe Friday used to say ‘just the facts ma’am, just the facts)

Now having said that, I wish there were some other papers that could say that. There was a press release put out last week by DENR or Hyperion about some issues that have arisen about the proposed refinery in Union County. Other papers chose to pick this statement apart and only use portions of it. That is why I’m really torqued off. I am either naive or innocent. (I know I’m not innocent so I must be naïve). It has always been my understanding, up until now, that the papers printed the news but left it up to the reader to determine if it was right or wrong and agree or disagree. (‘Not so’.) I can understand a liberal or conservative slant to the news, but to omit facts altogether to enhance your viewpoint is not good journalism in my view. In fact I consider it propaganda. Propaganda, yes that is a good term to use isn’t it? If a paper purposely misleads the reader on one subject do you suppose they do it on others as well? (Oh No-o-o-o-). Why that would be propaganda not news reporting. To me when a paper loses its credibility they lose everything.

I would like to quote James Heisinger again on his thoughts for the EPA. “We must support the EPA; they arrived like a gift from God, just in time to stall an incredible and deserving flood of industrial carcinogens and environmental destruction, a gift from corporate America. Unless we at least support the EPA, and place some trust in science the good life on this good earth will continue the present remarkably rapid change. We will have cast ourselves out of the figurative Garden of Eden.”

Sometimes articles are written to inform you and sometimes they are written to scare you. in the February issue of the Union County Electric ‘Cooperative Connections’ was an article about your electric rates possibly going up and the cause and effect of the EPA putting new regulations into effect. It is my opinion that this is an article written to scare everyone to be against the EPA because of them all utility companies will be forced to raise their rates. The name of the article is “Red Tape Overload”. One of the most scaring paragraphs in the article says – “Clearly, EPA is wielding the Clean Air Act as a bludgeon, pressing it into service because the outgoing Congress was unable to agree on how to curb greenhouse gases emissions blamed for contributing to climate change.” Notes Glenn English, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) based in Arlington VA.

The rest of the article points to different decisions the EPA has rendered that have resulted in unfavourable situations for people.

I would like to remind people that the EPA was created by the clean air act of 1970. It had 2 missions at that time which was to regulate smog emissions from automobiles in the United States, mainly California and stop Acid Rain which was decimating the forests throughout the north and northeast. As a result of their aggressive rulings, California now has the strictest rules in the country for emissions from not only automobiles but factories and coal fired power plants as well. Acid rain is a thing of the past. You never hear of instances of acid rain devastating the forests anymore.

Now however, industry especially power plants are preaching to anyone that will listen that because of the stringent demands of the EPA your electric rates will go through the roof. Power companies are refusing to make changes to meet the standards and are putting the blame on everyone but themselves. Scare Tactics!

Have they asked us what we are going to do when the rates increase? No they have not. I’m sure we will do the same thing when other adversities face us, we will improvise and adapt. We have done that since forever when faced with shortages. We will turn to alternative energies. We will conserve. We will do without, but we will change. Prices on commodities are based on the law of supply and demand. We demand and they supply. When they have a glut on the market for electricity the price will come down. Their profits will no longer be double and triple digits for the stockholders, but a more moderate profit margin and maybe even a loss, but we will come out the better for it.

Climate change and global warming is not a myth. It is fact. Last year in Antarctica there was a glacier that broke away from the continent that was larger than the state of Rhode Island. Why did this happen? It happened because of global warming. Birds are migrating earlier; weather anomalies are more frequent both in summer and winter around the world. Why does this happen? Climate change is why this is happening.

It is up to each and every one of us to support the EPA in this challenging time because if not for the EPA and environmental organizations like the Sierra Club not stepping in there would be nobody to stop industry from running ramped and things will continue to get worse. All because of GREED. Plain and simple GREED. Even if we do nothing, i can guarantee that your rates will continue to rise. Now you can understand why I’m really torqued off.

Who's to blame

2011-02-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>Who’s to blame?

I think Hyperion and the state DENR are playing a game of cat and mouse. Just when one thinks they have heard everything about the proposed Hyperion center, something new crops up. I don’t know who to blame; the state, the press, Hyperion or all three.

There was a press release from Hyperion or DENR talking about Hyperion having to add 4 preheaters to their refinery process to become compliant with the new EPA standards for GHG (greenhouse gasses) and the fact that they wanted this process to be confidential because the methodology used is proprietary and could be used by other companies in the industry. This is a very competitive market stated Hyperion and they want to keep it under their hat. (a really teeny tiny one) I’ve never heard such hokum in my life and really got upset that these guys are playing games.

Then I went to the DENR website http://denr.sd.gov/hyperionaqrfe.aspx just to check things out and lo and behold this conversation between DENR and Hyperion has been going on since last September or October. Initially DENR wanted Hyperion to add 21 pre-heaters. They bartered back and forth and Hyperion finally said they would add 4 heaters to the 9 already in the plans. Nobody in the press reported accurately what has been going on. The way it comes out in the paper is that Hyperion agreed to add 4 more preheaters at a cost of $18 million out of the goodness of their heart and said that anything more would not be cost effective. Now here comes the good part. It was DENR, not Hyperion that figured out what the savings would be. Who is building this thing DENR or Hyperion? My thoughts are that Hyperion comes up with this goofey idea for a refinery and cuts and pastes a bunch of gobbledygook in a paper then lets DENR do all the math which saves Hyperion the work because they don’t have the expertise nor manpower to do this anyway. They just go with the flow. DENR isn’t that much better, but at least it gives them something to do.

Preston Phillips said that “Hyperion is constantly looking for ways to reduce the carbon footprint and to improve the efficiency of the refinery.” Oh really Preston. If you are looking for ways to reduce the footprint then install what the state and the EPA is asking for. When you are in the $10-12 BILLION dollar range for building something, what is another $25-50 million dollars when it will ensure the safety of the surrounding community and reduce the carbon footprint AND improve the efficiency of the refinery? They say you can always tell when a Norwegian is telling the truth, because the snoos will run out of both sides of his mouth not just one. No Norwegians at DENR or Hyperion.

Another thing that bothers me about Hyperion asking that this information be kept confidential is that by making it public, they would be giving away trade secrets. Oh come on now, how can somebody that has never done anything keep trade secrets? Just because a new refinery hasn’t been built in the last 36 years doesn’t mean people have been sitting around picking their noses. I would bet that the rest of the industry is laughing so hard it makes them cry. The only trade secret I can see here is where Hyperion is going to get their $10 Billion dollars.

By the way, adding the preheaters still doesn’t bring them under the standard, it just brings them back to the 900 tons of carbon dioxide they ‘forgot’ to add to their totals from before. Adding 4 preheaters will just change the amount of methane emissions by about 475-480 tons. When you are emitting 16 tons of GHG annually, this is a pittance. (16 tons of #9 coal and whadda get? Another day older and deeper in debt (Tennessee Ernie Ford). And we are supposed to think Hyperion is the greatest thing since crunchy peanut butter now. Get Real!

If you will remember, Hyperion was to have to start building by February 20th, 2011 or start the process all over again. Hyperion did ask for and received an extension until August 2012. I can see why now. The other thing is that they have to file with the Board of Minerals and Environment by the 25th of February 2011 to keep the information confidential. They must explain why revealing this information to the public would be harmful for Hyperion. Sounds very professional doesn’t it? You can bet your bottom dollar that the verdict will be 9-0 before they even sit down to discuss it. You must remember that Governor Rounds supported this and said he would move heaven and earth to ensure this happens. You don’t think Governor Daugaard won’t act in the same fashion? There might have been an election in November, but all that really happened is that there was just a shuffle of personnel. Nothing changes, and you can be assured that the state of South Dakota has sunk into this up to their eyeballs and it is too late for them to back out at this point of the juncture.

Now I'm really confused

2011-01-30T22:44:00.001-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>Now I’m Really Confused

I had originally written my article for this week offering choices between ‘cap and trade’ or no cap and trade. I found out that ‘cap and trade’ was dead on arrival. I wasn’t even invited to the funeral. The EPA would have been the traffic cop for ‘cap and trade.’ The EPA is the only thing keeping us between a rock and a hard place.

As many of you know, after the election in November, Governor Daugaard said that anyone against Hyperion was an environmental extremist. The new governor had dashed my vision of what the Republican Party stood for and to avoid further embarrassment, switched to being an Independent. I’m still a Republican at heart, and will let it go at that. I don’t want this column to become a sounding board for my political beliefs. Ergo; the rest of this article.

One of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination for President is Newt (Grinch) Ginrich from Georgia. He came out with a statement the other day that is leaving really me quite bewildered. He is proposing that we do away with the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and replace it with an agency called the ESA (Environmental Solutions Agency). Isn’t this what bureaucrats do after every election? He claims that the EPA has become so bogged down with litigations and enforcing the laws that were designed to protect the environment that they have lost sight of their objective. DUH! That is what the agency was formed to do. If they don’t do it, who will? We need something on a national level to enforce the decisions made by congress. If we leave it up to the individual states we will have 50 different laws for the same thing. He said that the EPA has become the bureaucracy of choice for Presidents and ideologues to exert more control over the decision making of the private sector and local and state governments, stifling the very innovation and entrepreneurship that is necessary to achieve a cleaner environment.

Such an agency would create a stronger economy with more American jobs and more American energy, all while protecting human health and the environment. And at a time when Americans are demanding smaller government, the time to replace the EPA with a leaner, more efficient agency has never been better. It has been my experience with Washington that change does nothing more than increase the size of government..

My question is where does this leave us? Do we settle for an agency that makes decisions based on whichever way the wind blows or do we strive to provide support for an institution that will actually do something good for everyone including the environment. The EPA cannot be an effective agency if they change their decisions every time some new politician comes into power. I think the Grinch is basing his decision on information that is not only unfounded but inaccurate.

Here is what his solution to the problem is: The EPA should be replaced with the Environmental Solutions Agency, which would incorporate the necessary statutory responsibilities of the old EPA while eliminating the job-killing regulatory abuses and power grabs of the old EPA. This would be achieved by bringing together science, technology, entrepreneurs, incentives, and local creativity to create a cleaner environment through smarter regulation. I thought this is what we have now. Everyone has opinions, but a rush to judgment is not the answer. Before we had the EPA we had nothing. The “Clean Air Act of 1970” created the EPA and set the standards for clean energy, but was mainly aimed at the automobile. Now we have standards that industry must meet or the EPA will shut them down. It took 40 years for the EPA to reach the point they are at now.

For every example the Grinch gives to do away with the EPA, I’m sure we can show cause that they should be left alone. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I may be selfish here, but we need the EPA, If for no other reason that it is keeping Hyperion out of here. (There, I finally got to the crux of this article.) The state of South Dakota DENR is flaunting its power by stating that Hyperion doesn’t need an environmental impact statement to do business in this state. The EPA says that it is imperative that they prove they can operate without doing harm to the environment and that includes the human factor. Without a regulatory agency to run roughshod over wannabe’s like Hyperion things would be totally out of control. If you don’t have standards, you have nothing. There are 145 refineries in the United States; some have been operating for over 75 years. Can you imagine the chaos if they all operated at the whim of whoever happened to be President at the time?

I would like to quote James Heisinger on his thoughts for the EPA. “We must support the EPA; they arrived like a gift from God, just in time to stall an incredible and deserving flood of industrial carcinogens and environmental destruction, a gift from corporate America. Unless we at least support the EPA, and place some trust in science the good life on this good earth will continue the present remarkably rapid change. We will have cast ourselves out of the figurative Garden of Eden.”

Amen

Up Jumps the Snakes

2011-01-19T13:38:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>“Up jump the snakes!”

I was really going to be good this week and write a nice, sweet informative article about the beautiful tar sands up in Canada and suddenly up jumps a snake, in fact, up jump two snakes, and I’m turning into the “Mad Hatter.”

The first part of my article concerns the subject Julie Madden wrote in the Hometowner last week about redistricting. (One of the nice things about my articles is that Julie reports the news and I get to pontificate.)

As you well know, I mentioned several times last year that the commissioners election was critical because 2010 was a census year and district boundary lines within the state and county are going to be set according to population density. Now, the mouse is coming out of the woodwork. If it happens like I think it will happen, (I haven’t been wrong lately,) I would like to call this redistricting “Taxation without representation.” We will have absolutely no vote in how it’s done, and won’t like it when it is finished.

The main portion of Julie’s article concerned a statement made by Representative James Bolin (16th District) when he met with the commissioners about slicing up Union County, and his state district. He offered several scenarios that could come into play that is appealing depending on your governing interests. (i.e. Commissioner’s and Representative Districts) This covered slicing up the north half of the county and combining with Lincoln County. Combining with Vermillion is another possibility. - AND – they would probably leave it up to SECOG (Southeast Council of Governments) a “non-profit” (government) organization out of Sioux Falls to draw the lines. Now you have to understand here, that SECOG could give a rip as to our wants and needs in the county. (You saw what happened with the zoning ordinance rewrite.) They are the government, we are just one slice in their pie, and they are here to help us. The last time SECOG performed its magic with redistricting, we lost two good commissioners, Roger Boldenow and Dale Harkness.

Whenever you hear someone from the government come in and say “Hi I’m from the government and I’m here to help you,” you better pack your bags and head for the hills cause it ain’t gonna be a good deal. You’re about to get the shaft, because they got the goldmine. Political posturing is going to weigh heavily on drawing the district lines. You can bet your bottom dollar that Dakota Dunes will want 2 commissioners just for the dunes.

Why on earth would we leave it up to SECOG to set the lines? I’m pretty sure the state law says the commissioners are responsible to set the district lines. (It is called gerrymandering.) Are people scared to make decisions anymore? (I could re-e-e-ly say something nasty here but I won’t)

Union county is unique in that it might have something that everybody wants a piece of. It is called HYPERION. This is the golden cow. Anyway, back to my story. The one thing that has only been mentioned once that I know of is that it was suggested that the far southern end of the county could end up with 3 commissioners. Now you had better read this closely because it is going to kill Union County if we only have 5 commissioners and 3 of them are in the Dakota Dunes, McCook Lake, Wynstone and North Sioux City area. That leaves the entire rest of the county with only 2 commissioners to represent us because of the population shift. The only fair solution I can see to this is to increase the number of commissioners from 5 to 7. And don’t be foolish enough to think this discussion hasn’t taken place, because it most certainly has. The commissioners aren’t stupid.

Not only will this affect the commissioners, but each commissioner appoints one member to the planning and zoning board from their district. Now if you don’t think that will screw things up and create a mess, holy mackerel dere Andy!

The other issue is also from Representative Jim Bolin. He mentioned in his weekly press release that this is going to be a tough year as far as the budget is concerned because we aren’t getting any money from the feds, and some tough decisions are going to have to be made because there isn’t enough money to go around. 1) We have to balance our budget. 2) There is no appetite for general tax increase. 3) Sources of revenue declining. 4) No more stimulus funds. I would like to remind Mr. Bolin that he was elected to make tough decisions. I mean, I can make the easy ones, “Yes, Mr. Governor.”

Mr. Bolin has said repeatedly he supports Hyperion. Governor Rounds and Governor Daugaard have both supported Hyperion. Hyperion has said many times lately that they will have shovels in the ground in 2011. Now, is it time for Hyperion to put its money where their mouth is? And is it time to put up or shut up? That first shovelful of dirt is going to be expensive. Woo-Hoo! C’mon South Dakota let’s give it up for Hyperion!

That would mean a minimum of $200 million in excise taxes just to start. Think of that folks, $200 million. That would solve everyone’s problems. OOPS I forgot, Hyperion asked to be treated like all other new businesses in the state and 90% or $182 million of that $200 million in excise tax will be forgiven.(page 18 of variance for Conditional Use Permit or Planned Development section of the zoning ordinance) so the state gets a whopping $18 million dollars. Darn! And just to ensure they get that tax break, they have it written into the Union County zoning ordinance and of course the commissioners signed off on it. What a deal. So Mr. Bolin, there is your solution to number 3 of the states problems, repeal that portion of the excise tax law. Slam dunk Huh? How about a quick phone call to Dallas?

'Oh what a tangled web we weave

2011-01-14T19:39:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>“Oh what a tangled web we weave”

I’m getting a bit confused here and thought I should share my views with you so that we can be confused together. That way we know what each of us is talking about, we just won’t understand what we are saying. Hyperion calls this techno babble.

One of the things Hyperion has been ‘touting’ as part of the greenest refinery to be built in the last 30 years is a refinery built with IGCC capabilities. Here is the definition of IGCC just to refresh your memories.

An integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) is a technology that turns coal or pet coke into gas—synthesis gas (syngas). It then removes impurities from the coal gas before it is combusted and attempts to turn any pollutants into re-usable byproducts. This results in lower emissions of sulfur dioxide, particulates and mercury. Excess heat from the primary combustion and generation is then passed to a steam cycle, similarly to a combined cycle gas turbine. This then also results in improved efficiency compared to conventional pulverized coal. (The neighbors might not like the sulfur smell, but ‘that’s the oil biz.’) You understand that whole mess don’t you? I wish I did. When I took chemistry in high school, the only word I would have recognized in this whole paragraph would have been coal.

Now, if they are removing the impurities and then use ‘green’ technology to sequester the carbon gas there should be a reduced amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere because it is going to be pressurized, sent down a pipeline to some place that will pump the gas into an area underground where it will be sealed ‘forever’ and never leak. That is unless carbon dioxide is not part of the IGCC process, in which case it will just spew out the stack; 16.9 MILLION TONS of carbon dioxide. This does not include the ‘mistake’ made in their calculations for the methane. Right!

However carbon sequestration, which is a part of the IGCC process, isn’t going to be added to the refinery operation for two reasons. (Maybe there are more). They said long ago that carbon sequestration is not economically feasible. (They said this about IGCC as well but changed their minds.) This will raise the cost of the gas because of the added expense for sequestration. Where are they going to pipe it to? Texas? The other reason is I don’t believe they asked for it in their air permit and according to a very well versed individual they wouldn’t stand a snowballs chance in Hades of getting the permit if that was in it. Again, where are they going to sequester the carbon? It certainly won’t be around here.

Speaking of ‘mistakes’ (I’m putting a lot of words into quotes aren’t I?), does stretching the truth count as a lie or is it a mistake? Back when Hyperion was initially coming up with the data for the HEC, the power plant was going to produce 300KW of power. When they found out that any power plant producing over 250MW of power came under the operational purview of the state PUC, they suddenly revamped their figures and sure enough the plant will only produce 200MW of power instead of the figure first reported of 300MW. Hm-m-m-m-m

Here is an outright lie. Preston Phillips reported that the project would be profitable when the price of oil hits $60 per barrel. Oil hit $60 per barrel so long ago I can’t even remember when it was. As of today oil is at $90 -100 a barrel and pundits are predicting $200 a barrel by this time next year, so where the hell is Hyperion? Man are they missing the boat here. Oh I forgot, it takes money to build things these days and Hyperion doesn’t have any. Shame on me!

Then by golly they reported that the HEC would be using 10-12 million gallons of water from the Missouri river per day to cool the refinery and the coal plant. When they found out that any industry using more than 10,000 acre feet (325,000 gallons = 1 acre foot) has to be approved by the state legislature, they refigured their math and lo and behold they will only be using 9,000 acre feet per day of water. Shazam!

Now here comes the latest blast from the HEC that they ‘forgot’ to include the figures from the power plant when they were figuring the amount of methane that would be emitted by the HEC. It was originally 10, 500 tons of methane but with the power plant figured into the equation it suddenly becomes 20,600 tons of methane. Does the coal fired power plant at the Port Neal facility put out 20,000 tons of Methane and Sulfur Dioxide? The two together would be putting out a hell of a lot of pollution don’t you think? Should those figures be counted into the equation as well? After all, they are only 30 miles (as the crow flies unless of course you fall dead out of the sky) apart aren’t they? I don’t know who their engineering staff is that comes up with all this but they need to be fired. What really bothers me is that they haven’t even started construction yet. Can you imagine the mechanical engineers they will hire to do this if this is the best they can do on the permitting.

If you really want to see what is happening in Alberta, go to YouTube and in the search box, type in some of the following. ‘Tar sands’ Alberta tar sands’ Canadian oil’ there are both pro and con videos about the tar sands. Try to find the one that shows the status of the mining in the year 2020. Look at all the ancillary businesses around the refinery. Propaganda at its best.

Don’t you just love all the double speak that is going on here? Oh what tangled webs we weave when at first we try to deceive.”(Sir Walter Scott)

Well Duh!

2011-01-02T19:38:00.001-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>WELL DUH!

There was such an interesting article in the SCJ last week that I just have to put in my 2 cents worth. The name of the article was ‘Coal-fired power plant blamed for dead zone.’

The article is written about Bastrop, Texas. It seems that the coal-fired power plant and the sulfur dioxide emissions from this plant has killed or is killing all the pecan trees around the plant. DUH!

Now get this, the environmentalists and scientists believe the culprit is the power plant is Bastrop, but the plant’s operators and the state environmental regulator deny sulfur dioxide pollution is the cause. (Does this sound familiar?) Evidence gathered from the Appalachian Mountains to New Mexico suggest otherwise. Sulfur dioxide kills vegetation, especially pecan trees. Are these coal plants burning pet coke for fuel? Could this happen here as well?

Pecan growers in Albany, Georgia have received millions of dollars in an out-of-court settlement with power plants whose sulfur dioxide emissions harmed their orchards. Texas has 19 coal-fired power plants and 4 more are planned. In each area where this phenomenon of dying pecan trees is reported, guess what? There is a coal fired power plant nearby. I won’t go into the description of the areas, except that one orchard used to have 200,000 lbs of pecans a year and now it is down to 8,000. All his trees are dead or dying. The man who owns the orchard says that everything around him is dead, dead, dead. Will Hyperion do this for the farmers here when crops suffer? DUH NO!

I sympathize with those people down there, but if this is happening to trees, what is happening to the people. I wonder if there are increases in cancer or lung diseases as well. Let’s fast forward to Union County. Nay-Sayers around here say this won’t happen here. Look at Port Neal, there isn’t any problem with pollution from that coal plant. I disagree with that statement, because there are increased cases of cancer in that area as well as increases in lung related diseases.

I was listening to Sam Clovis on KSCJ talk radio the other day and he had somebody on there talking about the positive impact Hyperion is going to have on the Siouxland area. I called back on Thursday and got my 2 cents worth in with Sam. I reminded Sam that since Hyperion started this fiasco back in 2006 that Hyperion has not bought even 1 acre of ground. Hyperion still has not said that Union County is the place where the refinery will be built. I asked 4 questions back in early 2007 that still have not been answered by Hyperion. 1) Where is the oil coming from? 2) How will it get here? 3) How will it get out of here? And 4) where is the money coming from? These questions have never been answered.

Just for the record, Eric Williams who is the spokesman for Hyperion says that they will build a ‘bullet’ line from Canada direct to Hyperion HEC. What a load of crud. That would take them 7 years or more to get done. North Dakota or some other state would have to agree to let them run a pipeline and the United States would have to sign a treaty with Canada to let the petroleum cross the border. Of course, it will be a slam dunk for them to get approval from Round’s clone Daugaard. TransCanada says that they are at maximum production of 1 million barrels a day. That is all going on Keystone and XL. There is nothing left for Hyperion. Mr. Huddleston said build it and they will come.

Preston Phillips and Dick White have both said that 2012 is the new target date because it just isn’t economically feasible to build right now with the country the way it is. Baloney, they can’t get any financial backing that’s why.

Preston Phillips is on record 4 years ago saying that it would be profitable to refine tar sands when the price got to $70 a barrel, and we held our breaths that it wouldn’t happen. Well it is now at $95 a barrel and it still is on hold. The one thing that happens when the price of oil goes up is that the price we pay at the pump goes up as well. We are paying $3.00 per gallon now and they are predicting $5.00 by the first part of the summer. And where is Hyperion. They are nowhere to be found. One thing about the price of oil going up, we get to pay for it before and after it gets refined. Remember when they are talking about being profitable, it is for Hyperion NOT Union County.

Sulfur dioxide isn’t the only thing to worry about. Do you remember back when they were having public hearings on the refinery When Hyperion was having public hearings I was at one of the meetings when people were talking about their concerns with the high amount of water being used each day. I asked a Mr. Davis Ford, who was the water expert from Texas A & M, why they don’t buy the Seburn gravel pit and just recycle the water. He replied that they cannot recycle the water because it is too corrosive for use in the pipes at the refinery. That was the end of the conversation. I have thought about this many times, why did we let this go. If the water is too corrosive to be recycled into the refinery, why is it okay for us to use it? I think we screwed up on this issue. Too soon old, too late smart.

People who believe that we will get cheap gas when the refinery comes in should reread the article I had in around the middle of December when I showed the price we are paying here and the price they are paying at the refinery in El Segundo. I wonder if Rounds knows about this. Again, gas is a commodity and it goes to the highest bidder. If you want to have plenty of gas for the fall harvest, you’re going to have to bid for it and then you will have gas running out your ears. Look again at how many refineries are shut down and how many are running at only 60-70% capacity. WELL DUH!

i'm just underwhelmed

2010-12-19T19:20:00.001-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>I’m just UNDERWHELMED!

First of all, let me wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Cathy and me.

This has been a heck of a week for news on Hyperion. First there was an article in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader about Hyperion and their air permit. It seems that Hyperion ‘forgot’ to list the amount of pollutants from the refinery correctly. The amount of methane that will be emitted from the refinery was initially reported to be somewhere around 475 tons per year. While they were doing the math on the ‘revised’ permit it seems that they forgot to include the amount of methane that will be emitted by the power plant. (Oh dear me!) The amount of methane emitted each year will actually be somewhere around 900 tons. That figure is double of what was originally reported. What is even more amazing is that the DENR approved the first report which leads me to really and seriously doubt that DENR has a clue about this whole process. The problem now is – what is going to crop up next, and like a leak in the pipeline or the refinery, it isn’t a matter of IF but when.

This whole process is flawed and I lay the blame fully on the governor. He might have the rest of South Dakota fooled about the refinery, but I guarantee you he doesn’t have the concerns of the people around the refinery in his list of priorities. What baffles me the most is the media that jumps on this hype; prints it in the paper and then expects people to believe this tripe? Governor Rounds stated in his comments that the refinery is vital to the economy of South Dakota. It might be economy, but it is all for the Huddleston family and Hyperion. I call it ‘Judas’ money.

According to the Argus Article, Governor Rounds has been the shepherd of the proposed Hyperion project for roughly half of his 8 years in office and is passionate about what the project will mean for both South Dakota and the nation. (They don’t say that he has spent the last four years building his resume for Hyperion to look at).

“One of the reasons gas prices in South Dakota are often near the top of the national list is because the state is so far from gas production facilities and pipelines. By building an oil refinery in our neck of the woods, the Governor says prices in our region will fall and it will also allow South Dakota to avoid what has been a growing problem with fuel shortages in rural areas.”

What a load of crap (crap is not a swear word). If you think for one minute that any of the refined products from this refinery will stay in South Dakota, I have some ocean front property in Arizona for sale. I’ve said this over and over again from the beginning that there are not enough convenient stores in this state to accommodate 250,000 barrels of gas a day from the refinery. Why do you think they are going to build pipelines out of here? Why do you think they are going to build rail spurs for the trains to haul it out of here? Why do you think there are going to be over 100 trucks a day coming and going from the refinery? It sure isn’t for hauling dirt, corn or soybeans. This stuff is going straight to Cushing, Oklahoma. Cushing is the oil and gas distribution center for the central part of the United States. Guess where Keystone and Keystone XL are routed? That’s right, Cushing. If you look at the map, all roads lead to Cushing.

What do you think people are paying right at the refinery in El Segundo, California?

Lowest Gas Prices in El Segundo

prices last updated 12/17/2010 at 17:12 PM

Brand Address Regular Plus Premium

Diesel

Chevron 232 Main St

El Segundo, CA, 90245 $3.359 $3.439

$3.479

Lowest Price N/A

Chevron 101 S Sepulveda Blvd

El Segundo, CA, 90245 $3.359 $3.439 $3.499 N/A

76 770 N Sepulveda Blvd

El Segundo, CA, 90245 $3.359 $3.459 $3.559

$3.499

Lowest Price

76 603 N Sepulveda Blvd

El Segundo, CA, 90245 $3.359 N/A $3.559 N/A

Mobil 765 N Sepulveda Blvd

El Segundo, CA, 90245

$3.299

Lowest Price

$3.399

Lowest Price N/A N/A

Now don’t give me any crap (there’s that word again) about cheap prices at the refinery and Governor Rounds talking about high gas prices. I filled my truck last week and it was $2.80 a gallon. Look at what they are paying in California.

Gasoline is a commodity and it is going to be traded on the board to the highest bidder. Again, if you think for one minute that Hyperion would turn down a profit just to give cheap gas to South Dakota, you’ve got another think coming. You are going to pay the same price as everybody else.

Here is another beautiful statement by the governor.

Governor Rounds has been the shepherd of the proposed Hyperion project for roughly half of his 8 years in office and is passionate about what the project will mean for both South Dakota and the nation.

"Hyperion I think should be built. They've still got to do it themselves. They've still got to create their own finances. They have to put this together. But I think we should still be the home for an oil refinery cause we're gonna need more oil products in the upper Midwest."

If Governor Rounds doesn’t go to work for the oil industry (Hyperion) after he leaves office, I’ll kiss your behind right in the middle of Main Street. (To be continued)

Is it starting

2010-12-12T19:40:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>December 15th, 2010

Is it starting?

Just when you think everything is looking good, up jumps the snake. TransCanada and Hyperion are in the news again. TransCanada discovered some ‘anomalies’ (I just love that word don’t you?)in the pipeline to Cushing. It seems as though there are 47 spots on the keystone pipeline that is causing some concern. The newspaper account reports that there are portions of the pipe that are expanding beyond allowable limits. DUH! Who woulda thunk?

The pipeline hasn’t even been in operation for 6 months, and they have 47 anomalies on the pipeline. The pipeline is only pumping 250,000 barrels of crude a day which is half of the capacity it is capable of. It is still pumping at 1900 PSI. It seems the steel is bulging and if not repaired or whatever it will burst and oil will start leaking. TransCanada is being criticized that the walls are too thin and the tensile strength is not strong enough. When Hyperion was asked about this, all they could say is that it is going to build its own ‘bullet’ line. Woo-Hoo what a doozie. Now if that doesn’t scare the c**p (I’ve been told to cut out the swear words) out of you, nothing will?

Here is a parody that should put this in proper perspective. The beginning of the mining facility is your heart and the pipelines are the arteries. Keystone is the left artery and Keystone XL is the right. As long as they keep pumping the oil, everything is ok but if there is an ‘anomaly’, and the artery bursts, we have problems. If they don’t do a bypass soon enough, the heart will die or at least pump fluid into the body until it can’t handle anymore either. Now how many times can you do a bypass before nothing more can be done? In this case just one artery has 47 aneurisms. This baby is 6 months old and is only half grown. How much more can it handle? What is going to happen if there are more aneurisms down in Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma? I think they need to be put into intensive care.

TransCanada replied that it is only responding to the needs of the market and that is why it is only pumping 250,000 barrels of crude. With oil now at $100 a barrel, demand is still low? I guess I don’t understand the commodities market. The pipes in question were manufactured in India, and there are concerns that they may be defective. This is a heck of a time to find out pipes are defective. They already cover 2800 miles and who knows how many welds. They are proving our fears.

When Plains Justice in Vermillion inquired into the pipeline under the freedom of information act, they were told that fears of the tensile strength of the pipelines were unfounded. TransCanada told them they actually built the pipelines to exceed the standard.

The environmental extremists are shouting from the rooftops that this is a catastrophe waiting to happen. My friends this is not a case of if it happens, it is a case of when it happens, and the way things are going already, it isn’t going to be very long. Trust me, It will happen.

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but it is worth repeating. I used to have a sign on my desk that everyone could see when they came into my office. “There is always an excuse for stupidity; however, there is never an excuse for incompetence.” (Military mindset) I firmly believe this pipeline/refinery is both stupid and is being done by incompetents. The really sad part is the public relations folks say “aw shucks, nothing’s going to happen.” To prove their beliefs, crude deliveries will not be interrupted while they make the inspections. DUMB! Or should I say stoopid.

Another issue coming out is that American Petroleum Industries (API) is going to launch a full blown campaign in January touting the benefits of using refined Tar Sands for fuel. I guess they feel we aren’t convinced the tar sands are a good deal so they will try to convince us we are wrong. The ads will focus on jobs, national security and economic potential. Why can’t they spend dollars explaining the harmful effects of refining tar sands? Then let us make up our minds whether or not we should let this happen. I don’t think that is asking too much, do you? I wonder what part of this is going to kill us don’t they understand.

An API spokesman cited an October 2009 Canadian Energy Research Institute study that said Canadian oil-sands development could spur the creation of 342,000 jobs in the United States between 2011 and 2015. Schild said the jobs would come from the “goods and services” required to support increased oil-sands imports.

What is it about tar sands that makes API have to spend a great deal of money convincing people that this is good? How about spending money stating this is bad? Of course they won’t do that because that is against their nature. How about them explaining why they are against preserving the environment and the world we live in. you can’t eat oil, and you can’t take it with you.

This is going to take a concerted effort on our part to keep the people informed about this issue. We need to concentrate on the harm it will do to our environment and the world in general. API is saying that with only sending down half the amount they can, it is preserving the environment. Oh come on now, we are in the country, but we aren’t that stupid to believe that garbage.

In this day and age when everyone else is concerned about reducing the amount of carbon dioxide is being emitted, why does South Dakota want to be so contrary? (To be continued)

Welcome to my world

2010-12-11T05:59:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>Welcome to my world

After being tagged as an environmental extremist by the governor elect Dennis Daugaard, I willingly accept the task to take this role more seriously, and sure enough environmental issues are major news items this last week in the Argus Leader. Contaminated drinking water? C’mon you can’t be serious. Well, it seems that e-coli bacteria is alive and well in the Big Sioux River in Sioux Falls. Local citizens have started vocalizing against their elected leaders to have allowed this to happen and that they are not taking effective steps to stop this before it leaches into the aquifer. Well Duh! Welcome to my world. Those of us who have been branded as extremists have been screaming till we are horse that the water is in danger. But that is not the Daugaard way.

Why is it that it takes a pollution event to bring people to their senses that something needs to be done about this before we have serious problems. The Environmental Extremists in this area have been preaching, (well maybe not preaching) for over 4 years that Hyperion is a disaster waiting to happen. Well my question is why can’t people be pro-active about dangers rather than reactive? We aren’t rocket scientists (beating that phrase to death aren’t we) but it doesn’t take much intelligence to realize we are messing with mother nature, and we all know that it isn’t nice to mess with her. Rather than pampering ourselves with the comforts of modern society that is really screwing things up, why not try to do something contrary to our nature and take steps to improve life for those who follow in our footsteps. Why have the attitude of let them worry about it.

I can remember why my parents insisted that everyone in their family get an education, because they didn’t have the opportunity to do so. Why did they do this? They did it because they wanted their children to have things they didn’t. They wanted their children to be successful. They wanted their children not to have to suffer the hardships they experienced as part of their daily lives. So why are we being so careless about what we are doing to our environment? It is the responsibility of each of us to try to leave this world a better place than we found it, but this careless carefree attitude about our planet is going to leave things in a mess. Granted we might have a problem accepting global warming, but climate change is a fact and we should be taking steps to reverse this change. People can talk from now till hell freezes over that this is normal, but if it is, why are we rushing the process.

Are we such affluent people that we can have utter disregard for clean air, clean water and clean land. I can understand 3rd world countries having a problem with this because they are just struggling to survive, but if we don’t watch what we are doing, we could be in the same boat. I like the fact that I can flip a switch and the lights come on. I like the fact that I can go out to the garage and get in my truck and go to town. I would hate to think of the alternative, but if we aren’t careful, it could happen. I like my comforts. Is that wrong? Yes it is if I don’t take steps to protect our resources.

Look at the number of families that are starting to grow their own gardens during the summer. Farmer’s markets are sprouting up all over and people are becoming conscious of their surroundings, but it might be too late. Growing your own food may become more of a necessity than a hobby. Wouldn’t that be something?

Now that I’ve been spouting gloom and doom, is it too late to do anything about this? The answer is obviously a big NO, but we do have to increase our awareness of our surroundings. Waiting until a disaster happens is too late. We need to take steps now to ensure this doesn’t happen. This calls for a change in attitude. We are a people who inherently believe in the tooth fairy. It will never happen to us. We are all NIMBY’s when it comes to being deprived of something we take for granted.

The people in Sioux Falls are finding out the hard way that it doesn’t take but one day for something like this to happen and it could take years to correct the situation. People in Sioux Falls are only concerned about people in Sioux Falls, because that is where they live and that is where the problem for them lives. They make passing statements about folks downstream from them, but their main concern is themselves. Well, guess who is downstream from Sioux Falls. If they have e-coli problems do you think maybe we have that same problem? It is like the environmental extremists. We recognize that there will be a problem with Hyperion using 10-12 million gallons of water a day; or that they could be polluting the aquifer, but this is quite frankly, someone else’s problem because that is downstream from us. We are just passing the buck and as long as we stay NIMBY’s it is going to continue until it is too late. Then it becomes everyone’s problem and people will be pointing their fingers at us and being really mad that we didn’t do something to stop this from happening to them. It is called “passing the buck.”

I’m sorry, but I don’t accept the blame for this. I’m not ‘chicken little,’ but the responsibility for taking care of this impending disaster rests with those who choose to look at this as folly. It is an educating process, but those who disbelieve must be willing to accept change and accept responsibility.

Notice to all

2010-12-06T06:30:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$> This is my blog so don't be upset if i don't post an anonymous comment. if you cannot tell me who you are, then your comment will never, i repeat, NEVER be posted on my blog. i own all the rights to this blog so if you have a problem with things i post, start your own blog or be man enough to tell me who you are unless you are afraid to be noticed by others. if this offends you, sorry about that - tough shit.

Top ten reasons not to be a Republican in South Dakota

2010-11-28T19:44:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>December 1st, 2010

Top Ten reasons not to be a Republican in

South Dakota!

#10 Dennis Dugaard (a clone of Rounds) was elected governor

#9 Eldon Nygard switches to being a Republican State Senator after being elected as a Democrat

#8 Ben Nesselhuf gets defeated for Secretary of State

#7 Governor Rounds practices Nepotism by appointing his son-in-law to a $75,000 a year job in Pierre

#6 Governor Elect Dugaard appoints his son to a job in Pierre continuing the practice of nepotism by rounds

#5 Dusty Johnson gets re-elected to a 6 year term to the PUC

#4 Dusty Johnson resigns after 2 weeks to become Dugaard’s Chief-of-Staff

#3 Chris Nelson gets appointed to the PUC to fill the vacancy of Dusty Johnson thus keeping being gainfully employed by the state

#2 nothing has changed in Pierre, it will be business as normal.

And the #1 reason not to be a Republican in South Dakota.....This really, really TICK’S ME OFF!!!!!

Governor-elect Dugaard said: “people who oppose Hyperion are environmental extremists.
Since when is it a crime to protest a stupid government decision (is that an oxymoron or what?) many people in this area and around the state are almost to the point they are fearful of their lives and the lives of their families because of the threat of Hyperion to build a refinery in Southern Union County. The last time I looked, we still had freedom of speech and the right to assemble as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America.

Hyperion has yet to prove they will be the “green” refinery they are touting. Hyperion cannot disprove statements that this will be harmful to the environment or to the people in this area. Hyperion refuses to submit an environmental impact statement to prove who and what they intend to do is safe. Hyperion is a joke

If this makes us environmental extremists, I am so honored and Oh so proud to be a part of it!

Detour 2 1/2

2010-11-18T20:28:00.001-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>Chapter 2 ½ - Detour

Detour there’s a muddy road ahead. Detour, pay no mind to what it said. Detour there’s a muddy road ahead, I should have read that detour sign. (An old Hank Thompson song) Now I suppose you are shaking your head and wondering if I’ve lost mine. Well, I said a couple of weeks ago that I was going to concentrate on Hyperion. Well, the county commissioners have put up a detour sign that I just have to write about. I mean this is important. I believe it is a disaster waiting to happen.

The commissioners are in a quandary what to do about county road 17. It has flooded three times this year on the Sioux River and every time it floods, it wipes out county road 17. It is costing the county money to keep this road repaired even though they are getting money from FEMA. This has been going on for quite a few years. At the commissioners meeting last week, they discussed several options about what to do about the road.

Let’s close the road, no – let’s leave it open. Make it a minimum maintenance road, no – keep it as a viable road. Rebuild the dike, no – don’t rebuild the dike. Raise the road above the flood level of the river. No – do something else like rebuild the road but put in culverts. Back and forth, back and forth. In the end, no decision was made. It was like watching a tennis match. Never one time did they talk about consulting with an expert about this; it was 5 guys sitting around playing tiddely winks. They didn’t even say anything about talking to long time residents to get the history of this area and why the dike was left into disrepair or how long has the flooding been going on or even asking for their advice. They did table the issue though. I wonder if they have even gone out to look at the potential for solving the severe flooding problems. I think they are worried about the road, and they should be worried about the people who live in this area.

After the meeting I called a good friend of mine who is a geologist and worked for the South Dakota geological survey at USD before going into business (Hammond Wetmore Drilling) for himself drilling wells and working with things like water. Dick Hammond is from Spink and is very familiar and very knowledgeable about the problems along the Sioux River. Besides that, he just happens to be smart, (didn’t I just say that?) which is a BIG plus. He conducted a symposium several years ago about this very problem. (I hate the word symposium; it’s a hoity toity word)

Anyway, Dick said that first of all if you make a dike you choke the flow of the river which raises the crest and will flood out the Iowa side of the river. Second of all it will create a faster moving current and cause more problems than if you leave it alone. When the water is spread out over a mile or mile and a half you are dealing with nature. When man gets involved, the formula changes.

People might say that they didn’t have this problem in the past, but Dick said that the problems we have now are caused by people living along the river, and is only going to get worse. South Dakota and Iowa are allowing farmers to make ditches to alleviate the drainage problems in low land fields. Or, they are tiling the fields to direct the flow of the water towards a creek or waterway that is going to the river. What this is doing is decreasing the amount of time it takes the water to get to the major artery, which in this case is the Big Sioux. When this happens during a heavy rainfall or melting snow in the spring, the river doesn’t have time to react and dissipate the water, so we get floods. This is happening along the entire length of the river on the border, not just in this area. Water flows downhill. Duh!

We talked about the options that the commissioners talked about and he said abandoning the road is not going to solve the problem nor is making it a minimum maintenance road. Raising the level of the road is going to create the choke in the flow which is going to raise the crest making Akron add to the level of the dike on the Iowa side to keep the river from flooding Akron. Raising the level of County road 17 is in effect making a dike. So what do we do? My question is why are we taking so long to look for a solution? Are the commissioners looking for a solution because it is costing the county money or are they finally looking out for the residents of the area? I hope it is the latter and not the former. (right!)

I drove the road the other day and took a close look at what the damage is. Virtually all the gravel is washed into the ditches. The dike has a gap about the length of two football fields in it. This flooding also affects the roads that feed into county road 17. In simple words, it is a big big mess.

So what would you do? We cannot keep repairing this road every year and if it is only going to get worse what is it going to be like? Before the commissioners do something foolish, I sure hope they check into this and get an authoritative and knowledgeable (are those words the same?) answer. I guess it boils down to some farmers are going to get flooded out every year unless we do something, but where do we get the money? Whatever we do, let’s hope they think this thing through and not do something stupid. (To be continued :)

Pete and Repeat

2010-11-15T19:40:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>Chapter 2

Pete and Repeat

I re-read last week’s article and discovered an amazing thing. I have been saying for over 3 years everything that was in last week’s article, except saying what is on everyone else’s mind. The skids have been greased ($$). I wonder why it is that I keep writing things like that over and over and over. It brings me back to when I was instructing new radio operators in the service. “You’re going to do this until you get it right.”

That is the way things were done back then. Today they call it ‘rote’. For the life of me I do not understand why I don’t adapt to change. Could it be because it is harmful to my health and well being? Could it be I believe green is not fresh air and good health, but that the only thing that some people believe in is that the green is in money. Could it be that I care about the future of our children wherein after many years of pollution we will be like China? Can’t we rise above greed and money and learn from others mistakes? Could it be I believe there are “other options”? As my mom always said: “after the horse is out of the barn there is no need to shut the gate.” There I go repeating myself again.

After last week’s article, I went back over many of the articles I’ve written over the last 3 years, and it is amazing how many times I repeated myself about many, many things about Hyperion and the people intimately involved in the process have done. At what point do I just chuck the whole mess and resign myself to the fact that this is going to happen regardless of my efforts to stop this. My answer to this is comparable to what Charlton Heston said when he was elected President of the NRA and was asked when he was going to admit that gun control is going to happen. Holding up a frontier long rifle he said: “when they pry this gun from my cold, cold hands.”

Those words are my sentiments exactly. I will quit opposing this refinery when they put my cold, cold body in the ground. (Hope it doesn’t take that long) I’m tired of being the one who compromises. We were here first and if Hyperion wants to come and screw things up, then they must be the one who compromises. My first demand is they pick up their papers and go back to Texas, and then we can talk about it. What is it about NO DIRTY REFINERY don’t they understand? There I go repeating myself again. The second thing is that our state and local government THOROUGHLY examine both the good and the bad about refineries and hopefully admit they made a tragic error to allow this to happen. The onus is on Hyperion to submit a study showing the impact this is going to cause on the community. For once in their (state) life make a decision and force Hyperion to do something instead of being so condescending.

This isn’t a broad based opposition to many issues; this is very narrow in concept and one issue, NO Refinery! Now I may not be a rocket scientist, but I do understand plain English. So it will be my mission that until Hyperion packs up their bags and goes home, I will continue to Pete and repeat this simple request. I don’t think that is being unreasonable do you? Even if you don’t agree with me, it is my simple mission to bring the truth to light and then for you to decide whether or not my mission has validity.

I cannot repeat often enough that facts have been presented that cannot be dismissed by rational people; however, the people in power have dismissed or for some strange reason, ignored these facts. The reason we are where we are today is the almighty Texas dollar is speaking. Whether or not it is good for us and the state of South Dakota has been ignored to the point that those of us opposed to this intrusion are Ogres and stupid for not recognizing the facts. People often come up to me and accuse me of being a chronic complainer and a cynic and why don’t I try to be constructive rather than destructive. Why don’t I try to be positive instead of negative? (My God, how can you be positive about pollution?) (I’m positive Hyperion isn’t coming.)My answer to them is that this is the only way I can get their attention. I have the attitude that I cannot go to sleep at night asking myself “what’s wrong with this picture?” Once you cross the line you cannot have ‘do over’s’ to correct the mistake you made in the first place. Ten years down the line is not the time to say oops. If one needs someone to blame for this opposition, I’m more than willing to be the blame. (To be continued (:0)

Separating Fact From Fiction

2010-11-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>Chapter One

Separating fact from fiction,

I’m going to do something different with this column. I am going to run several (more than one) chapters reviewing my thoughts about why this itch that you can’t scratch is never going to come about and further disrupt the lives of the people in this area. I will fervently try to be comprehensive (maybe a little disjointed) about this because my mind tends to wander (old age) when I get the fingers tapping on the keyboard. It is kind of like I started carrying out the garbage, but by the time I get outside I’m mowing the lawn and the garbage is still sitting in the garage.

It has been over 4 years since we first heard the name ‘Gorilla’ and wondered what the heck was going on around here. let’s take a look at what has been happening and then you can be reassured that not only is the refinery never going to happen, it was never intended to happen. That last statement might set some of you to wondering what I’m talking about, but if you stop and think about it, the logistics of this whole façade points overwhelmingly to a dream scheme that somebody with too much money on their hands decided would test the waters to see if they could pull enough ‘oil’ money into this deal to make it actually happen.

I’ll be the first to admit that there are so many stories going around that it is hard to separate fact from fiction. The fact is that a project of this magnitude is far beyond the capabilities of a company from Dallas, Texas called Hyperion Resources. Hyperion Resources is a real estate investment company. They dabble in real estate ventures in the Dallas Texas vicinity. Granted the CEO’s wife is from one of the biggest oil families in the world. The fiction is that they actually think we believe they can do it.

It would take 10 years at the minimum just to draw up the plans for the biggest oil refinery in the United States in 35 years, and that is putting it mildly. I can speak from experience. When I was in the service, I worked on a project for the Air Force to put 747 aircraft into service to replace an aging fleet of airplanes in the airborne command post. I spent the better part of 4 years going back and forth to Seattle Washington helping to design and test just the communications portion of the system. We spent months just talking and researching the best companies in the world to provide us with equipment to enable us to provide the ‘state of the art’ communications platform for the world wide airborne command post. Each component had to interface with our design concept. Granted this was just a 747 but then compare this to the planning that has to go into building an oil refinery covering almost 4,000 acres with ‘state of the art’, ‘never been done before’, ‘green refinery’ that will be refining the dirtiest oil in the world under the most difficult conditions to generate 400,000 barrels of oil and gasoline products each day 24/7 365 for people to consume. To say that this is a $10 Billion dollar undertaking is an understatement. To say that this is reaching an unreachable star is more like it.

Do you think any banking institution in their right mind is going to lend money without an absolute concrete plan how this is going to work? this proposal would take hundreds if not thousands of people researching and planning every angle, down to the size of the nuts and bolts, on how this is going to happen so they can present to the lending institution and/or investors how this is going to come off. Do you know any people that would be willing to risk millions of dollars into a venture with absolutely NO return on their investment for at least 10-15 years? I don’t.

It will take a lot of engineers a lot of time to pull this off, and Hyperion was just in the talking stages. Everything was ‘hush-hush’, that is why they came up with the ‘Gorilla’ project. They come up with this harebrained idea and come up to Dakota Dunes and play a little golf with the governor and says ‘hey guv… I’m an oilman from Texas and I want to build an oil refinery in South Dakota, what da ya think? The governor is all for it and the Texas guy chokes and says to himself. ‘I’ve got me a live one.’ The governor thinks this will be his legacy to his time in the big house in Pierre; thinks this is the answer to his prayers and jumps. He forgot one thing; not everybody is gung ho about this deal, but Hyperion starts taking out land options and promising people the moon and who could resist? Initially they had over 30,000 acres under option as they worked to get contiguous land that would be big enough to hold a ‘refinery’.

One of the first things they had to do was convince influential people in Union County this was going to happen and to work out arrangements to zone the land (Hyperion wrote its own zoning ordinance) so they didn’t have any problems when it came down to the final act. Getting the p&z to go along was a piece of cake ($$). The opposition to the refinery presented hours of expert and convincing arguments as to why this should not be built here. After more than 5 hours of public testimony, it took the p&z less than 2 minutes to approve the application. (Did they go back and talk to each other discussing the pros and cons of what just happened?) They slam dunked this thing faster than they could get the words out of their mouth. Somebody greased the skids. ($$) To be continued:

We are a bunch of Hypocrites

2010-11-01T20:36:00.000-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>We and the county are Hypocrites!

One thing about writing articles about things happening in Union County is that you don’t have to look very far to find stuff to write about. I’m not sure what I’m about to write about is funny or sad.

The county commissioners have suddenly found out that the by-laws adopted by the Union County Fair Board way way back in the 1950’s,is taking money improperly. It seems that the fair board has been renting out the buildings during the time the fair is not in session and using the money to fund the fair for the next year. They have been doing this for 50 years and there has never been a word said about how they raise their money for the fair each year. The way they are going about it seems okay to me. They have a board and the board decides how to spend the money. No big deal. I think the budget from the county is somewhere around $16000.00, which is not nearly enough to do anything with and the board, relies on funds from renting the buildings and donations. Seems as though the county just found out about this and told the board they need to rewrite the bylaws to give all money to the county since the buildings and grounds belong to the county. (You can see what’s coming can’t you?) The commissioners never give anything back to the departments that I know of. It all goes in the coffers to be spent at THEIR discretion.

Some of the buildings are already being rented and have equipment, hay, corn and beans stored in them. Well, the county has decided that people must bid on the buildings and the winning bid will get to rent the building for the next year. The money of course, goes to the county. Now we are going into malfunction junction with questions that haven’t been asked therefore the county hasn’t answered. Since the budget has already been approved for 2011 I don’t think they can change it without a public hearing.

If the lease is for more than 120 days and $500 they have to have a hearing and after the leases are accepted they have to pass a resolution. (SDCL 7-18-32) if they don’t collect enough to make up the difference the board would normally receive for renting these buildings, will the county kick in some money or does the fair board have to make it on their own? If they get more than what they would get normally, does this go to the fair board or the county general fund? Do the people who secure the bids have to be bonded? Do they have to provide proof of insurance etc? Are there default clauses in the contracts? Since some farmers already have grain and equipment stored, are they grandfathered for this year or do they have to move stuff out if they lose their bid on the buildings. Do you see where this is headed, and this is just for the fair board. GOOFEY! Why don’t the commissioners just leave well enough alone? The county just has to step in doo-doo every time they turn around. This could go on forever. If you think the nation government is too invasive, look what the county government is doing.

Now we get to one of my favorite concerns. We repealed the zoning ordinance in 2007 and a new one was passed in 2008. One of the biggest items of contention was the statement by the planning and zoning that in order to preserve ag land and keep ag land there can only be one house per 40 acres. That is unless it is rezoned commercial, rural residential, light industrial etc. it seems that the popular thing to do now is to have land rezoned as rural residential. Ignoring the statement to keep as much land as possible as agriculture, the p&z is more than happy to rezone it otherwise. They also approved the Izaak Walton League to replat 119 acres to acreages. Uh-h-h-h-h, Uh-h-h-h-h, Uh-h-h-h-h-h. I’ll bet you that the Izaak Walton league will buy another acre to make it an even 120 acres. I think they are trying to work the system.

The intent of the zoning ordinance to have only one house per 40 acres was to induce people to move into incorporated areas and leave ag land to be farmable. I guess they can ignore their statements and rulings to suit their purposes. I wonder why this doesn’t surprise me.

The Dakota Dunes CID voted on a tax abatement for new businesses and commercial property in the dunes area in accordance with SDCL 10-6-35 to give tax breaks of 80% the first year, 60% the second, %40 the third and 20% the fourth year. Oh please Lord, give me a break! The rest of the county just had their assessments raised 20-25% last year and the CID is giving tax abatements. What’s wrong with this picture? Not only that, this procedure was first instituted in 2000 and renewed in 2005. This period covers 2011 thru 2015. What else is going on that we don’t know about?

I saved my personal comments for last. The election on Tuesday, November 2nd had a proposition 12 on it to ban smoking statewide. This proposition is an attempt to keep people from getting lung cancer etc. from smoking. I think the state is being Hypocritical about this whole deal since they think it would be great to have an oil refinery spewing 19 million TONS of carbon dioxide and almost 8,000 TONS of particulate matter which will give people terminal illnesses such as cancer and emphysema. I think the state has developed a NIMBY attitude and is more than willing to sacrifice the lives of people in this area just for the sake of economic development. That is just plain Stupid.

I'm B-a-a-c-k

2010-10-22T15:08:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>Hi folks. It feels so good to be back writing for the ‘Hometowner’. There has been so much happening the last few months that I felt that I just had to return to the keyboard and let people know what is going on with Hyperion, the County officials, and anything else that happens to be going on that warrants being brought to your attention. I hope you won’t hold it against me that I took a well deserved rest.

Hyperion is still making fools of themselves. They renewed almost all their options and still pontificate that they will be starting construction next summer. I’m not sure they understand that it takes money to undertake a project as large as they are talking about. It also takes permission from the state in the form of air permits, water permits and God knows how many other permits. That is if you are going to do this on the up and up. Both candidates for governor have said publicly that they doubt the Hyperion project is going to happen.

Hyperion did come out and make a press release last week or the week before, I can’t remember exactly, that they have lowered the amount of carbon dioxide and particulate matter that will be expunged into the air. Carbon dioxide totals have dropped from 19 million tons per year to 17.6. (Whoopee!) One statement that the governor made to me a couple of years ago is still being repeated by Pro-Hyperion folks that ‘the amount of carbon dioxide is less than what is emitted per day by the cars in Sioux Falls.’ However I would like to add that if you take the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the cars in Sioux Falls and add the amount emitted by Hyperion, you have a whole lot of pollution or is it contamination? Nobody ever talks about that do they? I wonder why that is?

I was talking with Pam Kadous the other day and she has a terrific idea to have signs made pointing out the beauty of this area. Isn’t that a great idea? I would like to take this one step farther. Do you remember the Burma Shave signs from back in the 40’s and 50’s? There were signs posted on the highways advertising Burma Shave shaving cream and lotion.

Your shaving brush / Has had its day / So why not / Shave the modern way / With / Burma-Shave.

What would happen if everyone would make some signs and post them along the highway with NO reference to Hyperion. Everybody that would see the signs would know what we are referring to and it wouldn’t be giving free advertising for the refinery. Let’s take the song “America the Beautiful.”

Oh beautiful/ for spacious skies/ for amber waves of grain/ for purple mountains majesty/ above thy fruited plains/ America, America/ God shed his grace on thee/and crown thy good/ with brotherhood/ from sea to shining sea.

If this doesn’t bring a tear to people’s eyes, nothing will. Since there is a moratorium on signs, it won’t be illegal to do this. (Remember “Save Union County?”)

Did everybody see the picture in the paper last week showing the commissioners receiving a plaque from the State of South Dakota County Commissioners Association? The commissioners received this for their outstanding leadership and pushing the agenda to bring Hyperion to Union County. You gotta be kidding me! Outstanding Leadership? They must have been talking about some other county because I know they weren’t talking about ‘our’ commissioners. The plaque read in recognition of your total commitment to the citizens of Union County. Committed? Oh come on now, let’s get serious. One of the commissioners says the only reason he is on the commission is for the health insurance. That is what I call committed. I wonder if the rest feel the same way. Let me give you an example of committed to the people of Union county. On September 30th, they commissioners held their meeting to pass the budget for 2011. At the public input, I asked the commissioners why the budget for the commissioners was $209,000. The answer I received from them was this is public input time, not ‘questions and answers’. I said that as a resident of Union county and a taxpayer I was entitled to an answer. SILENCE! This is how they are committed to the citizens of the county. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I went to the auditor’s office and asked to see the budget. The final budget for the Commissioners was $182,000. Of the $182,000 over 2/3rds of the budget or $120,000 was for salaries ($59,000), Health, general insurance, liability, bonds, errors and omissions. Is it any wonder they didn’t want to tell me what the budget for them was? $182,000 for the privilege of having them in charge of the county; what a deal! I wonder if anyone has ever questioned this. The county is being charged $16,000 just for their health insurance. State law says that the commissioners must be offered health insurance, but it doesn’t say the county has to pay for it. Is this added to their salary? If it is that means each commissioner makes $16,000 a year for meeting 8 hours a month. 96 hours a year. $16,000. Of course they have to go to meetings outside of their regular meeting time, but they get another $8,000 allowance for that too. Stupid me, I should have tried harder to get elected. I want to quote Yakoff Smirnoff here: “America, what a country!”

Where else can you go and pay these ridiculous salaries to government service officials; to be patronized to and get treated like a second class citizen? Jeez!

Silence is Not Golden

2010-09-30T14:34:00.001-07:00

I’m totally amazed at the inner workings of the county government, especially the county commissioners. In the normal process of running a government, the commissioners had a ‘public hearing’ on the provisional budget. The announcement in the paper said that anyone could be heard and an appropriate response would be given from the commissioners about your concerns.
I went to the budget hearing on the 7th of September and asked why the commissioner’s budget was $209,000.00 and didn’t receive a response. I asked several more questions and was met with the same answer. Total silence. I asked how a budget could be prepared if they didn’t know the expected income for the county the next year. I asked if the budget was increased from last year or was there a budget cut. Then Ross Jordan and Doyle Karpen said that this was an input session only and no response was required. This was my opportunity to ‘suggest’ changes etc for the upcoming year, not for this to be a question and answer period. If I had specific concerns about the budget I could contact the county auditor and she would provide me with answers.
Today was the day to pass the final budget and when I went to the meeting I gave my input during the ‘public input’ session of the meeting and read verbatim the announcement in the paper specifically that a full and complete discussion of all purposes, objectives, items, schedules, appropriations, estimates, amounts and matters set forth and contained in the Provisional Budget. I was met with total silence. So I said I was either being stonewalled, they didn’t understand my questions, or they were lying to me. Again there was total silence. I said that the county auditor was not the person to go to for an answer to these questions. She does not have a vote and that the commissioners and responsible and should answer the questions. Total Silence! I was then thanked by the commissioner and that my time (3 minutes) was up. Still no answers nor and inclination that there would be answers forthcoming. Is this how county government is run? This should really be taken seriously by the people of this county and demand answers, unless of course nobody really cares where their tax dollars are going.

The Governor's Fund

2010-09-20T06:48:00.001-07:00

does anyone know what the state Governor's fund is? i have been doing some checking and this is a fund that individuals or corporations can contribute to which the governor may or may not distribute at his convenience. the strange thing about this fund is that those who contribute to it and the amounts are not part of public record. another this is that nobody except the governor knows how much is in it AND he gets to take it with him when he leaves office. like i said before the governor may use it at his discretion for any project and these funds are not accountable. i wonder who has contributed to this fund and how much money is in there? anyone want to guess?????

Hyperion is stalling

2010-09-12T17:53:00.001-07:00

i had an interesting conversation today and came to the conclusion that Hyperion may in fact may be stalling.

think about this for a minute. when Hyperion was granted the air permit back in August of 2009 they were given 18 months to begin construction or they would have to reapply for their permit. this means that construction must begin in the February/March 2011 timeframe.

now Hyperion is having getting venture capital or they would have started construction on the refinery. they can't get investors, and are running out of time, so what better way to stall this than to have the air permit changed. Hyperion offered, let me say this again, offered to refine and redo the air permit because of the change in standards by the EPA on air quality/pollution. by doing this the court case is put on hold and the deadline for beginning the construction on the refinery is put on hold which allows more time for Hyperion to find financial backing. Why else would this happen. this and the fact that they got everyone who had options to extend them for three years. i wonder what is going to happen next that will cause Hyperion to want to delay this project. Stay Tuned for further adventures of Hyperion and the poor souls of Union County.

land war

2010-09-08T18:35:00.001-07:00

Land War
An interesting situation is developing that I hadn’t thought of before concerning the HEC. Bernard Ofstehag just sold 140 or 160 acres to Dakota Eastern for $4280 an acre. This presents a situation that could really get ugly. When Hyperion said they were going to start buying property on the fringes of the HEC I thought somebody was misquoted. Why would Hyperion buy land that they have released options on unless some new developments have shown up? This would give impetus for other speculators to start buying up land and I’ll be damned if it isn’t happening. Wonder where this is headed?

dangling the carrot

2010-09-01T01:38:00.001-07:00

I often wonder why it is that if one dangles a carrot in front of the donkey it will continue to walk after it, pursuing it until one reaches its destination, then feeds the donkey the carrot for a job it would have done anyway. I guess this is an allegory of why if Hyperion dangles the carrot (economic prosperity) in front of people in the Siouxland Area they continue to chase it in hopes of landing a job that is one of the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs one could have, or will attain riches beyond their wildest imagination.
Hyperion has renewed options on land in Union County taunting people with promises it has no intentions of fulfilling. If people sell their land to Hyperion they will be able to retire to a life of comfort and luxury. Bull! Granted they are paying people a stipend each year (which comes off the purchase price by the way) to secure the richest farmland in the state of South Dakota. Hyperion has no plausible possibility of building a refinery, much less a ‘green’ refinery; a state of the art refinery; even a remote possibility of a refinery, yet people continue to hope against hope that this will happen.
If Hyperion did have the money, which I doubt, they don’t have the skills or expertise to continue this folly. Oh, I forgot the most important aspect of this trip to Disneyland. OIL – or a pipeline to carry the oil, or the financial backing to build this messiah. It is promising the moon, and can’t afford a trip to Florida.
I do believe this; the land is worth considerably more than the $4,000 or $5,000 it was optioned for. I’m confident it could be sold for $6,000 to $7,000 easily right now today. So what is all the fuss about? Hyperion has tied up these people’s land for another 6 years. 3 one year extensions with the option for 3 additional one year extensions. This just doesn’t make any sense.

peat and repeat

2010-08-07T06:52:00.001-07:00

The more I read articles in the paper about Hyperion Resources the more convinced I am that people are not reading, listening or understanding what this whole issue is about. It isn’t about jobs, it is about 3 things; the environment, the damage Hyperion will do to it, and promises that Hyperion hasn’t fulfilled.
Hyperion came into Union County and started taking out options on what ended up to be almost 30,000 acres of the finest farmland in the state. They would not say what this was going to be and people started speculating everything from an automobile assembly plant to the headquarters for homeland security. In 2007 it came out that it was going to be a refinery. Hyperion said that construction would start in 2009 and production would begin in 2014. Hyperion’s original option for 4 years on the land is up on August 31st this year. What originally started out at 27,000 acres is now down to less than 4,000 acres. This tells me that they cannot get venture capital to get this started or they never intended to build a refinery in the first place. I’m inclined to believe the second option.
Hyperion has admitted that it will emit over 19 million TONS of carbon dioxide into the air along with over 7,000 tons of what is called particulate matter. The particulate matter is the one that is the killer. Particulate matter contains elements that are life threatening to one’s health like methane, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and hydrogen sulfide. Carbon dioxide is the one that is contributing to climate change. I didn’t say global warming but climate change. There were public hearings in which the environmental problems were heard but ignored. It was stated time and time again with much substantiated documentation from environmental experts that this was bad for the people in the area health wise and should not be built. Hyperion countered with the statement this would be a ‘green’ refinery and the most eco friendly refinery in the United States. Since there hasn’t been a refinery built in the U.S. since 1976 I guess there might be some truth to that statement except there is no such thing as a ‘green’ refinery.
The Clean Air Act of 1994 puts limits on particulate matter and pollution that may be emitted by industries in the U.S. the Environmental Protection Agency which controls the levels of pollution that may be emitted has stated on record that if Hyperion builds the refinery it will exceed the limits imposed for the safety and welfare of the people. Hyperion will pollute the air to the point that any company that would want to build or expand a business in this area which as I said includes Sioux City would be unable to do so because the amount of pollution levels they would create would put them over the limit for emissions that pollute.
They promised high paying jobs, increased income for the state and economic development that would benefit everyone within 100 miles of the site. Hyperion promised everything but the moon. Evidently this worked because Hyperion requested it be taken to a referendum and the people in the county voted with Hyperion. People in Vermillion or Sioux City or the rest of South Dakota did not have this opportunity. Where are these jobs? It has been almost 4 years and absolutely nothing has been done. How long are people willing to wait for a ‘maybe’ job?

chapter 2

2010-07-03T20:37:00.001-07:00

i am going to continue my blog, but it will not be on a regular basis. i've started doing something i haven't done in a long time. i am reading a book. plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is!

farwell

2010-07-03T20:34:00.001-07:00

Farewell Folks
It has been a fun and interesting 3 years, but my car has run out of gas and there aren’t any stations around for a refill. I think the county commissioners and several other people at the Union County Court House will be glad that I’m not going to be bashing them anymore.

Hyperion is never going to happen and hasn’t been in the news lately other than the court case and that is a bust so picking them apart is about done, however I do reserve the right to write letters to the editor when the occasion warrants. Hyperion may be acting as a broker for an oil company, but will never do it themselves. They may do something really stupid on their own like a waste dump, but it will never be a refinery.

One of the biggest reasons I’m calling it a day has a lot to do with apathy. I put out calls for action and very few show up. For whatever reason, there always seems to be something else more important to be doing. It is always the same core of people that support efforts to stop Hyperion and stay informed about the county. I appreciate that. I just don’t think people care anymore and don’t want to be bothered. Just leave them alone. What happens, happens and they think they can’t do anything about it. WRONG!
I’m trying to figure out how to reach the rest of the county, but Beresford, Alcester, Elk Point and all points south remain in the dark about the threat of Hyperion. The newspapers in that area won’t print my ‘epistles’ because they are too long so they remain hopeless.
I cannot sway the opinions on the commissioners. They are going to do what they do and nothing is going to change their minds. Believe it or not, I don’t bash them because I want to, I do it hoping somebody out there will pick up on it and everyone will start asking questions about how the county employees are doing their job. If they had been doing their job in the first place, we wouldn’t be opting out to fix the roads. That is another story.

Let me leave you with my thoughts about the events that have been happening in the last 3 years. Hyperion will never build a refinery, but that doesn’t mean they won’t sell the idea to big oil.

The county commissioners will continue as normal, and feel as if they are doing us a favor by their presence. They will continue to spend foolishly and until citizens get fed up and throw out the whole bunch, things are not going to change. They are going to tax us to death.

The planning and zoning will continue unabated. The Planning Director is not accountable to anyone in the county and is one of the most powerful persons in the court house. Unless you are a friend of his or have lots of money he will continue to ramble on as normal. The planning and zoning committee might have good intentions, but only do what he tells them to do. The five of them together can’t make a decision when to go to the bathroom.

The county assessor doesn’t have the skills necessary to do the job and should seriously consider another finding other areas of employment that suit what skills she does have.

If the citizens of this county don’t form a watchdog committee and continually hound the commissioners to do a better job and be accountable for their actions, things will continue as normal.

I have enjoyed doing these articles, and now I think I will just sit back and take a deep breath and write a book about this whole episode. I already have the title.
“In The Beginning Was The Word,
and The Word Was “Gorilla”

OOPS OUT

2010-06-21T07:03:00.001-07:00

OOPS OUT!
When I was in the service many years ago, I used to have a plaque on the topof my desk in my office that one would see as soon as you walked into the room.( Master Sergeants are like that you know!) “There is always an excuse for stupidity, but never an excuse for incompetence.” I can’t remember if that was a quote from somebody or what, but it seemed to fit the situation at the time.
During the public input at the county commissioners meeting last week, I stood and asked the commission what it cost to build the parking lot across the street from the court house. I was immediately rebuked by the chairman that if I bothered to read the claims in the minutes I would have seen that they paid Campbell Grading $3700. Now since the claims don’t say what the expenditure is for, am I to automatically assume (you know what that is right) that it was for parking lot work and not for grading a county road or some other project? So I asked the chairman what it cost for labor for the county employees, equipment rental of county equipment, oil and gas etc. He said those figures weren’t available. I hate to be a pain in the ass, but what does it take to get answers from the commissioners about county business and the spending of our tax dollars? I think that as a public servant, the commissioners would be more than happy to satisfy my curiosity, not try to hide things from me. I’m going to find out anyway, so why not tell me up front and save everybody some grief. That would be too easy.
If they have done nothing wrong it shouldn’t be a problem should it? As taxpayers in this county, don’t you want to know how your tax dollars are being used? Don’t you want to know that someone is looking out for your best interest, and not “flitting” our money away? Is this why the county wants to opt out? They want to tax and spend.
Speaking of oopsing out, wouldn’t you think that the commissioners would have all their ducks lined up before they decide to do this? I mean how much money do they want or need? How many years are they going to opt out for? Are they deciding to oops out before all other options have been looked at?
One of the ideas I heard kicked around at the meeting was to oops out for $350,000 and put $100,000 away into savings or capital outlay in case matching funds become available from the state, then they will have more money to spend. Not only do I think that is totally stupid, I am not sure it is legal to say that the highway department doesn’t have any money so we are going to oops out and at the same time say they are going to stick some money in a sock somewhere “just in case.”
At the end of the meeting the commissioners voted to authorize the chairman to sign a purchase agreement for the property at the port of entry on the interstate. This will give them access to the property they bought a couple of years ago. I can’t remember exactly when they bought it, I think it was two years ago. They still haven’t decided what to do with that property. One of the options that I heard recently was to make it an extension of the treasurer’s office so people in the southern part of the county don’t have to drive all the way to Elk Point to get license plates and pay their taxes. That’s just a rumor I heard, but whatever the reason is, was, going to be, the property must have been a “blue light special”, and the county commissioners just couldn’t pass up a good deal. They took the money from the highway department to pay for the land. ($25,000) But wait a minute. The county is going to oops out because the highway department doesn’t have any money to fix the roads, but can buy a piece of property that they not only don’t want, they don’t need. What the heck is going on here? And you wonder why the county is getting into such a fix? DUH!
Now the frosting on the cake about this port of entry property is that the county purchased the property from the state. Did they purchase the property or did they just purchase the buildings? I’ve been told that everything inside the fence on the interstate is federal property, not state. I wonder if this is why it is taking so long to get clear title. Or should I say took so long to get title. I think they might have it by now, but according to what I know, the state cannot sell property that is landlocked. If that is the case somebody screwed up again because that is what the $25,000 was for; to gain access to the port of entry from old Hwy 77. Am I dreaming all of this or what?
Don’t we have the ability and a right to hold our public officials accountable for their actions? Don’t we have a right to expect to have our elected officials be open and above board in their actions? This isn’t right. Maybe a committee of watchdogs should be formed to keep tabs on what is happening in our county and stop all this tom foolery. Maybe then the commissioners wouldn’t be so free and easy with our money.
‘Till we meet again.’

"Status Quo"

2010-06-13T18:28:00.001-07:00

“Status Quo”
If you look at the subtitle just below the banner for this article you will see a new addition to my articles. “Citizens for decency in government.” When I was talking to people about adding this to my column, they said it would make me look like a sore loser in the election. Of course it does, so what? Have you ever seen a good loser? I’m not sore about losing. However, I am truly disappointed by the fact that so many people were counting on me to win. I’m sorry I didn’t work harder to change people’s minds. I still think what I was doing was right. I had a plan for this county that would completely change the way they do business. Do you remember Senator Barry Goldwater? He said show me an honest politician and I’ll show you a loser. Nuff said.
One of the things that I thought was particularly interesting is the labels that were attached to me and the fact that I am so vocal about -
1) Hyperion, which I’m dead set against and am convince this will never happen, and
2) The county commissioners. What can I say here? They deserve it.
All I do according to Paul Buum of the Alcester-Hudson Union paper is complain about Hyperion and criticize the commissioners. That is exactly what this column is about. I might change your words though. I constantly point out the shortcomings of Hyperion and why they are lying and taking advantage of us. That isn’t complaining that is being responsible. It is nice to know that Paul reads my articles.
I have never made up a story or an article in this column. I’ve never lied about what I say; I just tell it like it is. Who could make up the stories I print about the commissioners? If I see something that is happening that is wrong should I just keep my mouth shut or should I let people know what is going on? I will tell you this much, because of this column, the people in Brule and Spink townships know what is going on. One does not make changes by keeping the status quo. The status quo is what got us into this mess in the first place. I want government to be given (taken) back to the people.
1) They raised the assessed value on all the acreages in Union county up as much as 20-25%.
2) They raised the valuation from 5% to 10% of all houses that are over 10 years old. Why?
3) They are going to opt out in July because they don’t have enough money to maintain the roads, and are falling behind in their master plan to maintain the infrastructure.
4) They spent $45,000 plus to build a parking lot across from the court house that I doubt seriously will get any use except for the folks that work at Thermo Bond. I’m sure the owners will thank the county for the new parking lot. Now they don’t have to build it. If you remember, the county commissioners sent the states attorney to the Elk Point city commissioners to complain about employees from Thermo Bond parking in the court house parking lot. So the county builds a parking lot for Thermo Bond? ? ?
Bear in mind folks, the county government does absolutely nothing to produce income. They spend what is raised from taxes and if they don’t have enough money they keep raising taxes until they do. That is why the State of South Dakota put a cap on the amount that taxes can be raised, hence the opt out. I hate to think what the taxes would be without the cap.
I think I reported last week that the highway department has a 20 year plan to redo 10 miles of road a year to maintain the paved roads so they don’t completely deteriorate. Last year they did 4 miles and the year before that was 5 miles. If we don’t do 15 miles we will keep falling behind on the master plan and never catch up. Are we just going to do a new master plan? This is like the Communist 5 year plan. They redo the 5 year plan every 5 years because they fall so far behind they can’t catch up so they just make a new plan.
At the budget meeting on the 10th, each department head came in to the commissioners with their proposed budget for 2011. My question is this – how in the hell can department heads do a budget when they don’t know the cost of supplies and especially don’t know what the salary for the employees is going to be? The salary base is going to change because they are doing away with the annual longevity bonus. It will be incorporated into the salary, but the commissioners haven’t figured out yet how they are going to do this. All they say is that it will be a step program but how much, they haven’t said. The commissioners did vote to raise the salary of the chairman $100 a month though.
You know it is probably a good thing for me that I didn’t get elected. I think someone was looking out for me and was saying to themselves that if Doug gets in there he is going to go stark raving mad because of the way the commissioners operate. They are a train wreck, and it is going to happen sooner than later.
Now you can see why I added the subtitle to this column. I am forming a coalition with the people who are tired of the “Status Quo” and to push for reform and put this government back in the hands of people who care, because I firmly believe the commissioners don’t care or they wouldn’t act like this. Don’t disrupt the “Status Quo” my foot!

Warning

2010-06-07T21:23:00.001-07:00

WARNING ! ! !
If you are reading this and it upsets you because you think that all I do is complain about Hyperion and criticize the county commissioners, you can stop now, because I’m about to slam them again. Unless you want to stay informed, this column is not for you. STOP NOW!.. I’m warning you, all that follows is truth (under revision by the commissioners of course) and reasonable questions about judgment and unreasonable actions. That said, here we go.

The county commissioners are considering (actually going to ) an opt out from the property tax freeze on the 15th of July because the highway department has run out of money to keep the infrastructure in good repair. According to the 20 year plan by the highway superintendant, in order to keep the miles of asphalt roads in good repair the county must redo 10 miles of repairs each year in order to maintain all the roads. (This chart is not to actual scale, but just to present a visual representation of what has happened over the last 10 years.) The superintendant presented this power point presentation at the last commissioners meeting. The first sections of the bars represent 2001. The costs of materials were low. The budget was adequate and the number of roads rebuilt was 10 miles. In 2005 the costs of materials had risen the budget remained the same, and the number of miles had fallen by about 50%. In the 3rd section, the cost of materials had risen another 50%, the budget remained the same and the number of miles had fallen another 50%. Because of the rise in materials, the superintendant said he is no longer able to maintain the 20 year plan. Duh! The number of miles redone in 2009 was 4 miles. The superintendant has been trying to stretch it out by reducing the amount of chip seal etc. that is being used, but this won’t hold up to the 20 year cycle. So, what used to cost $7,500 a mile 5 years ago is now costing $20,000 per mile today. It costs $60,000 per mile for the county to do its own asphalt work, so $600,000 a year will do 10 miles. But – we have to do more than 10 miles, we have 9 years of underrepair to catch up on so – if this year we do $900,000 that would be 10 miles plus the 5 we were behind last year. If we only do a couple of miles a year, it is going to take a hell of a long time to catch up, so what is $250,000 going to do for us if we Opt Out? It is going to take $900,000 to just start to catch up. I do not understand.
I do know this much; somebody screwed up. If the superintendant saw that the county was falling behind, why didn’t he ask for money 9 years ago to keep on schedule? If the commissioners saw that the highway department was falling behind, why didn’t they question it and apply more money to that department so the roads would stay in good repair. Why did they wait until funds were exhausted before they decided to take action? Farmers have to get their product to market and if the roads are crappy, they have to take more trips with lighter loads or the roads will break up worse than they have been. My second question is who is accountable for the screw up, the superintendant or the commissioners? Will the commissioners acknowledge they are responsible? After all, they are the ones who approve the budget? But wait a minute. About a year ago when I complained about the incompetency of the land use administrator, the Chairman of the County Commissioners said and I quote. “It is not his position or that of the commissioners to “Micro manage” each department in the court house.” Well, is oversight considered micromanaging? Because we are talking maybe $ millions of dollars to fix this thing and I don’t think it can be covered up, but then again one never knows what the sitting body is liable to do. This could be ‘unforeseen’ circumstances or something like that. Although it is my understanding that in this 10 year period, the payroll did increase by $200,000. Hm-m-m-m-m. Trust me on this. Opt Out is not going to solve this problem. Opt Out without changes will not solve this problem. The old ‘tax and spend’ theory is what got us into this in the first place. Prudent management of personnel and making a budget work is the answer. British Prime minister Margaret Thatcher said that the problem with socialism is that you can only spend so much of other people’s money. I think this is a neat parody of our commissioners. You can only spend so much of our tax money before you are in deep kimchee.
Now for Hyperion!
EPA tightens sulfur dioxide limits
Good news for asthmatics, children, the elderly and those who have breathing disorders. For the first time in nearly 40 years, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued standards that lower the acceptable levels of sulfur dioxide emissions and increase the intervals the gas is monitored. Under the new rules, sulfur dioxide levels will be cut nearly in half from the current 140 parts per billion averaged over 24 hours to 75 parts per billion measured hourly. The new rules, which go into effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, are designed to protect against short-term exposure to sulfur dioxide, produced when power plants or other industrial facilities burn coal as an energy source. The states will have to submit implementation plans by June 2011, and the first areas that won’t meet the standard identified the following year.
Those of us against Hyperion have been saying since day one that this was as problem. I wonder why we are so smart that we can figure this out three years before the EPA can. Damn we’re good!!

Enough Already

2010-05-24T17:47:00.001-07:00

I don’t think the county commissioners know how to stop spending. They sure as hell can’t keep within the budget. (Budget?) It wasn’t enough that they spent $45,000 for the “parking lot”, $47,000 for the “bridge” to nowhere, and $25,000 for the old port of entry facility, but now they went and spent $20,000 more for access to the port of entry. How much more can they spend before the end of the year? I mean what is going on here? As far as I know, none of this money was in the “budget” for 2010. (Don’t you just love the quote marks? (“”). I mean it adds so much emphasis to what I’m saying don’t you think? If I’m not cynical about my own writing, I’m liable to take it out on the commissioners.
Now let’s stop a minute and reflect about what is happening here. They are or have spent over $45,000 for a “temporary” parking lot for the court house. The city of Elk Point waived the demolition fee if the commissioners, excuse me – the county - would put up a sign saying “public parking.” So of course they agreed to that. The building that occupied the “parking lot” has been demolished and the hole filled in; graveled and is ready to be paved. Oh come on! I believe Campbell construction in Jefferson came in with an excavator and demolished the building but the county did the rest of the work. I wonder if the highway department budgeted monies for the equipment, manpower, gas and whatever else for doing this work. You can bet your bottom dollar they didn’t, so where is the money coming from? Oh, silly me, it must be coming from the contingency fund. I wonder how much money is left in this fund before we go broke. You would think it was a bottomless pit because they can’t spend it fast enough. Well, that is enough about the parking lot, but before I leave this, do you think people would have minded parking on the street if they knew they would be saving the county over $50,000 for the “parking lot.”
Now for the bridge to nowhere. This bridge in Prairie Township was marked for replacement in 2003. Now 7 years later, the state let a contract for $247,000 replace the bridge. Wait a minute! Isn’t the state running over the budget this year? I remember the politicians in Pierre passing a budget on the last day of the session for a $32,000,000 shortfall and they have money to replace the “bridge to nowhere.” Enough already, I can’t stand it. Anyway, of this $247,000 the county is responsible for 2% of that total or $47,000. I do not remember seeing any money in the 2010 budget for this. If it is, I apologize. I really do. After all, I think the county ran out of money after paying for all the snow removal this last winter because they are going to opt out in July because of a shortfall in funds for highway maintenance. This is getting really serious ladies and gentlemen. The county is going to opt out because of a shortfall in the budget for maintenance and upkeep yet they are spending money like there is no tomorrow. Is this called responsible government or what? I sure as heck can’t figure this out. Can you? The commissioners must figure we can’t add 2+2 and come up with 5.
I saved the best for last because the commissioners bought the old port of entry facility from the state to either use it for a substation for the sheriff’s department or for the highway department. Funny thing is, neither of these two departments wants anything to do with the place. If the highway department uses it they must put somebody down there. In the winter if they use it for sand they still have to drive a sand truck down there to fill up. They can’t just leave a truck up there because it runs on diesel fuel and takes time to warm up before they can get going. Does that make sense to you? Doesn’t to me. If the sheriff uses it, does that mean he is going to increase manpower because if it is manned as a substation then somebody has to be there just to answer the phone I would think. Now can the place be left unmanned? If it can, why do they need it in the first place? God I hate it when I have all these questions about how the county runs its business. Now here is the best part. That $20,000 they spent on the facility this year – they had to spend it to gain access to the property because there wasn’t any way to get there except from the interstate, it was landlocked so they paid Jon Nelson $20,000 for an easement to get to old highway 77, or maybe they spent the $20,000 for the adjoining property (whatever) so they could get to it. Either way it cost the county another $20,000 THAT WE DON’T HAVE! Is this getting past the point of being silly or is it just plain sick? Enough Already!

If I'm Lyin, I'm Dyin

2010-05-18T20:26:00.001-07:00

Unless I’ve been reading the wrong stuff, cap and trade is going to kill us. First of all, let’s call it what it is. It is a TAX!
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if it looks like a tax, sounds like a tax and quacks like a tax, then it must be a tax. Let me give you my version of cap and trade. There is no doubt that we are experiencing climate change/global warming. What I don’t understand about this whole thing is why people who don’t have a clue of what is happening are the ones who determined that cap and trade is a good thing. Here is the dictionary definition of cap and trade.
Emissions trading (also known as cap and trade) is an administrative approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.
A central authority (usually a governmental body) sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other groups are issued[clarification needed] emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of allowances (or credits) which represent the right to emit a specific amount. The total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. The transfer of allowances is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed. Thus, in theory, those who can reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest cost to society.
This all makes perfect sense right? Baloney! Let me give you my scenario on how this will work in our society. Hyperion sits in their office and says they have to make some extra money, so they inflate the amount of pollution they are going to emit. In this case, they say they will emit 19 million tons of carbon dioxide, when in fact they will only emit 10 million tons. This figure was approved by the State of South Dakota DENR so it is accurate as far as the state is concerned. After all, Hyperion knows what it is talking about. Now since this is a new operation and it is going to take them 5 years to build it, they have 19 million credits to sell on the open market to the highest bidder. The law says that the total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, and since they didn’t produce anything the first five years, they are home free. After all, the law is the law. Now in the 5th year they go into production and only produce what they figured they would which is 10 million tons. They can still sell 9 million credits on the open market. God, don’t you just love it?
Now who is going to pay for these credits? We are. Hyperion refines the crude and pass off the carbon tax to the next person down the line because they, sure as hell, aren’t going to pay for it, which passes it down the line until it gets to you. The price of oil, gas, diesel, fertilizer, electricity and anything else that uses oil products or its derivatives is going to skyrocket and we are going to bear the brunt of it. This is absolutely not going to be good for the economy because it will stifle any incentive to produce anything. The only ones that are going to make out on the deal are the polluters. If there is a way to screw us, the politicians and the oil companies will figure out a way to do it. If this is such a good deal, why isn’t it being done all over the world? I’ll tell you why, other countries have tried it and it doesn’t work. I’ve listed just one example of the results of cap and trade for the state of Kentucky.

• Due to lower industrial output as a result of higher energy prices, the costs of complying with required emissions cuts, and greater competition from overseas manufacturers with lower energy costs, Kentucky would lose as many as 23,000 jobs in 2020 and nearly 50,000 jobs in 2030.

• Disposable household income would be reduced by as much as $2,500 per year in 2020 and up to $6,000 by 2030.

• The price of gasoline in Kentucky would increase between 74 percent and 144 percent in 2030. Electricity prices would increase by between 122 percent and 159 percent. Kentucky residents would pay between 99 percent and 142 percent more for their natural gas by 2030.

All of Kentucky's largest manufacturing sectors would experience output losses.

Kentucky's 1,865 schools and universities and 134 hospitals will likely experience an increase of up to 35 percent in expenditures by 2020 and as much as 123 percent by 2030.
I have the solution for cap and trade, it is called conservation. We are paying $2.70 for gas now and I just got notified today that my electric rate is going up by 11% for next year. If I limit the amount or distances that I drive and conserve my use of electricity, I can save more money than can be saved by cap and trade. We have become such a throwaway society. It is cheaper to throw it away and buy a new one than to fix the one that is broke. Sometimes, being cheap is okay. It is better to volunteer to do something than to be forced to do something. Do people really care where the oil comes from? Honestly?
I’ll climb off my high horse now.

Food For Thought

2010-05-10T20:29:00.001-07:00

Food For Thought (not lutefisk)
I think I finally hit the wall. This is the first time since I’ve been writing these articles (over 2 years) that I have absolutely nothing to write about. I’m just going to start writing and see where it leads. The commissioners continue to do things in secret. They went into executive session to discuss the proposed parking lot and the property they purchased on the Interstate. Hyperion is keeping their mouths closed, which is good because I could criticize them forever if they were to contact the people in Washington to beg for money to build the refinery. Course they very well could be doing that because their version of transparency means be secretive as well. There is nothing in the news about anything except the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the press is beating that issue to death.
I want to assure everyone that the actions of the oil companies do not cause a reaction as stupid as building a refinery in South Dakota. I guess we just hunker down and wait for a shoe to drop.
Is this a good thing that nothing is going on or is it a bad thing? Personally, I think it is a good thing because time is running out on Hyperion and the drop dead date is only a little over 3 months away.
I do have something to prattle about that might perk interest in some folks.
There is a law on the books that says existing counties in the state can split into one or more counties with permission of the county. There are people that I talk to that want to organize a movement to split the county into 2. They have checked into the state constitution and can’t find anything that says it can’t be done. Everything north of highway 50 should split from Union county and become Foss County, (in memory of World War II Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss.) That would be Brule, Spink, Emmett and Prairie Townships. The county seat could be built in the central part of the county and begin to act as responsible people for a change. Of course, the county would never let us do that because the PROPOSED refinery site would be in Brule Township with spillover into Spink Township and we would get all the money. It is always about money isn’t it?
The rationale behind all this is that 2010 is also the year the government does the Census and all the district lines will be redrawn according to population. So goes the population, so goes the Commissioners and so goes the appropriation percentage for monies distributed for the infrastructure of the county. This is called gerrymandering. Dakota Dunes is now bigger than Beresford and Alcester combined. It is conceivable that the Dunes would get 2 commissioners and all the area north of Highway 50 reduced to 1. If we don’t have a strong commissioner representing us when this happens, it will happen. The southern part of the county would purposely be redrawn to give all the power of the commissioners to the lower half of the county. We have 5 commissioners, and 3 of them are currently from the southern half of the county; Dakota Dunes, North Sioux City, Jefferson, and Elk Point. Do you see what is happening here? We are being squeezed out of the picture and pretty soon, we won’t have a voice at all. That is why I say it is entirely possible the Dunes could add one commissioner and we could lose one. If that does happen, we will need a commissioner with a grim determination and an ability to seek compromises. If we don’t, we are at the mercy of the rest of the county. I would put this into the category of taxation without representation.
If the lines were drawn according to size and not by population, we wouldn’t have a problem, but that isn’t the way it works. It is people and money. When the lines were redrawn in 2000, it was done by the Southeast Council of Governments (SECOG) in Sioux Falls. The commissioners rubberstamped it and the lines were redrawn and Roger Boldenow and Dale Harkness found themselves out of a job. Isn’t that interesting? Two commissioners at one whack. That is NOT in the best interests of the townships. It was done strictly to give the advantage to Southern Union County. Have you ever noticed that the paper in Elk Point has changed its name from the Elk Point Leader Courier to the Southern Union County Leader Courier? Inch by inch, Foot by foot, step by step we are being absorbed by the southern part of the county, and pretty soon we won’t have a voice at all. Think About It!

Button, Button, Who's got the Button

2010-05-02T05:41:00.001-07:00

May 5th, 2010
Button, Button, Who’s got the Button
It sure is fun to read all the legals in the local papers. I find out that I’ve been attending the wrong meetings, because when I read something in one paper, it is completely different in the other, and completely different from what I had an understanding on.
Let’s take the latest fiasco in the Union County Government. Maybe I shouldn’t call it a fiasco, but then I’ve always told it like it is and if it looks like a fiasco, sounds like a fiasco, quacks like a fiasco, then it must be a fiasco.
The county commissioners spent $45,000 for this lot across the street for a parking lot to be used during the reconstruction of Main Street. That $45,000 was just for the lot and I believe the money came from the contingency fund, although I’ve never seen exactly where the money came from. Slush funds are illegal now, so it must have come from contingency.
Now we have to spend anywhere from $7500 to $9500 to have the building demolished. But wait a minute there might be artifacts in there someone would want. The last I heard Mr. Jordan was going to advertise in antique auction magazines, but that would take too long so they told Mr. Roggow to go through the building and remove anything he thinks the county could use and then they would decided what to do with the rest of the stuff. (Oh man, that is my favorite word: stuff).
There was one slight problem though, there is a lean to within 1 foot of the property line and when an excavator comes in they aren’t too careful with the bucket, so the commissioners designated the states attorney to see if they (the county) could build a new one for him or repair the damages or whatever.
Now it seems to me that they have to put this demolition out for bids, and that takes time because they have to have bid sessions and open bids, award bids, get completion dates etc. Main street will be done before they get around to all this. Then again, maybe county workers will use county equipment and county time to take it down, fill it in and pave it. The downtown portion of the project is due to be completed in August and the rest by November.
Anyway, back to my story. I was reading the elk point paper yesterday and in the minutes for the city council there was a demolition application from the county and that they asked for the demolition fee to be waived. ($500) The city has agreed to waive the demolition fee if the county would agree to let the city park in the lot during the main street construction and that they put up a public parking sign. (Now hold on here). It is my understanding that this lot is being constructed to be used as overflow parking for the court house during the street reconstruction because there won’t be enough parking for people conducting business at the court house. (If you’ve ever been at the courthouse when there is jury selection you would understand). Anyway, back to my story again. Now the city sent this back to the county for action and if the county agrees, then the city will waive the fee. You know as well as I do that the county is not the fastest acting agency in the world. And again, the street project might be done before the lot is. Now the big question is why in the world is the county spending over $55,000 for a flipping parking lot to accommodate overflow for a period of about 6 months? I’m sure people would understand what is going on and wouldn’t mind parking on the street and walking a block for 6 months. Besides, I would be willing to bet that lot won’t hold over 10 cars anyway. That is a lot of money to park 10 cars.
There has been a breaking story last Friday (April 30th) that 3 oil companies are suing TransCanada to get out of their contract for shipping tar sands to their refineries because of skyrocketing shipping costs. I’m sure by the time you are reading this that the other 2 refineries will have been identified. The one refinery is Coffeeville, Kansas. The rest of the pipeline goes to Cushing, Oklahoma which is the central distribution point for the pipeline. It seems that the cost of shipping the oil down the pipeline has gone up over 92% in just the last 2 years and the oil companies are saying that they cannot make any money at those prices and want out of their contract. They also state that TransCanada was late in getting the contract back to them so there is in fact, no contract. This is all Oilspeak for saying this tar sands deal isn’t a money making deal after all and they want out. Now this doesn’t open the door for Hyperion, because if it is too costly for the big boys it is way, way out of the range of Hyperion. My first thought was “Oh My God”, Hyperion has a pipeline, but then I thought of costs, and said naw, not a problem. They can’t afford to buy the land that is optioned, so buying oil from TransCanada is out of the question. It seems as though just about the time things quiet down, up jumps a snake and we are right back in it again.
Final thought for the day. Julie Madden was talking to Mr. Dale Neeley about the Planning and Zoning plus the commissioners not following the directives in the zoning ordinance. Are you ready for his answer?? “We need to have some LEEWAY!” I think I’ve heard everything now.

Sneaky Politics

2010-04-25T05:53:00.001-07:00

April 28th, 2010
Sneaky Politics.
It is really a crying shame that county politics is not as open as everyone thinks it is. County politics is a case of if you don’t ask, I won’t tell. You can say that the county is not open in their transactions on a daily basis, but they will always tell you ‘but it was in the paper.’ My answer is ‘yes, but not on a real time basis. Not everybody reads the legal section of the paper on a regular basis.’ Maybe after this article is published, your interests will peak and that answer will change.
Do you remember many, many articles ago that I said that I love conspiracies? I am going to piece some parts of the puzzle together and you might just be amazed at the outcome.
Let’s talk about property taxes. One thing that everyone is interested in is their property taxes. I’m sure the situation is the same in Iowa as it is here in Union County. Right now we are seriously strapped for money. Now the only way one can raise money in South Dakota is by property tax since we don’t have an income tax. Our taxes are frozen at 3%. Now we have two options if we want to bring in some money for expenses and overhead without going over the 3% limit. One way is to opt out and the other is to raise the valuation on the property therefore getting more money next year and not exceed the 3% figure. Union County is poised to do both.
In Union County, the commissioners have been talking seriously for the last two months about opting out of the tax freeze because the county is almost broke. Well, maybe not broke but they are running out of money to pay the cost of keeping the roads in good repair, especially the oil roads. In the ‘Big Plan,’ the county has 180 miles of paved roads and according to the highway superintendant , Ray Roggow, paved roads have a 20 year life span, and if the county redoes 18 miles of road a year then the roads will be in good state and everything is fine. There is only one problem, inflation and frozen property tax. As an example, last year the county only redid 4 miles of road because of the rising cost of asphalt. Now this puts them 14 miles behind the power curve for this year, and the expenses keep climbing. The only solution that the commission can come up with is to opt out of the tax freeze and this will bring in $248,000 to pay for the roads. They had talked about doing this in time for the primary election but didn’t get it submitted in time for the primary ballot, (on purpose??) $so it will have to be on the November ballot UNLESS they vote to opt out by July 1st. now here is the kicker. If they opt out by the 1st of July, in order to stop it, the residents of the county will have to circulate a petition and refer it to a special election. If there is no referral it becomes a done deal. Has anyone on the commission said anything to the public about this? They have but it has been really quiet. It has been published in the legal section of the papers, but evidently everyone has overlooked this because nobody is raising a question about it. Or better yet, nobody knows about this and the commissioners are keeping quiet about it. Evidently they think nobody will take the time or trouble to circulate petitions, so they are home free, and the highway department will have its money.
The other way to raise money is by raising the assessed value of your home and your land. I believe that everyone’s assessment went up by 20-25% for next year. In Beresford, all homes that are over ten years old had their assessment raised by 9%. Not much you can do about that EXCEPT go to your township board and have your assessment revised. Ah, back to the conspiracy. When the township boards met with the Union County State’s Attorney back in March, he directed that the boards scrutinize the objections very closely. He didn’t want to see any paperwork come before the commissioners on reducing the assessed values. He told the township boards that they were the “Gatekeepers” for the county and it was their job to make sure this doesn’t happen. Somebody forgot to tell Dakota Dunes. (Why do I keep picking on the people at the Dunes?) Here are a few examples of the Dunes objections to the assessments.
1. Current value $159,328 change to $132,940 (-$26,388)
2. Current value $7,916 change to $3,589 (-$4,327) purchased at sheriff sale $305
3. Current value $144,505 change to $134,348 (-$10,157)
4. Current value $144,506 change to $134,349 (-$$10,157)
5. Current value $185,000 change to $142,282 (-$42,718)
6. Current value $216,061 change to $211,000 (-$5,061) value too high
7. Current value $456,585 change to $399,120 (-$57,465) higher than cost of new construction
8. Current value $471,273 change to $433,737 (-$37,536) added an addition
9. Current value $260,080 change to $245,000 (-$15,080) sales value lower
10. Current value $316,480 change to $273,090 (-$42,390) increased above fair market value
11. Current value $213,587 change to $195,500 (-$$18078) value more than purchase price.
Now, I’m not a rocket scientist, but just those 11 properties reduced their value by a total of $269,366. Can you imagine how many more there are? Look at some of the rationale for reducing the assessed value. #8 added an addition. Doesn’t that increase the value of a home? #7 higher than cost of new construction. DUH! The housing market is way down. How about #10 increased above fair market value. I still don’t understand that one. Or #11, value more than purchase price. I thought homes appreciated at least 10% a year in value. Am I losing this somewhere in the translation?
The whole point I’m trying to show is what the county is doing. What else is going on?

The Spin Doctor

2010-04-18T18:59:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>April 20th, 2010

“The Spin Doctor”

If you remember last week I mentioned that Mr. Dick White from Hyperion was speaking at WIT on Thursday and I would let you know what he had to say and if there was anything new to report. He didn’t have anything new to say, but he did put a new twist on what he did have to say about the refinery project.

He spent about 20 minutes talking blah blah blah about the causes of global warming and we need to be prepared for this. To my knowledge, this is the first time that he has admitted there is a problem, and linked it to Hyperion.

He went into a long spiel about the fact that the economy is in a slump and this is not the time for Hyperion to be spending $13 Billion dollars for a refinery in Union County, (the numbers keep getting bigger and bigger) therefore he is here to convince the landowners holding options to extend their options for one to two years until the economy begins to recover, and then they will buy the land and begin construction. That is the biggest load of you know what I’ve ever heard however, that is the first time that Hyperion has backtracked and admitted that there is a problem. If you read between the lines, he is telling me that they don’t have the money to buy the land and that they can’t find venture capital to buy the land either. (How long have we been saying this?)

One of the other things that came out in this speech is that he admitted for the first time that one of the reasons for the delay is due to the permitting process and the litigation in the courts. Well, who would have thought of something like that? There is an old saying in this world that if you start a project this big and you don’t end up with years of lawsuits you did something wrong. They got their wish. Here we go again, to my knowledge the only permit they have applied for of the 12 or so permits that will be required is the air permit. Hoo-Rah, what do you think is going to happen when they get to the water permit? Oh my God, more delays. Shucky darn. This time they will be dealing with the feds, and I can almost guarantee you they will be required to submit an environmental impact statement. Then the fit will really hit the Shan.

One interesting thing he did mention was about an article in the papers on Monday about Sineopec paying $4.6 Billion to Conoco Phillips for their interest in the Athabasca Tar Sands. What he didn’t say is that the 6% of the tar sands that Sinopec bought is further reducing Hyperion’s access to tar sands. I’m sure that Hyperion was planning on tapping into the TransCanada pipeline for tar sands, but now that has gone up in smoke. (a little play on words there)

Mr. White spent the rest of the hour talking about international marketing and the intricacies of dealing with Europeans in their home territory.(Gorilla) He mentioned that you have to go in and establish an open relationship with the people.(Gorilla) You need to hire someone who is familiar with the local people and the territory.(Gorilla) You need to learn the local language and gestures. (Gorilla) Does this all sound familiar?

When he was finished I raised my hand and asked this question or maybe made a statement. It sounded like a question. “Mr. White, your speech is full of contradictions. You talk about global warming and being prepared yet you support a refinery that will be emitting 19 million tons of carbon dioxide. If that isn’t an oxymoron, what is it?” he replied that he is merely a consultant and that if I want an answer to that I will have to talk to the oil experts.

Since he was speaking at WIT he did talk about 1800 permanent and 4500 temporary jobs that will be added as a result of this refinery. Now let me ask you a question, would you feel safe knowing that this refinery would be built by men and women with absolutely no experience in building oil refineries? I’m not only talking about the laborers, I’m talking about the supervisors as well. Do you think for one minute that people will leave their wonderful homes and climate in Houston to come to Elk Point to build a refinery? They know what happens when it’s -20 below zero. Nothing happens. It’s too cold to do anything. You need a minimum of five years of working as a welder or pipe fitter in the oil field to become certified to make a safe product. That means they had better get started working now if they want to come back in five years and apply to work here because it is going to be that long before anything happens. This is starting to sound like a broken record.

So, did we learn anything new yesterday? Only that Mr. White has really been working on his tan.

Enough Already

2010-04-11T23:44:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>April 13th, 2010

Enough Already

I really wanted to title this article ‘What a crock’. After the commissioners meeting on the 6th of April, it is apparent to me that your county commissioners absolutely don’t have a clue.

This all started with the public hearing to grant a liquor license to Sean Brady for a club at Garryowen. This was already a done deal because he paid the $25,000 two weeks before for the license, so this was just a legal formality. Anyway, I implied to the commissioners, (naw I accused the commissioners) of using the zoning ordinance as a convenience for either enforcing or disregarding the ordinance to suit their purposes. I reminded them that they cannot continue to use the excuse that it is the jurisdiction of the planning and zoning commissioners not the county commissioners to enforce the ordinance. I reminded them that in the comprehensive plan of 2005, they are ultimately responsible for its enforcement. I said that I have previously been to both the p&z and to the commissioners and that their handling of this issue with the exit 31 grille is in violation of the 2008 zoning ordinance. It says specifically in the ordinance that the landowner must request a conditional use permit. Sean Brady did not then and still does not own the property, yet the p&z rezoned the property to commercial. Sean Brady is purchasing this property contingent upon it getting rezoned commercial, approval of the conditional use permit and obtaining a liquor license.

Here is another slam against the citizens of the county. Ms. Merrigan sent the commissioners a letter requesting a reply by them about the Garryowen property and during the course of the discussion about the permit, Mr. Jordan replied to me that the letter from Liz was merely a personal letter in his correspondence packet and did not require a response. So what Mr. Jordan was in effect saying is that unless you are on the agenda and appear in person before the commission, whatever your concerns are is merely conversation and they don’t need to respond to you. (Now comes my headline) “What a Crock.”

Anyway, back to the liquor license. Mr. Karpen and I were discussing who was responsible for requesting a conditional use permit when the States Attorney interrupted and said this was not on the agenda. What they were there to have the hearing for was the license for Mr. Brady. So, Mr. Karpen cut the conversation short and took a vote to grant the license, and it was 3 yeas and 1 nay (Mr. Ustad) and the license was done. Marv Schemp wasn’t there. So much for following the ordinance.

One of the next things on the agenda was to visit the property that was purchased for a parking lot for the court house. I don’t think any of the commissioners other than Mr. Karpen had ever seen the place. My comments when I walked through the door was” Holy Moses, this place is about to fall down.” I have never seen a place in such condition. Talk about a dump. I could not believe they paid $45,000 for this place and they still have to pay to have it demolished. I mean I can understand they never intended to use the building, but they still have to have the building demolished. The plan is that this will be filled in, paved and either use it for court house parking or lease it out. That last statement really threw me for a loop. I thought the whole idea for a parking lot was because Main Street is being torn up and they need parking for customers. Main Street is already being torn up and here they are talking about demolishing the building. They have to list it in the paper as surplus property and then put it out for bids. Mr. Jordan remarked that there might be wood, windows etc. that an antique dealer might want, so they are going to advertise it in area papers and do whatever. Main Street will be done before they decide what to do with it. One of their concerns is that there is as lean-to within 2 feet of the property line that surely would not survive an excavator tearing down the building, so they are going to talk to the property owner and offer to repair any damages or maybe even building him a new lean-to to save time and money trying not to damage it when they demolish the building. I’m not kidding folks, this is what really happened. I was there. (Kinda like Walter Cronkite and “You were there.”)

Okay now we are back in the commissioner’s room and they are talking about what it is going to cost to have this building knocked down. Best guess is that it will be somewhere between $7500 and $9500 to get the work done. The City of Elk Point is going to help towards this cost. (I wonder if the people of Elk Point know this.) Speaking of cost, I wonder where this $9000 is going to come from. Is this a budgeted item for 2010? Will they use contingency funds again? Who’s on first?

I always like to wait until Sunday to submit this article because there is always something surprising that pops up at the last minute. Sure enough, in the SCJ today is an article about Hyperion and Dick White speaking at a seminar at WIT tomorrow. It is an international trade summit. (International Trade Summit???) Dick White is the guy that spearheaded all the land options for the HEC. Dick has been back in the area for the last few weeks negotiating extensions to the options signed 3 years ago. These are the options to extend for one to two years at no cost. The seminar on Thursday is going to show how Hyperion ties into international trade. Does this mean the oil is going overseas instead of the local area? Hum-m-m-m-m

Amazing, Simply Amazing

2010-04-05T19:29:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>April 7th, 2010

Amazing, Simply Amazing

You know, the longer I research and write about oil, the more confused I get. This last week has been a plethora of oil news, and if you believe half of what you read you just want to go out and shoot yourself in the foot and get it over with.

First is the news that Iowa gets more than half its oil from Canada. Gary Mar who represents Alberta at the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C. says "We're your friends, and we are a good, dependable source of oil compared to the Middle East," However The environmental battles in the Upper Midwest and Canada over extracting oil from Canadian oil sands and expanding pipelines could have a strong impact on the region's energy economy. (Oh right, like this is causing gas prices to skyrocket!)

The Alberta oil is refined at the Flint Hills refinery in the Twin Cities suburb of Rosemount, Minn., and the BP refinery in the Chicago suburb of Whiting, Ind. It's sent to Iowa directly from Minnesota or west through Wood River, Ill., near St. Louis, through central Missouri and then north to the BP terminal in Clive.

The Minnesota and Indiana refineries, along with most others in the Great Lakes area, have retrofitted themselves in recent years to refine the heavy crude that comes from Canada instead of the lighter oil from Texas.

Long-term planners would like to build a refinery at Sioux Falls, S.D. The proposed Hyperion Refinery already has passed a local vote but still has legal and financial hurdles."But Hyperion would also refine Canada's heavy crude, which would serve the Iowa market," said John Kerekes, central region director for the American Petroleum Institute. (Is NOT IN MY LIFETIME a good definition of long term?)

On the 28th, comes an article in the Denver Post – Energy Company eyes Utah’s oil sands. Earth Energy, A company from Alberta, Canada wants to start mining tar sands in the Uintah county of Utah. (OK what’s going on here?) Now get this. This company is trying to raise a paltry $35 Million to finance mining of tar sands in Utah but admits it could be tough because private equity groups turned skittish after the 2008 economic meltdown. (And Hyperion is trying to raise $10 Billion ????) they said “Until we raise our capital, we are unable to proceed with the project in any major way, but the minute we do, we are fully prepared and committed to advance,” said D. Glen Snarr, President and Chief Financial Officer. (Sounds like a quote from Al Huddleston, except that he told Elk Point mayor Trobough he had the money and she believed him.)

Now hold on here, the United States (Hyperion) is going press-to-test to import tar sands from Canada and here is a Canadian company wanting to mine tar sands in the United States. This is just getting goofey. University of Utah chemical engineering professor Phillip Smith says ‘Wringing oil from hard rock or oil sands is technically possible, but nobody has proven it economical on a large scale yet.’

Bear in mind now, these guys are talking about tar sands in Montana and Utah. These reserves have been estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to contain over one trillion barrels of oil. Starting in 2006 the federal government awarded small plots of lands for experimental works that have yet to produce any meaningful quantities of oil. Oil shale is said to be ‘rich’ when it contains 30 gallons of petroleum for each ton of rock, but pound for pound that amounts to only 1/10th of the energy of liquid crude oil.

And one wonders why those of us who are against Hyperion keep saying this will never happen.

Now here is the Coupe de Gras. In Saturday’s Sioux City Journal, buried back in the local/business section of the paper on page A5 is an article - Study: US. Refineries have bad safety record: (Oh My God, you’ve got to be kidding me. Really?)

U.S. oil refineries have an ongoing problem with accidents that turn deadly, losing four times as much money from such incidents than refineries in the rest of the world, according to an insurance company report obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

The problem is highlighted by a deadly string of explosions, including one that killed four people Friday at a Tesoro Corp. refinery in Washington state, federal officials said. (actually it was 5 killed and 2 injured, but the article is about how much money was lost – Really?)

The blast at the Tesoro plant north of Seattle killed 5 people and injured 2.the blast was felt more than a mile away. Folks, this is a refinery that only produces 20,000 barrels a day and the blast was felt a mile away. There was a refinery explosion in Utah last November that was felt 18 miles away. I think this is getting close to home now. I don’t know about you, but I only live 6 miles away from the proposed site and this bothers me even more. These accidents seem to be a regular occurrence and the one on Good Friday wasn’t even in the Sioux City Journal. Come on guys, let’s get going here. BP had an explosion in 2005 that killed 15 people and injured 170. Oh, but this is just normal routine in this risky business right? And people want to have a refinery built in Union County?

I’m going to close with a quote by Charlton Heston when he was elected president of the NRA. “I’ll give up this rifle when they pry if from my cold, cold hands.”

Who;s Got the Hammer

2010-03-28T21:34:00.001-07:00

March 31st, 2010

Who has the hammer?

That heading might have a strange meaning, but in reality it is a very powerful statement with all the turmoil in Washington. As a result of swinging the Hammer, the State of South Dakota is joining with many other states to sue the United States Government for violation of States Rights. (Sounds like a history lesson coming on doesn’t it?)

First of all, let me explain what the Hammer is. Now don’t get me wrong here. I am putting the blame equally on the Republicans and the Democrats. This is a biased article, but not about them. (I’ll get to that in a minute.) Back to the Hammer. It is my firm belief that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats give two hoots and a holler about health care. What they do care about is who controls the leadership in the House and the Senate because whoever controls that controls the hammer. THEY will decide what is good for the people of America. I said in my letter in the Argus Leader this week that Power corrupts; Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.

It is a funny thing about power. Even at the lowest levels of government there is power. Some say that the lower you get on the food chain the more corrupt one becomes. Anyway, once you have this power, what do you do with it? People that have had the hammer know the feeling that comes with it. They feel invincible. They can do anything they want because they have the Hammer.

In the first case you use it to wield a program that you say will help the people. Hence the health care reform bill. The Democrats are for it, and the Republicans are against it so now we have a meeting of the minds, and Nancy Pelosi has the Hammer. She knows if she gets this through, other legislation that follows will be hers to decide if it is good or bad, whether it will give her more power or less. Whichever was she decides to go, she wields the Hammer and that is the way it is going to go. It sounds like I’m making this up, but this is exactly what happens inside the Beltway in Washington.

Let me regress for a minute. Do you remember in your history books, one of the reasons for the American Revolution? It was a tax levied by King George against stamps, and tea. The revolutionaries declared this taxation without representation and this was the beginning of the Revolutionary war. Well Guess what? The Republicans are viewing the health care issue as not whether or not it will be good or bad for us but the federal government is taking away a states right by declaring that everyone in the United States MUST have health care. This is taxation without representation and a violation of the 1st Article of the Constitution. The Attorneys General in 38 states agreed and filed a lawsuit in federal court that this mandate is unconstitutional because it is in fact a tax and we have no option to decline it. That is case number one

Case number 2 is that South Dakota has joined with 14 other states saying that the standards set down by the Environmental Protection Agency concerning carbon emissions are too strict and will cause 1000’s of business’s money because they will exceed the carbon standard. Let me give you a big FLASH! The biggest violator of these standards will be the Hyperion Oil Refinery. When Hyperion received their air permit last August, it was based on the fact that the air in South Dakota is so pristine that they can run at an amok and still not reach the standards set by the Clean Air Act of 1994. Well guess what? When they reach that level, which was permitted by the state DENR by the way, nobody else can emit any pollutants because they will then exceed the standard. I tried and several other people tried to warn the authorities that this would happen but nobody would listen. I had a letter printed in the SCJ to be careful because if Hyperion does come here, there will be no growth in Sioux City so far as manufacturing industries are concerned. I was pooh poohed about this and accused of being ‘chicken little,’ and the sky was falling. Now the states are suing the EPA because their standards are too strict. Be careful what you ask for because you might get it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that when the big bear has an itch it will scratch it, and you had better move away. So who is going to get the blame when and IF this refinery comes for companies not to be able to build because they will exceed the standards? You can bet your bottom dollar that it won’t be the refinery, it will be the EPA. Sometimes one cannot see the forest for the trees can we? The very pollutants that they will be releasing; carbon dioxide (19 million tons), nitrous oxide, methane and HFC’s are the biggest concerns for the EPA. If only people would look at the long range plan once in awhile. I just read the paper on Friday and the SCJ was touting that the population was at 144,000 and the future is really looking rosy. A dead rose maybe.

<$BlogMetaData$>

Let's call a spade a spade

2010-03-22T22:57:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>March 24th, 2010

Let’s call a spade a spade!

I must apologize to the people that wrote UCC ordinance 2007-003 on guidelines and rules for getting a liquor license in Union County. I made fun of the business plan submitted by Sean Brady for getting his liquor license for the Exit 31 Grille. He followed the law to the letter. I even checked with the State of South Dakota to see what the minimum requirements were to get a license. Are you ready for this? You cannot be a convicted felon! That’s it. They don’t even require a background check. If the county wants to do one that is fine, but so far as the state is concerned, they don’t require one. Now you might be a drug user, a sex offender or an alcoholic, but as long as you aren’t a convicted felon, you’re home free. Yakoff Smerinoff says it best. Is this a great country or what? If the business plan ordinance is so relaxed, it is no wonder that the planning and zoning acts like it does. They have a free reign to do what they want and the devil take the hindmost. At least the treasurer and the register of deeds have somewhat stringent laws they must adhere to.

I’m getting a fast education lately in how this county operates. As an example, if you want to get on the agenda for the county commissioners, the auditor will ask you for a synopsis about what you are going to talk about. She says this is just a courtesy to the commissioners. They must think we are totally stupid or they only do it to certain people, but the reason she is asking is that she can give a heads up to the States Attorney so he can look it up in the codified law and the commissioners can have an answer for you immediately when you are finished speaking.

Let me give you a an example. I submitted a complaint against the land use administrator to the county commissioners, I was asked what the topic was about when I asked to be on the agenda and I told her. I read my complaint to the commissioners and immediately (within 5 seconds give or take a few), Mr. Karpen pulled out the exact law in the zoning ordinance that says they have no jurisdiction over the LUA and that I must take complaints about the LUA to the board of adjustment. Now if you think he knew the answer to that one and exactly where to look and have the ordinance marked, I have some oceanfront property in Arizona for sale.

Anyway, when I was finished with the presentation, I made a statement to the BOA that Dennis was the most powerful man in Union County. I was mistaken. It is Jerry Miller, the States Attorney. He is ultimately the one responsible to ensure that the laws and ordinances that are passed will stand up to a lawsuit and that they are lawful orders. Now he was the SA (States Attorney) when this law (UCC 2007-003) was passed, so he must have given it his blessing to put it into law. After all, the only thing the state requires is that he not be a convicted felon.

Now to give you an update on what to expect if and when Hyperion comes to town, a Texas based oil pipeline company was fined $450,000 in civil penalties to the United States to settle allegations that it failed to prepare and maintain proper facility response plans to deal with spills and environmental accidents at eight of its oil storage terminal facilities in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. Now what gets me about all this is that the fines are paid to the government. Why not pay the fine to the people who are inconvenienced or damaged by these spills. This is just another example of the utter disregard the United States Government has for its people or is it acting as their sovereign? Individual states create the laws for their states regarding pollution hazards, but the government gets the reward if there is a spill or catastrophe. HM-M-M-M… in the case of the oil spill it was a violation of the clean water act, so I guess the government is the party who was grieved. (Getting a bit cynical aren’t I?)

There is a law sitting at the Governor’s desk that I don’t think the county commissioners or any government body for that matter wants to get signed. SB 104 says that any agency of the government state, county, city or any convening body must make information that it receives prior to the meeting available to the public at least 24 hours in advance, or have it available for viewing. Not only that, all government agencies must take minutes and have them published in the paper within 10 days or it is a misdemeanor. I have been an advocate of this for at least 3 years. I testified in Pierre about this 3 years ago but it never made it out of committee. The government moves at a snail’s pace, but at least it moves. Maybe it doesn’t move as fast as we want it to sometimes, but it does move. “Hoo-Rah!”

Unbeliveable

2010-03-15T20:31:00.001-07:00

<$BlogMetaData$>March 17th, 2009

Unbelievable

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Everyone. Only 90 days to Sytten Mai.

I am in total awe of the ‘county commissioners.’ Last week at the commissioners meeting they auctioned off the one remaining liquor license for Union County. It went to the only bidder, Sean Brady from Vermillion for $25,000. Now here is where it gets fun. He had to put down a $5,000 certified check as a retainer, which would be returned if he is unsuccessful in the bidding. If he wins the bid that $5,000 goes towards the amount of the bid. The caveat here is the winning bidder must also submit a business plan. (I’m getting ahead of myself here). After he won the bid and was leaving the room he asked who he had to give the check to. Carol said he could just pay at the auditor’s office on his way out. He asked if he could just give them a personal check for the $20,000 or if it had to be a certified check? He was holding up a personal check for the $20,000. The commissioners and the states attorney looked around at each other and shrugged their shoulders, and finally Carol said it has to be a certified check, so he said okay, he would bring one back in the afternoon, and he left. Remember folks, I don’t make this up; I just tell it like it happens.

Do you remember where I said one of the requirements for getting the successful bid was to submit a business plan? Oh, before I list his plan, here is a brief description of what the Small Business Administration says a business plan should contain (taken from the SBA website)

1) Description of the business

2) Marketing

3) Finances

4) Management

Agenda should include an executive summary, supporting documents, and financial projections. Although there is no single formula for developing a business plan, some elements are common to all business plans. They are summarized in the following outline:

Elements of a Business Plan

I. The Business

A. Description of business

B. Marketing

C. Competition

D. Operating procedures

E. Personnel

F. Business insurance

II. Financial Data

A. Loan applications

B. Capital equipment and supply list

C. Balance sheet

D. Breakeven analysis

E. Pro-forma income projections (profit & loss statements)

F. Three-year summary

G. Detail by month, first year

H. Detail by quarters, second and third years

I. Assumptions upon which projections were based

J. Pro-forma cash flow

III. Supporting Documents

A. Tax returns of principals for last three years Personal financial

statement (all banks have these forms)

B. For franchised businesses, a copy of franchise contract and all

supporting documents provided by the franchisor

C. Copy of proposed lease or purchase agreement for building space

D. Copy of licenses and other legal documents

E. Copy of resumes of all principals

F. Copies of letters of intent from suppliers, etc.

OK, now that we’ve seen what a plan should look like, here is what Mr. Brady submitted. (Remember that we are not a sophisticated business city, just a small country community so keep that in mind.)

Mission: to provide a pleasant and affordable place for travelers, residents of Union County and the surrounding communities to socialize while enjoying a drink and a meal.

Exit 31 Grille will initially offer Midwest Pub style food and beverages in a comfortable environment and allow the local residents to drive the business in the future.

Our customers will always be treated with importance and warmth. When it comes time for our customers to decide where to spend their entertainment dollars, we will strive to become their first destination of choice. Our staff will be cheerful, courteous, and focused on pleasing our customers.

Our staff will be offered a workplace where they can prosper and grow in a dignified, fun and rewarding manner.

Our vendors will be treated with loyalty, and they will find their future with us to be fruitful.

We will be a good neighbor to the businesses in our area, and we will be a contributing and supportive member of our community.

Keys to Success:

1. Our policy of having a manager visit with each and every customer that has a question, or if the customer has positive or negative feedback. The manager is required to use every means possible to satisfy our customers.

2. Our commitment to the success and happiness of our staff.

3. Our commitment to providing excellent quality food and beverages at all times.

This property is currently zoned Commercial and there are no applicable covenants. The proposed square footage is between 3000-5000.

The commissioners should return Mr. Brady’s business plan to him and tell Mr. Brady when he has a REAL business plan to submit he can come back. But then, maybe there are no requirements for a business plan. Come to think of it, the zoning ordinance says they must submit a business plan, but there is no definition of what a business plan is or what it needs to contain. Maybe the commissioners just say ‘aw he’s a good guy that will do.’ Even the states attorney stated at the meeting that the plan is not extensive. Is that an understatement or what?

I just don’t understand what is going on with the government in this county. I’ve only lived here for 22 years so I’m not really up to speed yet. Is this how things have always been? If it is, then things have to change, and THAT is why I’m running for commissioner. I think pretty soon, I’m going to come out with Doug Maurstad’s top ten list on why I want to be a commissioner.

My Blog Part 2

2010-03-10T08:12:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>to those of you who choose to post comments on my blog. thank you for reading my blog.don't be afraid to leave your name and/or an email address so that i may respond to your comments. please do not be offended if i do not post anonymous snide comments.

My Blog!

2010-03-10T08:03:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$> To those of you who respond to articles that are in my blog let me remind you that this blog represents MY viewpoints. much like a newspaper represents their views. Viewpoints are biased and mine just happens to be against Hyperion. i will publish comments that are argumentative and present an opposing view IF I think it will promote an active discussion among others who read this. if you don't like what i say in MY blog you are more than welcome to start your own, and i will gladly read it however, i will reserve snide comments to myself as they are not productive to good dialogue.
I happen to think that making it mandatory to teach both sides of climate warming and/or global warming in schools is not a duty of the state legislature. we have a board of regents and individual schools for that. this is not a rehash of the Scopes Monkey trial. you have your thoughts and i have mine. it is unfortunate that you disagree with my views, however such is life.

Your State Representatives at Work

2010-03-09T20:39:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>March 10th, 2010

Your State Representatives at Work

For those of you that read this column living in Iowa, consider yourselves lucky. For the rest of us, we have state representatives in our district of the state that have lost their minds. Representatives Jim Bolin (Canton) and Dan Lederman (Dakota Dunes) sponsored a joint resolution in the Legislature that is absolutely the dumbest thing ever brought before the legislative body. They probably spent more time on this piece of paper than they spent on the budget cuts for the state. This was a joint resolution for both the house and Senate. Thank Goodness MaggieGillespie could see through the smoke screen. I sent Jim an email asking if he lost his mind. He hasn’t responded yet, and probably won’t. (Both Lederman and Bolin are Pro Hyperion by the way.)Ok enough suspense, here it is in a nutshell. Teaching balanced opinions of global warming and climate change in schools.

State of South Dakota

EIGHTY-FIFTH SESSION

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, 2010

363R0643

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 1009

Introduced by: Representatives Kopp, Bolin, Brunner, Cronin, Curd, Feickert, Gosch,

Greenfield, Hamiel, Hoffman, Hunt, Iron Cloud III, Jensen, Juhnke, Kirkeby,

Lange, Lederman, Moser, Novstrup (David), Olson (Betty), Olson (Ryan),

Pitts, Putnam, Rausch, Russell, Schlekeway, Sly, Steele, Tidemann,

Turbiville, Van Gerpen, Verchio, and Wink and Senators Brown, Abdallah,

Bradford, Haverly, Maher, and Schmidt

1 A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Calling for balanced teaching of global warming in the

2 public schools of South Dakota.

3 WHEREAS, the earth has been cooling for the last eight years despite small increases in

4 anthropogenic carbon dioxide; and

5 WHEREAS, there is no evidence of atmospheric warming in the troposphere where the

6 majority of warming would be taking place; and

7 WHEREAS, historical climatological data shows without question the earth has gone

8 through trends where the climate was much warmer than in our present age. The Climatic

9 Optimum and Little Climatic Optimum are two examples. During the Little Climatic Optimum,

10 Erik the Red settled Greenland where they farmed and raised dairy cattle. Today, ninety percent

11 of Greenland is covered by massive ice sheets, in many places more than two miles thick; and

12 WHEREAS, the polar ice cap is subject to shifting warm water currents and the break-up

13 of ice by high wind events. Many oceanographers believe this to be the major cause of melting

1 polar ice, not atmospheric warming; and

2 WHEREAS, carbon dioxide is not a pollutant but rather a highly beneficial ingredient for

3 all plant life on earth. Many scientists refer to carbon dioxide as "the gas of life"; and

4 WHEREAS, more than 31,000 American scientists collectively signed a petition to

5 President Obama stating: "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of

6 carbon dioxide, or methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable

7 future, cause catastrophic heating of the earth's atmosphere and disruption of the earth's

8 climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon

9 dioxide will produce many beneficial effects on the natural plant and animal environments of

10 the earth":

11 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty12

fifth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South

13 Dakota Legislature urges that instruction in the public schools relating to global warming

14 include the following:

15 (1) That global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact;

16 (2) That there are a variety of climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological,

17 cosmological, and ecological dynamics that can effect world weather phenomena and

18 that the significance and interrelativity of these factors is largely speculative; and

19 (3) That the debate on global warming has subsumed political and philosophical

20 viewpoints which have complicated and prejudiced the scientific investigation of

21 global warming phenomena; and

22 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Legislature urges that all instruction on the theory

23 of global warming be appropriate to the age and academic development of the student and to

24 the prevailing classroom circumstances.

Now either these legislators really believe this or somebody or someone is laying the groundwork to a statement to come out that 19 million tons of carbon dioxide coming out of the Hyperion refinery is good for us because of all the beneficial effects on the natural plant and animal environments of the earth. Don’t forget that carbon dioxide isn’t harmful and they want this taught in the schools to balance the comments about climate change being caused by manmade sources, like the wind causing large chunks of ice to break away from glaciers. OH COME ON NOW. SURELY THEY DON’T BELIEVE THIS!

I believe climate change is cyclical and that it evolves over time, but this is about as radical as one can get. If one looks at museums in the state of South Dakota you will see sea shells, remains of dinosaurs, fossilized plant life from seas and jungles. But this evolved over millions of years and it may happen again. The problem is that with all the pollution that is manmade, we are rushing natures natural process. That my friend is the problem! We were put on this earth to be stewards of the land not destroyers. That is enough from my soap box, please please write to Mr. Bolin and Mr. Lederman and ask them what were they thinking .

To option or not to option, that is the question

2010-03-01T01:29:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>March 3rd, 2010

To option or not to option, that is the question:

If you have been following my column closely, you will see that the refinery is in a predicament. I think it was in my last article that I mentioned Governor Rounds said he was told by the developer that it would be shovels in the ground in 2012. I even got a letter from the governor confirming this date and he said in the letter that the developer was Hyperion. Now - -Hyperion’s options run out on August 31, 2010 so that means that Hyperion has a problem. If they contact all the people that have optioned their land and ask them to re-option again what do you suppose their answer will be. What would your answer be now that you know what is proposed to be built on the land. I think the proverbial answer is - - they have Hyperion over the oil barrel.

Here is an idea that hasn’t been broached for awhile. We all know that Hyperion is brokering the deal for the refinery and they hold the options. They can’t get investors because the big guys want in and if the big guys wait till the options run out, they can come in and buy this and not have to pay Hyperion a finder’s fee. Instead of paying $20,000 an acre to Hyperion they can buy it outright for let’s say $10,000 an acre and still come out ahead. Does that make sense to you? I’ll bet it does to Hyperion.

I know that if I were in that situation I would be asking Randy Golden prices. ‘Sure Al, for $50,000.00 an acre I’ll option this to you’. You see, before some of the people weren’t sure what was coming, but now they do and they would be crazy not to ask for the moon. Now, Hyperion either has to buy the land or let it go. Let’s all hope they let it go back. Course if Hyperion gets backed into a corner they will just up and auction it off, because they can’t find a buyer. I think the average going price for land in this area is around $7200. So Hyperion still comes out, but if they need help to find buyers, I’m sure they would get plenty of help. Oh what a shame. This certainly is a dilemma isn’t it?

Hyperion is really starting to feel between a rock and a hard place. I wouldn’t doubt that we might even see ‘Big Al’ himself up here talking to folks. After all he has a vested interest to protect and the governor is right there with him. Just to be on the safe side, let me give you some facts to back this all up.

An article appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal. In the article, Chevron is quoted as telling employees they are going to cut jobs because production is down. Chevron stopped supplying gas and oil to over 1000 independent owned stations. Conoco Phillips is facing the same issue. Exxon Mobil is also reporting losses. Valero shut down a 220,000 b/d operation in Delaware.

Now in the midst of all this is the United States ambassador to Canada speaking in Toronto saying the U.S. needs tar sands oil. He said ‘if we’re looking for long term safe and secure sources of energy, Canada and therefore the oil sands need to be a part of it.’ This guy needs to talk to Obama cause if the President intends to cut back on carbon emissions, tar sands are the first to go.

There is an environmental group called ForestEthics that is getting large corporations in the United States to boycott any company that uses tar sands and more are on the books. Whole Foods Markets Ltd., and Bed Bath and Beyond have started the boycott. They have told fuel suppliers they will not used them if they try to sell tars sands processed gasoline. Hurray!

Here is another bill in the state legislature you might want to follow. HB 1153 repeals the requirement that the railroad obtain authority from the Governor or the Transportation Commission before the railroad may exercise the power of eminent domain. What the heck is going on out there in Pierre? Last week it was the townships and this week it is eminent domain. Somebody forgot to tell the legislature that this ain’t gonna happen. Good thing our representatives aren’t sponsoring these whacky bills. Do you think they will vote against this when it comes to the full floor of the legislature? They will if you tell them to.

Trivia Question: Why did Huddleston contributed $5,000 to John Thune’s PAC back in January of 2006? There is a long chain between South Dakota and Huddleston. Back in January of 2006 Huddleston contributed $5,000 to Thune’s (Heartland Values PAC campaign). No link says Thune..right!

Here is an interesting happening with the commissioners. The SD DOT held a bid letting for replacing a bridge and culvert in Prairie Township and the commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the contract. This bridge is in Prairie Township, and they don’t even want it replaced because it is a ‘bridge to nowhere’. Nobody lives on the road and it is hardly ever used. But they voted to do it anyway. The county’s portion of the bill is 20% of $247,000. This - for a bridge they don’t even want. This is another reason I’m running for commissioner.

Who Loves Ya Baby?

2010-02-19T22:25:00.001-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>February 24th, 2010

“Who Loves Ya Baby?”

After reading the many responses to Letters to the Editor, especially on the letter submitted by Dale Harkness, in the SCJ, Argus Leader and the Akron Hometowner, I decided my article this week needs to also address this issue. I just cannot believe the responses some people wrote. It is like people opposed to the refinery are ogres.

How many jobs will be LOST not gained because of the refinery? Dale Harkness wrote in his article last week that not only will there be a loss of income, but associated jobs geared to the agricultural industry will be lost. He estimated that over $800,000 of income that is brought home to this area will be lost to local businesses. (Versus income that will go back to Texas). He mentioned that many small industries associated with farming like implement stores, fertilizer companies, seed companies and many others will either close or cut back on employment because of the volume of business lost. These are jobs now held by our own people. This is income to our own people. This is the lives of our own people. This is the land of our own people. Five square miles of the richest most fertile land in south Dakota.You might not think that 3,000 acres is very much, but think of how much equipment, seed, fertilizer and fuel is used by the farmers during the year to bring home that harvest. We are talking about money here, lots of money. Lots of our money, not Texas money.

This is something I don’t think anyone dwells on. All we hear is the economic development (you know what I think about this phrase) that will come. What about the economic development we already have? If my figures are correct the unemployment rate even with the closing of Load King, which will soon reopen is below 4%. That is lower than anywhere else in the state. I can’t figure it out. Where did we go wrong here that people think the refinery is our savior from mass poverty? Do people actually think this is really a godsend? Let’s get real here folks. This is borderline lunacy. If this is such a big deal why did someone wait 30 years to do this? Tar sands have been mined in Canada for 30 years. This isn’t like the light bulbs just turned on you know. Why didn’t the BIG GUYS do this right in Canada? Why let some nobody come in here and stir this up? Until December of 2007 who ever heard of a company called Hyperion? If people want to work for the refinery so bad, go to where the refinery is, then have them call or write back how wonderful it is. . It won’t be a long letter, probably a post card. Think about it? The transients who come here won’t be spending their money here; they will be sending it home. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

What is it going to cost us to prepare for the refinery? In the refinery’s application they say that they expect the county to build the roads and maintain them. If Hyperion wants to come here so bad, let them build the roads. Building a road isn’t something that is done overnight. It might take a year or even 2 years to build it. And I’m sure Hyperion wants it done yesterday. We are in the midst of recovering from a near depression, and money is tight. I know for a fact that Union County doesn’t have the money, yet the townships are going to be responsible for building roads keeping them up. There is a bill in the state legislature right now today (HB 1227) that says that responsibility for road maintenance on township roads cannot be abandon by the townships for any secondary road that has received funds pursuant to SDCL 32-11-6 without permission of the county board of commissioners. This includes blading, application of gravel, and snow removal. Do you suppose Hyperion had some influence in that bill being presented? Or is it the state making sure the responsibility is shifted to the townships? Not only are we working against our own county we are working against the state. We cannot let this happen, and that is why I’m running for Commissioner. “Who loves ya Baby?”

You can't push a rope up a hill

2010-02-14T14:08:00.001-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>February 17th, 2010

You can’t push a rope up a hill.

Last Friday’s Yankton’s Press & Dakotan had a story in the business section of the business leader’s annual trip to Pierre. Of course they met with our illustrious governor and he was slobbering the Hyperion smoothies. He said some construction is expected to begin during 2011, but the heavy lifting won’t start till 2012.

Oh come on now. Let’s get real. He also said – now get this – “their business plan appears to be solid yet.” “I’d just as soon have it being done here and have the citizens of South Dakota be able to take advantage of part of the huge economic impact it has. I think Yankton will benefit from that, as well.” Have you ever heard such baloney in your life? Makes me want to throw up – again – Doesn’t anyone think about anything but economic development? I’m so sick of hearing “ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.”

Coincidentally I got a response last week from the governor to an email that I sent him after his remarks in Yankton two weeks earlier. He had mentioned that the developer would start construction in 2012 and I had asked him who the developer was. Are you ready for this? He said the developer was Hyperion. He said that Hyperion was also focusing on two other parallel tracks. They range from obtaining additional permits and consents to local building permits and permits to discharge treated water. On the other track the project is working to further secure a crude oil supply. Now there must be something in the air out in Pierre because he’s losing it. When I was in the Air Force, they called it wacky tabacky!

It might be a solid waste plan, but business plan it isn’t. Evidently neither the governor nor his staff read the papers and industry releases. Here are portions of a business release from Canada’s Globe and Mail this week about tar sands, which is going to be Hyperion’s oil supply.

1) The uncertain future for tar sands was brought more sharply into focus when it emerged that Suncor and Imperial Oil (60% owned by Exxon Mobile) are appealing to a US regulator to force Enbridge to hold back on increasing pipeline tolls from Canada because they say Enbridge is building too much pipeline capacity for tar sands oil into the U.S.

2) TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline proposal, which is slated to bring 500,000 b/d of tar sands crude to the Gulf Coast by 2013, will result in around 41% excess capacity in Canada-US pipeline systems, according to the G&M article. That means that on top of paying some of the most expensive capital costs in the oil industry to pull tar sands crude out of the ground, producers will be paying a premium to get it to refineries, while refineries will be paying the extra costs of processing the heavy sour crude into products that are decreasingly in demand.

3) The problem as the oil producers see it, is that since they signed up for Clipper back in 2007, the outlook for tar sands has deteriorated sharply and they are unsure how much tar sands crude they will have available to pump through Enbridge’s new line. The contract between Enbridge and oil producers guarantees Enbridge revenue making it more expensive for oil producers to use only a portion of their allotted capacity. Suncor’s filing to the US regulator stated that, “Shippers are not required to pay for a pipeline that did not need to be placed into service”.

4) “We're planning for startup in 2013, and one of the things we have to do is secure the feedstock, so we're making a proposal to the Alberta government to process their bitumen royalty volumes," said Ian MacGregor, chairman of North West. If all the pieces fall into place, construction could start in 2011, Mr. MacGregor said. The companies gave no cost estimate for the plant, which is designed to turn extra-heavy crude into low-sulfur diesel fuel and other petroleum products. North West had previously said the plant would process 231,000 barrels a day, starting with a 70,000-barrel-a-day phase costing about $4-billion. That capacity is made up of 50,000 of raw bitumen and the rest light fuel used to move the crude in pipelines.

5) North West deferred construction plans as the credit crisis took hold in 2008. It said last year that the Alberta government's bitumen-in-kind proposal had the potential to put the project back on track. --Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country's biggest independent oil explorer, is buying into a multibillion-dollar upgrading plant that was stalled by the financial crisis, the latest in a raft of announcements showing the oil-sands sector on the rebound. Canadian Natural said it will buy 50% of privately held North West Upgrading Inc., which plans to build an upgrader near Edmonton for an undisclosed sum.

6) The two companies will apply to take advantage of an Alberta program aimed at stimulating processing of its vast oil sands within the province, rather than shipping the resources and jobs elsewhere. They hope the government will supply 75%, or 37,500 barrels a day, of the raw bitumen for the plant from volumes it will take in from developers in lieu of cash royalties. Canadian Natural, one of Alberta's largest producers of heavy oil and oil sands, would supply the rest

If one reads just the 6 sub topics I’ve listed you have to shake your head and wonder what the Governor, Hyperion and pro Hyperion folks thinking. They can’t contract for something that isn’t there can they? I mean how stupid do they think we are? I’ve always hears that if you are going to dream, dream big ones, but come on now. I think it is time for them to do a reality check don’t you?

North West says it will cost $4 billion just to produce 70,000 barrels a day. If it costs this much to produce 70,000 b/d what is it going to cost for 400,000 b/d and who is going to pay it? There isn’t anyone that will be producing 400,000 barrels a day so where does Hyperion think they are going to get all the tar sands. North West is going into partnership do develop tar sands in Canada so it won’t be outsourced and they will keep money in Canada. Even with the start up in 2013 it will be several years before they come online. I just can’t figure this out any more. The figures and the dates don’t match, so Hyperion is trying to push a rope uphill.

Sneaky Bastards

2010-02-07T22:53:00.001-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>February 10th, 2010

Sneaky Bastards

There is an old saying that you never turn your back on your enemy because he is liable to do something really sneaky. Guess what folks? Those sneaky bastards are pulling a fast one.

if you will remember, when the refinery submitted its initial application to the state it said that they will be using 10-12 million gallons a day at the refinery for cooling etc. well, it seems that there is a law on the books in the state of South Dakota that if you use more than 10,000 acre feet of water a year this process must be taken through the state legislature for approval. That means that the refinery would be using around 13-14,000 acre feet of water a year if their usage would be in the 10-12 millions gallon a day range, therefore their operation would come under the scrutiny of the legislature. So now they have revised their estimate to avoid having to deal with the state legislature. It seems they overestimated the amount they will be using and are now only going to be using 9 million gallons a day. This relates to using 10,000 acre feet during the year, hence avoiding the necessity of having this controlled or regulated by the state. What a bunch of baloney (crap). I thought I would never be amazed at what they can do, but I guess that isn’t so. Sneaky Bastards.

This is the same thing they are saying they are going to do with the power plant. There is a regulation in the state that if the output of a power plant is more than 200MW that the plant comes under the control of the PUC. Guess what? The power plant that they intend to build will only be a 200MW facility and they will purchase 50MW off the grid. They could build a 350MW plant or bigger if they wanted to, but to avoid having to deal with the PUC they limit the size to 200MW. What does this tell you? It tells me we are dealing with a bunch of sneaky bastards that’s what it tells me. And the governor wants to be doing business in this part of the state. No thank you! I think the refinery said something at the beginning of this whole dirty rotten ordeal that they would be ‘transparent’. They are transparent all right, we can see right through them. It’s too bad the governor, the planning and zoning and the county commissioners couldn’t.

Between Mr. Al Huddleston and Governor Rounds, they are going to bankrupt this state. Mr. Huddleston’s (Al) success record is a big fat zero in regards to successful business ventures. I have been writing this for over 2 years so I’m sure everyone is well aware of his successes and failures. In last Monday’s Argus was a letter in the ‘voice of the people’ section. It was an eye opening letter and I want to list just part of it.

Governor rounds invested $3.2 million dollars of state money for land to expand the Battle Mountain Game Preserve. The purpose of this was to make a paradise for “Elk Hunters”. The net result one or two elk per year. Hoo-Rah!

Rounds honored development of the Southern Hills Golf Course. The developer went to jail for unpaid state taxes and overbilled expenses. City taxpayers now are paying $75,000 per year on the golf course.

The Governor provided a $450,000 grant to Hot Springs for a new log library. The design was not followed and roofing tiles are breaking and many of the logs are undersized and substandard. Do you see a trend here folks? Do you see where I’m going with this?

Hyperion wants to build a $4 - $10 Billion dollar oil refinery in Union County. Hidden in Hyperion’s application on page 83 or 84 of their180 page initial application is a one paragraph statement about taxes. Hyperion says that they will be paying $180 Million dollars in the 2% excise tax for the cost of building a refinery and they say of course they expect the (normal) refund of $162 million because they are a new company developing an energy center in South Dakota, and they are entitled to this refund under South Dakota state law. So the state would retain only $18 million of the money. Now bear in mind that Union County agreed to this, not the state so can the county speak for the state or does this have to be legislated? Hm-m-m-m-m-m.

Oh I forgot. Hyperion wanted to have CRWS build the water system at a cost of $40 million, so does that mean another $800,000 in refunds for Hyperion because CRWS could see that this was not a good deal and turned them down. (Thank you CRWS) Everybody is getting refunds around here and we are going to get stuck with a big bill. Don’t forget that the Secretary of Transportation Bende was going to LEND the county $3 million to improve the township roads to enable big equipment and trucks to enter and leave the facility. The money has to be paid back in 3 installments of $333,000 in 3 years. Still don’t know where the townships are going to get that money. When I said this venture was going to bankrupt us, I wasn’t kidding.

Here's one for the little guy

2010-01-30T17:01:00.003-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>February 3rd, 2010

One for the Little Guy!

9-0 was the unanimous decision by the board of directors at Clay Rural Water on Thursday night to deny service to the refinery. There were about 40-50 people there as a show of unity for the board. There was a standing ovation after the vote was taken. Three of us spoke requesting that the board not accept the proposal for the refinery. I spoke for my allotted 5 minutes and reminded the board that if the refinery were to pull out or go bankrupt they would be stuck with a white elephant and the members of the system would be stuck for the bill. I also asked them to obtain a financial statement and consult with a risk management agency before they decide to vote to accept the proposal. I also said it was ludicrous to accept their version of paying us back by adding a portion of it to each monthly payment. If they paid back $1 million a month it would take them 4 years. This doesn’t include interest. And this would be after they started production because there would be no income until they start. Can you imagine paying for a system on the installment plan? I wonder if they wanted to use Visa or Master Card. Oh well, it seems the vote was already decided when they came into session because they already had a press release ready to go. I guess this was more of a formality than actual business. It gave us a warm fuzzy anyway. Woo-Hoo!

At the other end of the spectrum were the results of the ‘Bucket Brigade’ test last November. Everyone remembers when we did that right? Well, come to find out another brigade did tests near a Michigan refinery at the same time. The results were complete opposites. Our air was so clean it didn’t even register on 2 of the three samples that were sent in for processing. One sample did show minute traces of ethanol and limonene, a non-toxic chemical but sometimes odorous pollutant associated with decaying agricultural waste.

There was stark contrast by the brigade that tested samples at the Marathon refinery in Detroit. Air samples taken during a strong odor incident in the 48017 (location) near the operating Marathon oil refinery revealed at least four major refinery toxic air contaminants, including benzene and hydrogen sulfide. Benzene is a potent human carcinogen associated with refinery emissions. Levels of benzene in the two samples sent to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality were ten times above the level of benzene that the World Health Organization (WHO) associates with an increased lifetime risk of cancer. Duh! The Marathon plant by the way processes Tar Sands from Alberta. Hydrogen sulfide levels were very high. Hydrogen sulfide is a potent toxin that attacks the brain and nervous system. But don’t forget folks, this is Economic Development! ! ! !

Hyperion spokesman Eric Williams said you can't compare the plant in Detroit with the plant Hyperion wants to build in Union County, South Dakota. He says there have been huge strides in technology since the Detroit plant was built in 1930.

Oh what a bunch of crap. My heart bleeds for them. Does Eric Williams actually believe that or is it because he is paid to spew out all that psycho-babble? At what point with the State of South Dakota say this is stupid and call a halt to this silliness. Do we need to have somebody come down with a severe case of poisoning before they will listen to us? Stupid is, Stupid does.

Hang in there folks, the fat lady hasn’t even started to warm up.

Holy Hypereion Batman!

2010-01-24T23:46:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>January 27th, 2009

Holy Hyperion, Batman!

Okay folks, there are some things happening with the refinery that is like a recurring nightmare. First of all there is a request by Hyperion EC to Clay Rural Water to provide them with service, which will be voted on tomorrow night at 7:30 at the CRWS building on Hwy 19 at Wakonda. The 2nd thing that amazes me is the vote last week by the mayor and city council on a building in town.

Here is a breakdown about Hyperion Resources and Legacy Investments Inc. these facts were obtained from Dun & Bradstreet. Read these facts and tell me that Hyperion is a viable company. These figures are 2 years old, but I can’t imagine they have changed very much.

Hyperion Resources Inc.

5910 N Central Expressway, Dallas, TX 75206 - - 214-750-1522

Privately held, Incorporated in Texas in 1990 (also registered in Louisiana and Michigan)

Chief Executive: Albert D. Huddleston

President: Robert B. Thompson

Info from Dun & Bradstreet:

Annual revenues: $12.3 million

Employees: 60

Parent company: Legacy Investments Inc. 5910 N Central Expressway Dallas, TX 75206

214-750-1522

Incorporated in Texas in 1990

Info from Dun & Bradstreet:

Annual revenues: $16.1 million

Employees: 74

Let’s look at what is happening with Hyperion and Clay Rural Water. At their meeting this Thursday, they are going to vote on whether or not to provide service to Hyperion.

Last spring, Hyperion sent a letter to CRWS requesting service, and expected CRWS to pay for the engineering study and bear the cost of construction. Hyperion would pay them back with monthly installments added to their water bill. I’m not kidding you folks, this is what they proposed; I was there for the presentation. Now this company has guts. Who in their right mind would accept such a proposition? Anyway, CRWS voted to table this until they obtain more information, and that Hyperion would bear the costs. CRWS is not is a position to bear all these costs. Come on now, CRWS had to get a loan just to complete the Wynstone addition and that was in the neighborhood of $800,000 I think. This is getting funnier than a soap opera isn’t it? Okay, now back to this week. Hyperion isn’t going to be present, but they are requesting service. This can’t be a serious offer. I did ask Mr. Merrigan, who is the manager of CRWS if they have asked for a financial report on Hyperion before they consider this request, but as of when I am writing this article, I haven’t had an answer. I hope for the sake of being serious, they have asked for one, but Hyperion hasn’t supplied it yet.

Now let me give you some thoughts to reinforce the idea of why Hyperion is never going to happen. Last summer, the air permit was approved and Hyperion could have started construction the very next day, but they didn’t., instead they released 6000 acres of land they held options on. They still haven’t bought the land for the refinery site. They just paid their last option money. This year is critical because they either have to buy the land or renew their options, which are open to negotiations. By the way, they still have not said that they are coming to Union County. Preston Phillips is on record again saying that the company can be profitable with oil at $60 a barrel. Just last spring it was $90 a barrel. I don’t think they have a clue which way is up. I don’t think Hyperion has enough money to even buy the land, and cannot find investor capital to come up with it either. Valero is the largest refinery in the United States and they just closed a 220,000 barrel per day refinery in Delaware. Practically all the refineries in the United States have cut production to 60-70% of capacity. And Hyperion wants to construct a refinery? This all adds up to a big pipe dream (a little play on words there). It isn’t going to happen folks.

Let’s go back to the mayor and city council vote last week on the property for sale that the council turned down bids on. A church bid 35,000 for the building and was turned down because it is a non-profit entity and wouldn’t have to pay taxes. What a statement for the council to make. Here is a church that brings people to worship and the council says no because they won’t pay any taxes? You’ve got to be kidding me. What makes a town grow? What is one of the most important focal points of a community? A Church! Evidently this church would have been competition for other churches (non taxable) in the town. The other bid that was denied was for Boyer Inc. of Hawarden to buy it for $45,000. Of course this is only $10,000 more than the church offered. The reasoning for denying this bid was because the mayor said that Hyperion is coming and might want to put an office there, so they should wait and see what happens. . I was always told that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Or did the council deny the bid because Boyer is competition to Higman Sand and Gravel? Back to the quote from the mayor that Hyperion will begin construction soon and he wants Akron to be in position to bid. That means that Akron might do like Elk Point; They offered to sell the rights to the auditorium in EP to Hyperion for $1 for a year. They didn’t take the offer. If you will remember I have been writing this column for over two years and have been saying for over 2 years that this will never happen. Hyperion was originally going to begin construction in 2009, then it was 2010 and now it is the third quarter of 2011. How long is Akron going to wait for the savior to come? I don’t know what Boyer intends to do with the building, but if it is a business, they employ people and they pay taxes. Duh! Okay that is enough about slamming the mayor and the council, it is like - - poop in one hand and wish in the other and see which one fills up first.

What does it take for people to take a dose of reality?

what does the future hold part 2

2010-01-19T07:41:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>

I have had several comments about this last article, mostly about money and jobs. what i think people don't understand first of all is that this is not about money it is about health. it is fact and not fallacy that the refinery will pollute. 19 million tons of CO2 is nothing to sneeze at, but this is minor compared to the toxins and particulate matter that is dangerous to ones health. Hyperion has not submitted any qualitative or supporting data on how they will control dangerous emmissions. sulfuric acid, carbon monoxide, heavy metals, nitrous oxide and many particulate matter are dangerous to ones health and quality of life.

as far as jobs are concerned, lets be frank about this and concede that we do not have qualified welders for the miles of piping that will be in the refinery. if you look at the web about qualifications, it requires a minimum of 5 years to be able to make seamless welds in the field. the refinery is not going to take the time to train someone to do this. they don't have the time or the money to train someone, so these jobs will not go to 'local' workers. they will be imported. the wages from the transient workers will not go to businesses in this area, they will go to wherever their homes are located. preston phillips has stated that 80% of the permenant jobs will be imported, so we are talking about jobs for 350 people. is this a large influx? no!. who is going to wait 3-4 years for a job that is paying $20-30 per hour? the unemployment rate in this area is 4-5% and that isn't any higher than normal is it? this is all hope on a wing and a prayer and it isn't going to happen. once again, this is not about money it is about health of the citizens who live here.

what does the future hold?

2010-01-18T06:44:00.000-08:00

January 20th, 2010

What does the future hold?

Hyperion was quoted in the paper last week as saying ‘shovels in the ground in 2011’. I want everyone to stop and think about that statement for a minute. Do you know what that means when they say shovels in the ground? That means that all the buildings, trees and fences must be removed to make way for the refinery. (I refuse to call it Hyperion anymore). All the farms in the area - - gone - - .

Take a drive around the area where the refinery is going to be put in and lock it away in your memory, because when they start it will be total devastation. Farms will be pushed to the ground and burned. This will be worse than Sherman’s march through Georgia. The land will continue to be farmed until it is needed for a concrete pad or an asphalt pad, and then it will be razed as well. Trees will be uprooted. Wetlands will be destroyed. Yes, they can destroy a wetland provided they rebuild the same amount of land somewhere else. The area as we know it will cease to exist. If that doesn’t make you sick to your stomach, nothing will. It is an absolute travesty that this be allowed to happen. All this for the sake of ‘economic development’.

What a sad development this will be. 3000 acres of some of the finest cropland in the state of South Dakota will go under the knife. And for what? Because some ‘oilman’ came in here and pulled a ‘slick Willie’. What ever happened to scruples? What ever happened to having decency for your neighbor? All this for the sake of the almighty dollar. What a shame.

This is what might happen folks if we don’t do something. I don’t know what it is we have to do, but something has to be done or this county will go to hell in a hand basket. Think of the ramifications for our health in the event this were to ever happen (which I don’t think will happen by the way)…do you think the refinery would give a hoot if someone were to get sick because of the dirt they will be spewing? Not on your life they won’t. We are what is called collateral damage. You will have sacrificed your life and well being so that someone out there can fill their tank with gas. Is that a tradeoff or what?? Is it worth it? Could the same thing have been done by using renewable energy?

Think of our cost of building an infrastructure so that the refinery can have the pleasure of sending money to Texas. I could go on and on, but you have heard this from me so many times it probably isn’t worth reading anymore.

This will be the first time in my life my money has been spent without my consent to build something I don’t approve of. Is that an oxymoron or what?

I can't believe it, I just can't believe it.

2010-01-13T02:13:00.000-08:00

<$BlogMetaData$>January 13th, 2010

I can’t believe it, I just can’t believe it!

I don’t know why I should be surprised, but last Saturday’s Argus Leader headline was all about Hyperion promising to begin construction on the refinery. Shovels in the ground by 2011. I sent an email to the reporter that wrote the article asking the same questions I’ve been asking for almost 3 years. I mentioned that Hyperion has not refuted these claims and that nobody has yet proved me wrong on my assertions that Hyperion cannot possibly pull this off.

I asked why if Hyperion is truly coming here they are still just paying for options on the land. Unless they intend to sell the land, they could have started construction the day after the air permit was approved. This tells me that they don’t have the money to buy the land and can’t find investors willing to buy it. They released 6000 acres last year and must either buy the land or renegotiate the options this year. Renewing the option is not an option they can afford.

I mentioned again that they still don’t have a contract with anyone in Canada to provide them with tar sands. Better yet, Canada is putting restrictions on companies building up there by charging a tax on any new company that cannot meet emission standards set by the government of Canada. So this means that there will be fewer companies going into the tar sands business, which is restricting the number of companies that Hyperion can do business with. Does one get the feeling that we are beating our heads against the wall here? Does anyone know how long TransCanada has been working to get the pipeline through the state? I remember getting a postcard in the mail a few years ago announcing that they were coming through SE South Dakota and were having a informational meeting about the pipeline. Where did that end up – going through Yankton. I guess Hyperion is going to start construction on the same premise of ‘field of dreams’. Build it and they will come. Yeah right.

I reminded him that 5 refineries were shut down last year, including a 200,000 barrel per day refinery in Delaware owned by Valero. The other 145 refineries are cutting back to only 60-70% production capacity and Hyperion thinks this is a good time to get started? You’ve got to be kidding me. Who in their right mind would invest with a dinky company like Hyperion who touts this huge monstrosity when everyone else in the business is wondering if they are going to survive? No wonder they are having a tough time getting investor capital.

Here is a real good quote by Preston Phillips. Refining oil is still profitable at $60 per barrel. What a bunch of hooey (synonym for crap). On many occasions over the last 2 years Preston has been quoted that it is not economically feasible if oil falls below $90 a barrel. Now it is down to $60. So much for their honesty and straight forwardness huh? Hello-o-o-o!

Why does the hair stand up on the back of my neck every time Hyperion opens their mouth anymore? Is it because they are still trying to convince us that this is happening or is it to continue to convince themselves that this is real? I’ll bet the folks in Elk Point that invested in this project are about ready to poop their panties. This is like the bluff in a Texas Hold-Em game only they can’t keep a straight face. The worst of this is that they have said it so much they are beginning to believe it.

One thing that really bothers me about this whole deal is that reputable papers like the Argus Leader print this story and don’t check their facts. This is pure psycho-babble. If one were to talk to actual oil refiners, I think they will tell you that Hyperion is just a teeny tiny pebble in the industry. Kind of like an itch you can’t scratch if you know what I mean. They bother the heck out of you and don’t know which way is up. Why don’t you just go away and quit bothering me.

Exxon Mobile lost $203 million dollars last quarter. Valero lost $459 million. Production is down, investors are taking a hike and Hyperion wants to build. This is why Al Huddleston is the huge success that he is. Enough said.

Have you seen the new ‘No’ Hyperion signs? If you don’t have one, give Ed Cable a call. You know, with all this crappy weather we are having , this would be a good time to sit down and write a nice letter to your county commissioners and tell them what you think about Hyperion.

Hyperion techno-babble

2010-01-05T07:03:00.000-08:00

The Saturday article in the Argus Leader deserves a pointed response. I cannot believe that they would print unsubstantiated facts just because a company executive speaks techno-babble. They need to check the facts to see if what Hyperion is saying is in fact the truth and not a bunch of propaganda. I have been saying for 3 years that this is a hoax and nobody has yet proved me wrong. I will ask a few questions and please take the time to research the answers with credible 3rd party sources.

1) Where will the oil come from and at what cost? TransCanada has already said that none of their tar sands is slated for Hyperion. It is costing TransCanada $4 Billion just to build the pipeline and all 500,000 barrels are spoken for by Conoco Phillips. They are destined to the Port Arthur Texas refinery that is upgrading to 400,000 barrel a day capacity which, by the way, is already funded.

2) Hyperion has stated that they will build their own pipeline. This process in itself with all the permits and easements (eminent domain) will take 2 – 5 years. Then you have to find somebody to build it.

3) Hyperion is a Real Estate Development company. They have a net worth of less than $75 Million dollars according to Dun & Bradstreet. How in the name of God can some company with that structure even dream of building a $10 Billion (2007 dollars) refinery? They do not have the money, expertise, manpower or anything else to undertake such a venture.

4) It will take many hundred people 2-4 years just to draw blueprints, take surveys and do geological studies. The company that will be the general contractor needs lead time to ask for bids to build the pipelines and the refinery equipment itself. You don’t just call and order off the shelf the equipment you need. Anyone that has been in this process knows that there will be reviews, studies, bids and elimination of high bidders for this. this is not something that is done in 6 months or a year.

5) Hyperion has not said they are coming yet. If you ask them today they will say we are a finalist for the site. If they were coming why wouldn’t they buy the land instead of still having it for options? They are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on options when that could be used for the purchase. That means they are having trouble getting investor capital for this project.

6) Ask any reputable oil company who Hyperion is and what is the chance of them building a refinery when nobody else in the business can do it? They will tell you that Hyperion is just a small fish in a big pond.

7) Once they start the refinery they will have to find a way to get the product out of here. That means pipelines because there will be many products leaving the area. According to their statements, this will consist of gasoline, diesel, hydrogen, jet fuel, oh and don’t forget they are going to use IGCC which means they have to build a pipeline just for the CO2 because it cannot be sequestered in this area.These questions have been asked since the first public meeting 3 years ago and not one question has been answered. Why does the Argus Leader continue to print statements from Preston Phillips when he doesn’t have the facts to back up his statements?

There is an old statement in spewing propaganda. Tell a lie long enough and it becomes the truth.

A tough row to hoe

2009-12-26T12:36:00.001-08:00

December 22, 2009
A Tough row to hoe?
Well, since this will be the last Hometowner article for the year, I might as well make an announcement. 2010 is an election year and I will be running for county commissioner from District 5, so my column is going to be rather restricted. I have to be careful what I write about so the county commissioners can’t accuse me of using the Hometowner for a soap box or platform for election. You already know of course that if I choose to speak at the county commission meetings I have to announce whether or not I’m speaking as a private citizen or as a candidate for elective office. I asked the other day if when the commissioners are running for reelection whether or not they have to announce that and was told that when the meeting is in session they are acting as commissioners not candidates for office. Right! Since when?
There is a fine line in this whole ordeal. Even though the paper is published in the state of Iowa, the majority of the people in my district read the Hometowner. Isn’t it nice to read a paper with REAL news printed in it instead of propaganda? I wonder what would happen if I wrote in the Wall Street Journal? Anyway, I will continue to write about oil, water, Hyperion, and the environment. It is just that I will be very careful what I say about county happenings, except for what comes out of the mouths of the commissioners themselves. Then it is news. I will save my wit and witticisms for the campaign.
The rest of this article today is about climate change. The meeting in Copenhagen is drawing international attention, but I would venture to say that the majority of the people in the United States could care less about what is happening in the conference. I have several concerns about what this is all about, and wonder if you might feel the same way. I really want to call this a case of the have’s versus the have not’s.
v 1. One of the big concerns about the climate warming conference is the fact that the poor nations are being hung out to dry. The rich nations continue to get richer and the poor get poorer at the expense of these rich nations. The sad part of this problem is that the poor nations will never catch up. Technology is advancing at such a rate that it is impossible for them to catch up. Climate change is not a fallacy but fact. How we solve this problem is the dilemma.
v 2. In my opinion, the poor nations do not have the technology or the ability to handle the gift or sharing from richer nations. It will still be oppression, pardon me, suppression because it will take 100 years for Africa to catch up if at all. The industrial revolution took place in the 18th and 19th century and Africa is still lagging. The revolution was merely just the use of coal to make steam to power industrial equipment, and still they are behind.
v 3. In order for poor nations to catch up to, the wealthy nations must make sacrifices. That will never happen. That is like in the United States where many people want redistribution of wealth. Opponents of this call it a move to socialism. You know how scary that word is. You know the ramifications of what will happen if the country makes a move that direction, the same feeling exists for constraints on the use of non renewable energy sources.
v 4. The wealthy nations will never ever submit to denial of luxury, i.e. plenty of electricity, CLEAN running water and flush toilets and CLEAN AIR, for the sake of the poor nations. I can speak from firsthand experience what it is like to have laundry done by beating the clothes on a rock at the river and taking a bath in a large earthen jug that captures rainwater. It isn’t fun.
v 5. Climate change cannot happen if these people are kept in the dark. It is like forcing democracy on a nation that has known nothing but dictatorship. It won’t work. Plain and simple. These nations not only have to want to change, they will have to be in a position to be able to satisfy the richer nations with these changes.
So where does that leave us? Climate change is money talking, not morals or environment. This isn’t a perfect world, but people are still greedy and purvey the attitude what is mine is mine and you’re not about to take it away. If this wasn’t the case, there would be no poor in this country.
Until we take the attitude of giving instead of taking you can preach climate change till you are blue in the face and nothing is going to happen. Is that bad? How many of us would be willing to give up driving anywhere you want and conserve to cut down on pollution. Let’s face it, climate change will only be taken seriously when we end up paying double or triple for gas for our cars and the same for electricity and water. When that happens, progress will stagnate and we will be reverting to the life our forefathers had when they were pioneers in the Wild West.
I am not the bearer of impending doom like the ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ but if we don’t make changes voluntarily to slow down this process, the involuntary change is going to be a tough row to hoe. This is reality and we need to face this issue head on now or it will be too late.

Last Dance

2009-12-13T17:41:00.001-08:00

December 9th, 2009
Last Dance?
December 17th is going to be a very important date for the people living in the area around Spink. The Union County Board of Adjustment is going to meet to consider a request from Sean Brady for a Conditional Use Permit to open a Lounge and Bar at the current location for the Garryowen Church. Your input to the board is vital.
Personally, I am opposed to the possibility of a steak house/bar/lounge coming into this area. Not for what it is, but what it represents. I’m not opposed to private enterprise, which is what this country is all about. What I’m opposed to is developing in this area because of the possibility of what may come down the road with the Hyperion refinery issue. Ask yourselves would this be happening if it wasn’t for what is a possibility down the road. I think not.
What really bothers me about this whole issue is that I’ve never heard anything from the people around this area what they think about the whole deal. Is it a good thing for the community? Does anyone really care what happens? I’ve not heard a word either way except for talking to one or two people. Is everyone resigned to the fact that there isn’t anything that can be done about it? Maybe I shouldn’t be so concerned about this issue but unfortunately for some. I really care about what happens. I can see this area changing drastically if this comes to pass, and I hardly think it will be for the betterment of us all. Is this a case of leave me alone or what? Believe me when I say this, your voice does count.
This isn’t like a wedding where you speak now or forever hold your peace, this is a case of speak now or don’t ever complain about what comes down the road. There is an old saying that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you don’t want this in the community, then you have to go to the meeting and tell them what you feel. At least tell your representative from this district how you feel and hope he votes for the constituents. I don’t believe that last statement either. If I did, Hyperion wouldn’t be an issue. When has the county ever listened to us?
I’m sorry if I upset those of you who are either for this happening or don’t express an opinion. It is my firm belief that this is not good for us. I don’t believe that a refinery is coming here, but whatever comes to take its place is not good either. This issue is not going away. At some point and time we are going to have to face the music, and it might as well be now while we can still select the tune.

Will wonders never cease?

2009-12-13T17:39:00.000-08:00

December 16th, 2009
Well, will wonders never cease?
A class of students at USD studied the ramifications of the Hyperion Energy Center and according to an article by David Lias of the Vermillion Plain Talk; ‘The proposed Hyperion oil refinery proposed to be constructed not far from Vermillion in Union County is not a sustainable project. These findings were presented to the Vermillion Chamber of Commerce last Monday’. (Isn’t it amazing what a little education can do for a person? We’ve known this for 3 years, but did anyone listen to us? Nope. )
Again, quoting from the Plain Talk article, ‘the students noted that the Hyperion project would use 9 to 12 million gallons of water a day in the refining process. They also cited information credited to Derrick Iles, state geologist for the South Dakota Department of Natural Resources, who has stated that the biggest concern is not the consumption of groundwater but possible pollution’.( Isn’t it great to be smarter than a 5th grader? I only hope that what these kids told the chamber strikes home and they listen to what these students had to say. After all, this was a semester’s worth of work here.)
(Here is another good quote from this class.) ‘The students also concluded that pollution from the refinery would likely have detrimental effects on nearby land because of contamination.’(Wouldn’t it have been great if they could have presented this information to the Board of Minerals a few months ago? )
The article continues: ‘The university students told the city council that the proposed Hyperion project has the potential to change the air quality of the immediate area as well as distant areas within the wind patterns surrounding Union County. It is estimated that the refinery will emit 19.6 million tons of pollutants annually. The USD students noted in their presentation that some individuals, including Gov. Mike Rounds, argue the emissions from this plant will only be 32 percent of what is currently emitted from Sioux Falls.’(What does the governor know? He only repeats what Hyperion tells him.)
Here is what I find amazing about this whole Hyperion project. If these kids can come to the conclusion that this in not sustainable, why the heck couldn’t the planning and zoning commissioners and the Union County Commissioners reach the same conclusion? I’ll tell you why, they didn’t care or they were in the hip pocket of Hyperion. You will never convince me that they didn’t know this was wrong but only saw dollar signs. They saw this as an opportunity to have this be their legacy for the county. ‘Hey, look at me; I was responsible for this garbage.’ I would be willing to bet my paycheck that they spent less than 5 minutes researching this before they decided which way they were going. In fact I would be willing to bet they never asked any questions at all. Can anyone remember them discussing this in any OPEN meeting? We did all the research for them. We testified for over 5 hours to the planning and zoning back in January last year and within the time it took to say thank you, they made a motion and passed the application on to the commissioners. The commissioners listened to another 5 or 6 hours of testimony by people of this county and then gave their blessing to Hyperion. I hate to keep rehashing old news, but these kids are making our elected and appointed leaders look really stupid. I know I’m not making any friends at the court house, but sometimes the truth hurts. That’s politics I guess. We pay our taxes, and they get the heat. You can never satisfy all of the people all of the time, but this time they were dead wrong. That’s enough ranting and raving I guess. Some of the commissioners call it whining.
Have any of you had the opportunity to read the letter to the editor that Deanna Langle wrote to the Leader Courier? It was a good one. It was simple and straight forward.
‘Your recent editorial about Hyperion dealt with trust and motives.
Save Union County is no faceless corporation from Texas. They are local residents with reasonable worries. You dismiss them, implying that Hyperion should be given the “benefit of the doubt”. I suggest extending that same generosity to neighbors who disagree with you.
It is important that those who support Hyperion not look through rose-colored glasses. It is a given that oil refineries are messy and noisy. They do cause air pollution, irrespective of what the developers say. And they alter quality of life. On the economic side, oil refineries require lots of workers, truck traffic and construction activity.
It’s useful to have spirited public discussion about such a massive proposal. It is not useful to dismiss the motives and desires of well-meaning residents who oppose the project. Hyperion has no track record in the refinery industry. They have already admitted their refinery will emit more CO2 per barrel than other oil refineries. Bottom line: Hyperion is mostly interested in Hyperion. Even if you disagree with your neighbors opposing Hyperion, understand that their interest is motivated by their desire to do what’s best for their home county.’
Now I ask you, why is it that this small pocket of people in the refinery coverage area seems to know and have known for some time that this is not good for us, can’t be figured out by everybody else? I know there are refineries all over the United States that are close to and in populated areas, but that doesn’t mean that we have to endure this. Until Load King closed last week, there doesn’t seem to be much of an unemployment problem in the Siouxland area. I don’t call 4% unemployment a catastrophe.
For someone like the President of the Elk Point City Council to say it is unfortunate that Load King is closing so bring on Hyperion, they can’t get here fast enough is completely irresponsible on her part.

Oh Come on Now

2009-11-28T16:54:00.000-08:00

December 2nd, 2009
Oh Come on Now!
One of the most famous lines about government is about to come true in South Dakota. It will be especially true in Union County. “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”

The state of South Dakota’s DENR has put up three air quality monitoring stations to monitor emissions from the proposed refinery site. I don’t know why they didn’t save the state some money and just give it to Hyperion.

When we went out on Monday and took air samples, we also went to two of the three monitoring sites to see what their relationship was with the refinery. What a joke. The first site is 1 ¼ miles south of St. Paul Lutheran church, which is four miles straight south of the refinery site. Wind for The monitoring station was blocked from the south and east by a shelter belt. It is blocked from the south and southwest by the farm and outbuildings. There is a gravel road less than 100 yards west from the station. But it does have a clear shot at the refinery except for one thing. It will not be in line with the prevailing winds to sample anything. During the winter months, the wind blows from the northwest to the southeast. The monitoring station is directly south. So unless the wind is directly out of the north, the place is useless. I guess you could say that this site is downwind, but downwind from what? The monitoring station is checking for toxic chemicals, but from what the state says, it is only 6 major ones. What about gasses like benzene, ammonia, carbon disulfide and xylene? These are also prevalent with refinery output. What about VOC’s like sulfur, sulfur dioxide, lead and mercury? Oh, I forgot those are particulate matter which they are not monitoring for. Silly me!

We went to the second station which is exactly like the first one except that it is straight north 2 miles and 2 miles west of the refinery. It was right across the street from the Spink Café. What are they going to monitor here, bacon grease, hamburgers and French fries? That’s what we could smell. It had a clear view of the southeast, but the wind was blocked from the north and northwest by houses, barns and garages.

Now really, how dumb do they think we are? But wait a minute I’m not finished yet.
The third station, which we didn’t visit, is 9 miles north-northwest from the refinery site and it monitors ambient air for ozone except there is a bill hill to the north and hills to the southeast. Guess what folks, refineries don’t emit ozone. It emits gasses that cause ozone when mixed with different chemicals, but not ozone. Did they put a monitoring station 9 miles south southeast of the refinery site? Nope, that would be in Elk Point, and you know they don’t care what comes down the pike as long as it is green and spends at Wally World. And you know the refinery doesn’t want to monitor what comes up from Elk Point. (put your own answer in here)

Now that I’ve bashed everyone about this, let’s look at the real purpose of monitoring stations, and where the sites should be located. This information by the way comes from an authority on this subject, Mr. Denny Larson from San Francisco, California. He has been in this business a long time and believe me; he knows what he is talking about and Hyperion knows it as well.

When you set up monitoring stations, you need to have at least 1000 meters (1500 meters in a mile) cleared around the monitoring site so that there is only a minimal chance you will get bad readings. The monitoring stations should be reciprocal of each other so that you can compare the readings before the wind hits the refinery as well as after it leaves so you can tell whether or not the emissions come from the refinery or outside of the boundary. One needs to be able to tell what the source of the emission is and the only way you can do that is to document the occurrence. As an example, the other day the state said that an anomaly at the union county park was caused by dust from a combine. Now how are they going to be able to tell that when the reporting station is in Pierre???

When you have a monitoring station 9 miles from the refinery, who knows what the source of the emission could be? They should be reporting every 10 minutes, so that if there is a flare occurrence, they will immediately know and be able to take action. Is the state afraid to put a monitoring station on the fenceline because they are scared of what they might be reading? I would bet on it.

Another thing that would be available is what is called “grab samples” which allow the public to take immediate samples when there are large accidental releases. (Accidents??) This is like what we did on Sunday when we were learning how to use the bucket. If one suddenly smells a strange odor they can get the bucket, take a sample and send it to the lab.
These monitoring stations should be manned and operated by a disinterested third party to prevent a bias determination when a sample is taken. You don’t think Hyperion would report immediately when there is an accident do you? Or would they even report the correct makeup of the sample. I would think they might tend to under report their findings.

In short folks, letting the fox guard the chicken house is not a good idea, you tend to lose a lot of chickens that way.

Holey Bucket Brigade

2009-11-26T20:43:00.001-08:00

November 25th, 2009
‘Holey Bucket Brigade’
After three sessions with Denny Larson from San Francisco, many of us will be covering the countryside in Union County collecting air samples to establish a baseline for use in the event Hyperion should decide to do something stupid like building a refinery in Union County. We were taught how to put together the ‘bucket’ to collect air samples that will measure the amount of toxic chemicals that is in the air. This baseline will be used to ensure that if there is a violation by the refinery, it will be properly recorded and forwarded to the appropriate agencies to take action to have it stopped.
It is amazing to see the steps that are taken to ensure that the samples collected don’t get contaminated by any outside agency to spoil the sample or have the sample declared invalid because it may have been handled improperly along the way.
The samples will be sent by FedEx next day air to a processing company in California to test the sample and post the results. It will cost several hundred dollars to collect each sample, so it is not going to be an inexpensive process, but will be extensively complicated process to ensure our credibility is never jeopardized or compromised. Every effort will be made to follow these procedures, because we never want to put ourselves into a position for Hyperion to say this is not valid. The EPA hasn’t approved the ‘bucket’ collection process, but do say that this is a legitimate collection process.
There is a method to our madness. It is our intent to protect the citizens in this area from harmful pollution from the refinery. Plain and Simple! That last comment will draw considerable responses from pro Hyperion folks, but it is the truth. We don’t want to see anyone suffer from having to breathe contaminated air, and if we can alert the proper authorities that there is a dangerous situation here and it helps save just one life, we will have accomplished what we set out to do. Bear in mind, that the people doing this are volunteering their time and money to ensure that this community remains safe and sound. Granted we would rather not have to do this at all, but if it is going to be done, we want to be the ones who start this. We will be contacting all the surrounding communities hoping that this will spread throughout the country to make sure that if there is a discrepancy it will be noted. This also puts Hyperion on alert that we are continually watching for hazards that are dangerous to everyone in the area.
Just to give you an idea of the difference in the collection procedures used by the ‘bucket brigade’ versus the collection system by the state DENR, try to imagine shooting a bb through a straw from just 10 feet away. That is what is happening with the DENR monitoring system. They have permanent locations supposedly upwind and downwind from the refinery to collect air samples 24/7 but what if the wind is blowing the plume away from all the stations? That is where we come in. we randomly select areas to monitor that may or may not be in a close proximity to the refinery to ensure that there will always be a circle around the refinery. We are monitoring for more gasses than the DENR and these gasses are more dangerous than those considered in the permit by Hyperion. Just one of these gasses is benzene.
Here is how the ‘bucket’ works. The bucket is a little bit larger than a 5 gallon pail. 2 holes are drilled in the lid, directly opposite from each other. The holes are fitted with stainless steel fittings that have hoses fitted to them. One end is a pump which sucks the air out of the pail and creates a vacuum. When you want to take a sample, all you do is open a valve and the air is sucked into the pail which has a ‘tedlar’ bag inside which traps the air. When the bag is full, merely take the sealed bag out of the pail, put it into a FedEx mailer and it is sent off to California. It is that simple. From the time the bag is marked for sampling, it is never left unattended, even for a minute, to ensure it cannot be tampered with. There is a log sheet that you sign when you take the sample. The next person who receives the container is logged on the sheet. When it gets to FedEx, it is logged. When it gets to the destination, it is logged. This method of sampling has been successful in 19 countries and 22 states. This is the first one in South Dakota.
If and when things start happening with Hyperion, the ‘bucket brigade’ will be waiting for them. It is always better to be pro active than reactive. Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Bucketing!

Who Woulda Thunk It?

2009-11-13T08:15:00.001-08:00

November 11th, 2009
Who Woulda Thunk It?

On the 11th minute, of the 11th hour, in the 11th month of 1918, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the American led forces in World War I,. To all the men and women who have served, I salute you! To all the families who have had loved ones who served, I salute you! All who have served gave some, some gave all. We observe this day in honor of our armed forces, and acknowledge their willingness to sacrifice their lives to preserve our freedom.

At the Union County Commissioners meeting last Tuesday, the commissioners, on advice of their legal counsel, announced suspension of the portion of the ordinance pertaining to signs. This was a humbling experience for me. It isn’t often I win an issue with the commissioners, but this one was particularly sweet. If you read my article last week, you would understand why I am so pleased. After over a month of playing by their rules, they gave in to my request and suspended that part of the ordinance. States Attorney Jerry Miller advised the commission that it would be very difficult to defend against my claim and that the best route to go is to suspend the ordinance pending a rewrite that will stand up to legal claims.

I would prefer that the whole ordinance be rewritten, but as it says in the comprehensive plan, this is a living document and is to be reviewed on a yearly basis and major reviews are to be done every 5 years. I have learned to become a patient man when dealing with the county government, and I can wait as long as they can. There are many portions of this ordinance that are bad, but until something happens which challenges the law, things will continue under the status quo. There is an old saying that if you don’t tell me something is wrong I will presume everything is ok. I wonder where they would like me to start. After all; I did get through County Government 101.

What bothers me most about this whole thing is that I have the feeling that since I did this, the county hopes this issue will be forgotten. Wrong! I still have a personal roughing the passer foul in this brief that I filed. They said nothing about the fact that I accused Dennis of infringing my 1st amendment rights, and that still stands. It says nothing of the questions that I want answered and won’t be, so the case goes on.

It was really great to see so many people there on the 29th, showing their support. You don’t know what a boost it was for me to have you show up. Just the fact that you came to the meeting meant so much. And I’m sure to the board as well. When we showed them a united front, I think they knew we came meaning business. Sometimes when people aren’t sure of which road to take, the one influenced by a mass of people shows them the way to go. Even though they declared it a non meeting, they will remember what was said. I will present it again when it is an official meeting.

Now let me give you a timeline of what has happened with this situation and you make up your mind as to whether or not our county government is acting above board and with integrity.
1) The Planning Director sent a letter on the 14th of August saying take down the signs.
2) Ed Cable responds that the ‘save union county’ signs are not political.
3) On the 15th of September, the director sends another letter. Take down the signs
4) At the end of September, I am on the agenda with the commissioners and assert that the Planning Director violates my 1st Amendment rights. The board says they have no jurisdiction over this issue.
5) On the 1st of October I try to present my grievance to the Board of Adjustment. They say that I am not on the agenda so they will not allow me to present the letter.
6) On the 29th of October I am on the agenda for the ‘Board of Adjustment’ and present my grievance. My lawyer advises the board that they did not give proper notification for the meeting and they violated the zoning ordinance and the state law. The meeting is declared a non meeting and adjourns.
7) At the County Commissioners meeting on the 3rd of November, the States Attorney, Mr. Jerry Miller, advises the board to suspend the portion of the zoning ordinance that pertains to the signs as they would lose this case if it went to court. The ordinance is not constitutional in the sign portion. The board acts to suspend enforcement of the signs. At the same meeting Mr. Miller advises the board that he, Mr. Henze and the Planning and Zoning had been aware of this situation for at least a month and a half. This lends further credence to my claim that the actions by the Planning Director were intentional.

Now here is my problem with all of this. I retained a lawyer for counsel back at the end of September, to make sure that I did everything correctly and according to the law. He was with me when I made my presentation to the board of adjustment. It is unconscionable to me to think that they knew what Henze did was highly irregular and probably not legal but said nothing. (County Government 201). I have learned my lesson and hope everyone will benefit from my experiences. If you are going to deal with government, you had better be prepared for just about any situation, and that things move through the system very slowly. I can vouch for this. period.

I Tell It Like It Is!

2009-11-04T15:13:00.002-08:00

November 4th, 2009
I tell it like it is!
This week’s article is a no brainer. For those of you who were unable to make it to the board of adjustment hearing last Thursday, I am printing excerpts from the speech I gave to the board. At the end of the meeting, my lawyer informed them that they were in violation of SDCL (South Dakota Codified Law) and the rules of the zoning ordinance. The board then decided this hearing was not a legal meeting and adjourned, to be reconvened at a later date. (I really hate to be correcting government officials all the time.)
It is my belief that Mr. Henze, acting in the performance of his job as the Union County Planning Director, has taken actions in regards to signs posted in Union County which is both wrong and inappropriate.
In a letter to Mr. Ed Cable on August 14, 2009, Dennis Henze stated that all ‘vote no Hyperion’ and ‘save Union County’ signs must be taken down and removed or he will have them removed at the owner’s expense.
Mr. Cable responded that the ‘Save Union County’ signs were not political and not subject to the county’s actions. Mr. Henze sent another letter on the 15th of September again stating these signs are political and must be removed.
This affects me personally as I have two ‘Save Union County’ signs posted on my property.
At the commissioners meeting on the 11th of August, Commissioner Ross Jordan asked Mr. Henze just how long these ‘vote no’ signs are allowed to stay up. He said they say ‘vote no’ so it is obviously related to a vote. He said he was sick and tired of looking at these ugly signs and that the vote is long over.
The ‘vote no’ signs were put up well before the county-wide referendum in June of 2008. The save union county signs even longer. At the time these signs were governed by the 1978 zoning ordinance. The 1978 ordinance makes no reference to how long they may remain up. I contend that the ‘Vote No’ signs and the ‘Save Union County’ signs are governed by the old ordinance.
The new ordinance that went into effect on the 12th of November 2008 does reference that all ‘political’ signs must be removed within 5 days after the election. This is where things get complicated.
#1. I just don’t see how you can interpret an ordinance to say that something done under the old ordinance that was legal is now illegal and therefore subject to the directives of the current ordinance. It certainly doesn’t say that anywhere in the new ordinance. In fact, it doesn’t even say this ordinance supersedes the old one.
#2. The new zoning ordinance has no definition of the term ‘political’, besides, it is my contention that ‘save union county’ signs are not political signs and were never intended to be political or they would have had ‘paid for’ or the ‘ballot question committee’ statement on them.
#3. There is no presumption that a sign stating: ‘Save Union County’-- is political. If the sign had a cross in the upper left hand corner, would it be a religious sign? Or is it still a personal sign. I contend that since no political statements or symbols like a donkey or an elephant are present, ‘Save Union County’ is a personal sign that expresses a personal opinion-- nothing more, and nothing less.
By Mr. Henze saying it is his interpretation that these are political signs is nothing more than one person's opinion, but because of his appointed position, it is tantamount to censorship if he exerts his personal agenda on citizens under the guise of enforcing a portion of the current zoning ordinance. Where in this ordinance does it give Mr. Henze the authority to censor the content of signs? The ordinance does not give Mr. Henze the authority to act beyond the scope of the ordinance.
I think that Mr. Henze purposely intended to infringe upon the people’s Constitutional Right to freely and openly express their personal opinions, which is the essence of Freedom of Speech under the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. Furthermore, I believe that Mr. Henze intended to intimidate us to remove the ‘Save Union County’ signs by the threat of unlawful search and seizure which is prohibited under the 4th Amendment of the Constitution.
The County Commissioners appointed Mr. Henze to his position. He was not elected. He is our employee. His interpretation of the Ordinance should not be final. Rather, also be the subject of the board’s objective judgment.
He is abusing his position as the Union County Planning Director to intimate people by using the zoning ordinance as a weapon to threaten and punish people who disobey him. Tolerance of a person’s right to freedom of speech and opinion should always be given the utmost respect. The threat of unlawful search and seizure is totally out of line and unacceptable.
1) I am requesting that Mr. Henze be ordered to cite the specific Article(s) and Section(s) that grant him the authority and power to order us to remove personal property from our land.
2) I am requesting that he be required to make a written detailed statement of the guidelines that he used to justify his decision in this matter.
3) I am requesting that you to reverse Mr. Henze’s order directing us to remove personal property from our land on the grounds that the Ordinance as cited above does not authorize his actions and that Mr. Henze acted beyond the scope of his authority and employment by ordering the removal of the signs.
4) I am asking that the planning and zoning commissioners take the necessary steps to ensure that there is never a repeat of this abuse by the Union County Planning Director.

Peat and Repeat

2009-11-04T15:13:00.001-08:00

October 28, 2009
Peat and Repeat
This has been an odd week for news on Hyperion. There was an article in ‘My Voice’ in the Argus Leader written by associate professor of Physics at South Dakota State University, Professor Robert McTaggart, that should really get the ball rolling again for people who have doubts about the validity of Hyperion. The article is titled ‘Carbon sequestration still not safe, practical.’ In the article he states that it is not cost effective under current carbon capture and storage technologies. Furthermore we (Hyperion) will have to burn 30% more coal just to provide the energy to do the sequestration. There are questions on how compressed carbon dioxide will interact with rock, water and microbes underground and whether the storage is truly permanent. Safety also is an issue for the transport of carbon dioxide on the surface and its delivery underground.
Now, let’s look at this from a local standpoint. There is a ‘Professor Emeritus’ in physics from the University of South Dakota living right in this area. Do you suppose he knows this and hasn’t said anything to anyone about the volatility of sequestered carbon? I mean if an associate professor from SDSU can come out with these facts and figures, surely his peers in this profession know about it, he is just the one who comes forward with doubts. I guess it is like all theories in science, everybody has an opinion, just who are we to believe? I for one, because of my skepticism about Hyperion in the first place, believe what the professor from SDSU has to say. I might be dumb, but I’m not stupid! From everything I’ve read about IGCC and carbon capture it won’t work on a commercial scale. It is too much to handle. Now if we can figure that out, why can’t the State of South Dakota DENR and the BME figure it out? They must have blinders on and can only see the money. They can’t see the forest for the trees. What gets me more than anything is they must know this and choose to ignore it. This is like beating your head against the wall, it feels so good when you quit. Surely there must be questions about safety in transporting this to its final resting place. I realize carbon dioxide is an inert gas, but anything under pressure will explode when it gets beyond a safe level. When you overinflate a tire it will rupture and blow up. Why should carbon sequestration be any different? You can’t tell me that just because you can drill a hole in the ground below the level of the shale that you can keep the gas from resurfacing somewhere you don’t expect it and cause serious damage. That’s poppycock. It might not happen for 20 years; it might not happen for 20,000 but it is going to happen. But then we will all be dead and gone so who cares anyway. That’s enough about that. It is like beating a dead horse.
I was talking to an individual the other night and he came up with an interesting question about Hyperion. I’m sure it is on everyone’s mind, we just didn’t let it come to the forefront. With all the talk about cap and trade, what is to prevent Hyperion from not even building a refinery at all and just make money from selling credits to companies that exceed the limits? Hyperion has admitted that they will emit 19 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. Why did they stop at 19 Million? Why didn’t they say 29 Million? The thing is if they only emit 10 Million and they are permitted to emit 19 Million, then they can sell the 9 Million in credits for let’s say $100 a ton and make $19 Million a year and haven’t even done anything. Don’t forget, they have the air permit, so now that they can start construction they can just wait until the cap and trade is passed then just sit back and watch the money roll in. why not $1000 a ton? It is whatever the market will bear. Now don’t corner me on the street and ask me what the hell I’m talking about because I’m no expert on this, but the way Hyperion is operating, it wouldn’t surprise me.
I had an opportunity to listen and speak with Scott Munsterman last week at the library in Elk Point. I had talked to him last summer at the Union County fair in Alcester, and asked him the same question again about Hyperion. He dodged the answer by saying he is getting fully briefed about the situation and when he is elected governor he will take a step back on Hyperion. Fat chance. He also said he is a proponent of developing the I-29 corridor. He believes in local control and that this is an opportunity we shouldn’t pass up. I hate to be the eternal pessimist, but I told him that from an environmental standpoint, developing the I-29 corridor is a fast track to disaster because local control will be no control. Look what has happened with the Hyperion debacle. The state and the governor are so eager to have them come in, they fast tracked the company and it was a done deal before we knew about it. I’ll bet they didn’t even ask for a financial statement. Trust them, they are good guys. I don’t believe there is anyone who would look at it from a health perspective and certainly not from an environmental one. I can’t believe that it would be beneficial to us at all. What do you think this area will look like in 25 years? Are you going to protect your family or just let things take their course?

County Government 101

2009-10-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

October 21st, 2009
County Government 101
There isn’t enough going on with Hyperion to talk about this week, so I thought you might enjoy my education with the county government and dealing with bureaucracy at the local level. Now bear in mind that these are the folks who make decisions on the budget, set mill levees for your portion of the money to support the townships. Collect money for fines, school boards and all that other good stuff. Now just try to talk to them all at one time during a meeting. Unless you make arrangements ahead of time to get on the “Agenda” it ain’t gonna happen. It was during the 2006 legislative session in Pierre when many of the county commissioners [Sioux Falls and Rapid City] that they couldn’t get any business done because there were too many interruptions. The legislature in their infinite wisdom came up with this cockamamie rule. “The commission sessions have a short time of public input before the meeting is called to order where in the public can speak. It could be 5 minutes, 10 minutes or whatever. When the chairman calls the meeting to order, that’s it. Unless you are on the agenda you might as well go home because you are no longer allowed to speak. Kinda like when we were kids in school and had to keep our mouths shut unless we were called upon. Well now, it is SHUT UP! Now get this, In Union County this isn’t a period of dialogue with the commissioners, this is where you get to speak. They sit like stone men and cross their arms, look at you and smile. If you ask a question that would require a response, the answer that you will get is “this is not a question and answer time, this is your time to speak. We don’t respond during this period. We will listen to your input, take down your information and will respond if necessary. (Nobody writes anything down or responds, but this is your time)
If you have a bitch, which I often do, you must get on the agenda at least 24 hours in advance and you will get 15 minutes to actually get responses, usually just from the chairman, but they can speak. (Usually it’s only the chairman) And when you are done they say thank you very much for your input sir/ma’am and that is the last that you will hear anything about the subject. Let me give you a perfect example of the commissioners in action. In July of 2008 I got on the agenda and spoke just before the States Attorney’s timeslot at the meeting so he was present. I gave my spiel about the need for a decency ordinance in Union County in preparation for influx of migrant workers to the area. I gave them an outline with all the things I thought would be necessary to get this done. The states attorney said this would take at least 2 years because of all the problems Sioux City had with theirs and he wanted to make sure he got it right the first time and would stand up to legal challenges. Ok I guess if that is how it works, that’s how it works. A year goes by and nothing, so I bring the original letter back to the commissioners (I’m on the agenda by the way) and make my pitch again. This time it is “thank you very much.” End of session. Two weeks later I wasn’t on the agenda but I signed up for public input. (You have to sign in) I stood in front of the commissioners and told them that since the air permit was passed these workers could come in anytime and begin construction and that we desperately needed to have this ordinance on the books, and passed a copy to each commissioner present. This time I get a nod from the chairman and that’s it. Now this is going on a year and a half and nothing has yet to be brought to the commissioners in like a draft or anything like that. Nothing, nada, zip, zero. I was told you have to be patient with things like this because they are really busy. This is just one example of how your government works. It isn’t just this item, I’ve been going to practically every meeting for almost 3 years and it is like this at every meeting. I was on the agenda for the 1st of October, when all this brew-ha-ha started on the county signs. I made a formal complaint against the Union County Planning Director. I spoke for over 5 minutes and when I got done and asked for a response, here is what commissioner Karpen had to say. “It is out of our jurisdiction. You have to deal with this through the board of adjustment; it is out of our hands. (Kinda like Pontius Pilot washing his hands at the crucifixion of Jesus.)
I went to the board of adjustment on the 1st when they were meeting. When they adjourned as P&Z and went into the board of adjustment, before they finished their motion to adjourn I said “excuse me I have a letter to present to the chairman.” I was told I was not on the agenda and could not speak. I usually try to keep my cool at these meetings because I expect that, but I could not even present the letter. I bet my blood pressure went up 50 points. My face got so read I thought I was going to start bleeding, and Dennis sat there and grinned. So now 30 days later I am on the agenda and we get to discuss this. This folks is what your elected officials are doing at the county level. Can you imagine what it is like at the state and national level? This is the end of lesson 101 folks. Thank you for your kind attention. Next week we will talk again about Hyperion, but in the meantime, keep those cards and letters coming.
Your honored Servant

Your Money or Your Life

2009-10-20T20:49:00.001-07:00

October 14th, 2009
Your Money or Your Life!

There is a program out there called “Cap and Trade” that I don’t fully understand but could become a very decisive issue with the Hyperion refinery. Under the cap and trade system, Congress sets an industry wide standard that companies must adhere to. They must reduce their carbon dioxide levels of pollution each year until they come down to the standard considered by congress as a “safe” level.
From what I can see, this has both good and bad points. The good point is that it forces companies to reduce their carbon emissions. The bad point is that if they don’t take steps to reduce those emissions, they have to buy credits from companies that have a surplus of credits which allows them to keep operating. These credits are traded at market value and will create a hell of a mess.

Now there is a good side and a bad side. The good side is that it forces companies to spend money they could be using elsewhere to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide they emit every year. The bad side is that those companies who don’t take those steps have to buy energy credits in order to keep operating, and that costs money. I like to refer to this as a carbon “tax”, not a credit. Let’s call it what it is.
Emissions from coal plants are a problem mainly on the east and northeast coast of the United States. That is not a big problem in this area; however we could find ourselves in a heck of a mess if they start taxing farmers for cap and trade. I cannot imagine counting how many cows and pigs a farmer has and telling him he has to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by these animals or he will have to pay a tax to exceed the cap. About the only way he could reduce his emissions is to reduce the size of his herds. I cannot imagine farmers falling under a cap and trade because of the amount of fertilizer they use growing their crops. This could happen.
Now comes the big decision one has to make. Are you for or against this program? This is where you have to make a decision. If I support it, it will force companies like Hyperion to put policies into effect that will almost assuredly raise the price of their finished product, which will be passed on to the consumer (us). If they continue to underperform they will just continue to buy credits. Is it cheaper for them to buy credits or make changes? The big question I have is who is going to monitor to see that they become compliant? If they make the changes, then carbon dioxide emissions will go down, but will we see the effects of those changes? I doubt it because it is just released into the atmosphere and heads north. The two main effects we would see if they don’t make the changes are in the amount of sulfur dioxide they emit which causes acid rain. Sulfur dioxide also causes health problems especially people with respiratory or other health related issues. It is kind of like pay me a little bit now, or a whole lot later.
Mercury is a very serious contaminant. It can enter our bodies directly through mercury-contaminated air or drinking water. In these exposure routes, the main initial source of the mercury is air emissions from power generation, waste disposal, and other industrial activities. Again, Hyperion could be the root of this problem. The big problem is controlling how much they can pollute, because our current air quality is so pristine that it doesn’t even show on the scales. So what do we do? Do we take active measures to stop this or ignore it and hope it goes away?
I would have to say I support cap and trade. It will force companies like Hyperion to think twice about whether or not to build or whether or not they can even afford to build a refinery. I’m going to have to pay more for my utilities, but at least I will still have my health.
On the other hand, how is this going to affect my neighbors? How much is it going to increase operating expenses and is it going to force some of them out of business. This is going to be a tough decision to make folks. I wish there was another option to this mess.
The sad thing about this whole deal is that the government decides what is good and what is bad. Can we afford more bureaucracy, especially inefficient and ineffective controls? I have a bad feeling about government intervention in areas like this. Private industry is a powerful lobby, and it behooves us to keep a watchful eye on this program. Anything that Nancy Pelosi is for to me is a bad deal from the get go.
Isn’t it sad that we have to deal with something like Hyperion and the by-products that result from an operation of that sort? And people think this is called economic development. Bull!

How did we let this happen?

2009-10-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

October 7th, 2009
How did we let this happen?
I just watched an episode on 60 minutes that would just curl your hair. It was about dealing with a deadly byproduct of a power plant. It is called COAL ASH! This is the residue from a power plant that burns coal to produce electricity. That wasn’t the really scary part because it is a known fact that all power plants do this. The scary part is that Hyperion will be doing this. It is written in the new Union County Zoning ordinance that the planned development that Hyperion pushed on us, (those of us opposed to the refinery) that it cannot store toxic waste in or on the facility. Guess what? Coal Ash is not on the list of the EPA as being toxic waste. Now here’s the kicker. In my estimation, there is nothing to prevent Hyperion from importing coal ash from other power plants and storing it here.
For a long time now, people have been accusing me of being as bad as “Chicken Little.” The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Well folks, I’m here to tell you that this is a distinct possibility for the HEC. People say that I’m always a pessimist, always negative, the cup is always half empty not half full. Can you imagine millions of tons of coal ash piling up on 3200 acres of the richest farmland in South Dakota? I cannot fathom such a disaster, but it could happen.
There is nothing to prevent Hyperion from making contracts with power plants around the United States to take coal ash off their hands. Al Huddleston tried to create a dump in Dallas, Texas and did not succeed. What is to prevent him from doing it here? Not a damn thing. The state of South Dakota is welcoming Huddleston with open arms and hope he has a big pocketbook so they can make lots of money. After all, this is economic development.
Coal Ash is loaded with mercury, arsenic and lead. Proponents of spreading the coal ash around say that it is nothing but dirt, what is everyone worried about. Ask the people in Tennessee after the pond holding the coal ash burst and flooded the downstream towns. It literally buried houses, lakes and the countryside with many feet of ash. Leslie Stahl said on TV that we should be raising red flags all over this country because of the ash. The power company is exporting the ash to a small town in Alabama and paying the citizens there about $7or 8 million dollars to store it there. This is absolutely ludicrous. When Ms. Stahl interviewed a spokesman for Dominion Power Company about raising this red flag, he merely responded that neither the federal government nor the EPA has declared the ash toxic and that they are fully compliant with the federal regulations. Oh My God! He also stated that there is no limit to the size of the stockpiles. When she asked him about oversight or inspections to make sure no violations occur he responded that the states are responsible for the inspections. Now that scares me. Can you imagine DENR inspecting this? Do they ever inspect other power plants in the state? You never see anything about violations in the paper, and this has to be happening. Are we prepared to accept this? Do we have any choice? You bet your bippie we do. If ever there was a need to get out and protest something, this is it. We must circulate petitions to get this ordinance changed to prevent Hyperion from doing this, because I’m here to tell you, if they can get away with it, they will. I wouldn’t trust Hyperion for one second.
I can’t remember how many times I have written this, but it has been more than 3 or 4 times that I’ve said Hyperion has no intention of building a refinery in Union County. I hate to say it, but it makes perfect sense to me for Hyperion to try to pull this off.
To me coal ash would be more harmful to us than air pollution. With coal ash we would get a triple whammy. The coal ash would leach into the ground water. It would dust us with ash that could carry radioactive materials, and it will leach the surrounding farmlands that raise not only grain crops but livestock as well. It is a no win situation. Call me a pessimist if you will, but trust me this is not a good deal. If Elk Point and the state of South Dakota think this is economic development, they are sorely mistaken. Can you imagine what this area will be like in 20 years when your children are reaching adulthood? What will they do? What will living conditions be like? What will this area be like?
How did we let this happen?

Button, Button, who's got the button

2009-10-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

September 30th, 2009
Button, Button, who’s got the Button?
Will somebody please tell me what is going on with Hyperion? Last Wednesday, Mr. Robert Graham filed the appeal for “Save Union County”, COOP, and the Sierra Club. They stated in their appeal that Hyperion will fail to meet the clean air act for the refinery and therefore should deny the application. That is plain enough isn’t it? Pretty much a straight forward deal.
Also on Wednesday, Mr. Eric Williams released a statement for Hyperion. It said that they “trumpet” the decision by DENR to add using the thermal oxidizers even though this is not being done by any other oil company in the United States. (WAIT A MINUTE) hasn’t Hyperion been saying all along that a refinery has not been built in the United States since 1976 and that they will build a “state of the art” refinery using all the latest technology. And now they have the audacity to come out and say they “Trumpet” the idea of using oxidizers? They weren’t going to use them at all until DENR told them they had to. What the heck is going on here? In the hearing process they complained that it wasn’t economically feasible for them to have to spend $30-50 million dollars for oxidizers and/or scrubbers for the plant and now they “Trumpet” the idea. I think it is a little more like sucking wind.
Then on Thursday, they file their own appeal to Hughes County (which is in Pierre by the way) but they wouldn’t be specific on what the appeal was about. They wouldn’t say what portions of the application if any they will appeal, but they filed the appeal anyway. I think is about the fact that DENR said if they didn’t put the oxidizers in they wouldn’t get the permit, but Hyperion says they will accept DENR’s decision. Bullpucky! They are more confused than we are. Their spokesman says one thing then the next day they say something else. Who are we to believe anymore? If anything, I think Hyperion just added cause to our appeal because they don’t want to put the oxidizers in. when you are spending $10-15 Billion for a refinery, what the heck is another $50 million?
Do you remember when this thing first started and I said that Hyperion didn’t have a clue about how to build a refinery. I think they are proving it now that they don’t have a flippin clue what is going on and furthermore don’t know they have a problem. If you were trying to get investors in a project wouldn’t you be a bit more positive about what you’re doing?
Preston Phillips said in the news release that “We know some will say it’s going overboard because it’s handling such a small amount of vapor, but we agree with the state that it’s the right thing to do to protect the region’s air quality,” Hyperion executive Preston Phillips said in
Wednesday’s statement. Does that make one want to lean over and throw up or what? I have to give them credit though. Everyone always says that Texans are full of B.S., and Hyperion is making a damn good case of proving it true.
I get more convinced every day that this project will never happen. How could it when they, of all people, don’t know from one day to the next what they will do. That’s enough about them, let’s talk about another project that is near and dear to my heart.
Ed Cable received a letter from Dennis Henze a couple of weeks ago and was told that “Save Union County” signs and “Vote No Hyperion” signs are in violation of county ordinances and must be removed. I have an issue with the “Save Union County” signs. Do they say anything political? Does anyone remember them being political? Were they at one time considered political? Dennis Henze seems to think so. Or at least Ross Jordan does. He make an offhand remark at one of the commissioners meetings and I guess Dennis took it to heart and started beating his breast like a “Gorilla” and started pontificating that the election is over take ‘em down. I don’t think you can bluff Ed Cable, and I don’t think the signs are coming down anytime soon. Course that is just my opinion, I could be wrong. Somebody doesn’t have enough to do.
Is anyone having a problem writing a letter to Region 8 of the EPA. I will certainly be glad to help you if you want help. Hyperion might be making their water permit application soon, and we need to be ready for them. We are still writing about the air permit though, so don’t get mixed up. The appeal will be working its way through the maze but keep those cards and letters coming because they will certainly help make decisions easier in the long run.

Ain't this a Doozie

2009-10-05T07:45:00.001-07:00

Sept 23rd, 2009
Ain’t this a Doozie?
I don’t often use the Leader Courier as a source for a news item because they are rather biased about what they print, but last week was a doozie! Let me set the scene here. L.G. Everist was applying for a conditional use permit with the city of North Sioux City to expand their gravel dump in North Sioux. Everist vice president Todd Schuver said that they have outgrown their Sioux City Plant and wanted to expand to North Sioux. They wanted a conditional use permit to unload rock and gravel by train and truck on the land they lease from BNSF railroad. After much discussion, the city council voted 9-0 to deny a permit for L.G. Everist to expand their rock facility. That wouldn’t be so bad, except for the people that voiced their opinions at the meeting and what it was that was said. When I read this, I almost dropped my teeth. Let me give you a few quotes. These are really good.
Schuver said that they want to be part of the community and think they will provide a very viable and low-cost product to the community. (Where have you heard that before?)
People talked about the hazards of dust, noise and smell from all the truck traffic and that many of them lived only 100 feet from the site. (Déjà vu all over again)
Many people were concerned about whether or not Hwy 105 could stand the wear and tear of so much truck traffic, (Huh?) and whether or not businesses would be attracted to Flynn Business Park with such disruption next to it. (My God!)
Schuver said that any concrete plant would have to obtain an air permit and be subject to certain air quality levels. (You’re kidding me right?)
One of the members in the audience asked “If Sioux City doesn’t want you, why would we?” (Right On.)
Mayor Don Fuxa and the city council sent a letter to the P&Z stating their objections due to the large number of letters they received objecting to the expansion. Their letters stated objections because of increased air pollution, excessive noise, and obnoxious odors. (Oh, this is good)
I see that the people of Save Union County taught these people well. They and L.G. Everist used our book. Didn’t we use these same objections both with the P&Z and the county commissioners? Obviously we weren’t as successful as they were, but it sure looks like a case of NIMBY if you ask me. They voted overwhelmingly for Hyperion but when it crops up in their own back yard it ain’t gonna happen folks.
What do you think is the first industry that would locate to the HEC if Hyperion were to actually start to build a refinery? It would be a concrete and gravel dump only 100 times larger. NSC was going to be a few acres, and the HEC a few hundred. The funny thing here is that it would be in a planned development and we don’t have squat to say about it. Hyperion wrote in their application to the county that they would have total control for any and all building inside the boundary of the HEC. And people voted for this! (I seem to be using a lot of these today don’t I ? !!!!!) and all this time I thought our voices were falling on deaf ears.( WOW did we get a surprise or what)
It just blows my mind that people can be so two faced. We were accused of being whiners and malcontents because we were standing in the way of economic progress. I’ve got their economic progress for you right here. Are these people so naive as to think that when Hyperion comes in there won’t be truck traffic and rail traffic up the wazoo! There will be trains and trucks unloading all day every day. They won’t be able to keep up. You can bet that L.G. Everist will appeal this decision. The rock and gravel dump have been there a long time and they want to expand “Just a little bit.” (Oh but the Hyperion issue is different. Don’t look Ethel)
Do you realize just how big this will be? Just look at the size of the portable concrete facilities that are being put up on the Interstate for rebuilding a dinky 26 miles of road. This new facility would look like Mt. Everist (little play on words there folks) 3000 acres of concrete and asphalt. Concrete buildings, Concrete this and Concrete that. And when it rains, North Sioux City had better hold onto its hat, because it is going to flood like no tomorrow. Just to give you an idea of 14000 acre feet of water, take 3000 acres and fill it 36 feet high. Now that my friend is a whole hell of a lot of water. They say that sh*t flows downhill, well when this behemoth comes in we are going to put it to the test. (I like that word behemoth don’t you?) Remember back in July when we got 18 inches of rain during the month. Imagine what this will do to the Brule and the Big Sioux?
You know there is an old saying that what goes around, comes around. Someday NSC is going to want our help about an issue that is vital to their survival. My answer to that is “UP YOUR NOSE.” Not in my backyard, I could care less. Sorry!