Posted by
theoilpatchplug on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 9:49:31 PM
Thirty-two long years have passed since the U.S. had a new oil refinery. But a small South Dakota community wants to change that. Finally, some rational thinking.
Union County, home to 12,584 in South Dakota's southeastern corner, voted 58% to 42% Tuesday to approve a request by Hyperion Energy to build a refinery north of Elk Point, the county seat of 1,855.
The facility, expected to turn out 400,000 barrels of ultralow-sulfur gasoline and diesel fuel a day, just might be the biggest thing to happen to the area.
As far as energy is concerned, it could be the biggest thing to happen to this nation since 1976, widely known as America's bicentennial year but less so as the date the last new oil refinery was built in the U.S. Since that refinery was built in Garyville, La., more than three decades ago, environmental groups have successfully bullied policymakers into blocking any new ones.
Meanwhile, America has gone from 301 refineries in 1982 to less than half that (149). The refining process is far more efficient today, yet output hasn't kept pace with demand. As domestic oil consumption has increased from 17 million barrels a day in 1982 to nearly 21 million a day in 2007, the country now has to import 10% of the gasoline we burn. We just don't make enough.
Wonder no more why we've become so reliant on foreign crude to fuel our economy and have little choice but to do more business with unsavory characters than we should.
Though Union County supporters celebrated their win at the polls, the festivities might be a bit premature. Opponents say they won't give up. Having lost the both the legislative and public opinion wars, their attempts to tangle up the project are now limited to the courts and the bureaucratic permitting process. They have a long history of success to draw on that will not be easily countered.
The 3,932 Union County residents who voted in favor of the refinery probably weren't thinking about boosting domestic oil output as much as they were the economic benefits of having a refinery in town. Dallas-based Hyperion expects the project to bring a $10 billion investment to the area and provide as many as 4,500 construction jobs over four years after ground is broken in 2010.
Once fully operational, the refinery will need 1,826 full-time workers manning jobs whose wages will range from $20 to $30 an hour. Hyperion estimates the direct and indirect economic impact of the facility will total $13.7 billion a year.
But unlike foes who can't see beyond their contempt for what they derogatorily call Big Oil and their blind devotion to anti-capitalist environmentalism, the supporters are looking ahead. They saw clearly where their choices would lead.
We laud the good people of Union County. We wish there were more forward-looking people like that in this country. Too many don't understand that the price the developed world would have to pay to "green" the Earth would take human progress back decades.
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, June 04, 2008 4:20 PM PT