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Hyperion Saga Ends After Permit Expires
Case Updates:
March 15, 2013
On March 15, South Dakota landowners and clean air activists celebrate a major victory for the protection of natural resources in the state as Texas-based Hyperion Resource’s permit to build a $10 billion oil refinery on South Dakota land expired.
South Dakota is a national leader in clean energy, drawing more than 20 percent of its power from wind energy. Smart investing and development in South Dakota means tapping into the state’s thriving clean energy economy, not tying communities and landowners to dirty fuel sources of the past like tar sands oil and coal.
October 3, 2012
On October 3, Sierra Club, Save Union County, and Citizens Opposed to Oil Pollution asked the South Dakota Supreme Court to strike down a permit that would allow Hyperion Energy Center to begin construction of a gigantic tar sands refinery and coal power plant. The Board of Minerals and Environment approved an air quality permit last year without an environmental impact statement.
Hyperion’s proposed industrial complex north would process 400,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands crude oil each day into low-sulfur gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and liquid petroleum gas. If built, the refinery would destroy huge areas of prime farmland in the Elk Point region and irreversibly destroy the region’s rural character. It would become one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas pollution in the United States.
Sierra Club and its allies will continue to fight this misguided, polluting project and work to promote cleaner fuels and renewable power sources.
April 26, 2010
In a big win for Sierra Club and its allies, Hyperion Refining announced that is was holding off on buying the land for its proposed tar sands oil refinery in Union County, South Dakota. Sierra Club, Save Union County, and Citizens Opposed to Oil Pollution are actively fighting the project, and appealed the final air permit for the facility in September 2009. Hyperion representatives cited delays due to the environmental groups' opposition and the economic recession as reasons behind their decision, admitting that it is not a good time to build the $10 billion facility. Hyperion currently holds options on about 6,000 acres, and will negotiate with the land owners to extend the time frame in which it must exercise those options. The company is considering a two-year extension.
Hyperion's proposed refinery would process 400,000 barrels-a-day of Canadian tar sands crude and poses a serious risk to public health and the environment. Producing oil from tar sands emits three-to-five times as much global warming pollution as conventional oil, requires excessive amounts of energy and water, and destroys swaths of boreal forest. Sierra Club and its allies will continue to fight this dirty fuel and work to promote cleaner alternatives, such as energy efficiency and wind and solar power.
Details and Documents:
South Dakota Residents Celebrate Victory for Clean Air and Clean Water as Hyperion Oil Refinery Permit Expires
March 15, 2013, Sierra Club et al. Press Release
News Articles:
Another roadblock for $10 billion Union City, SD., oil refinery
March 15, 2013 by Dave Dreeszen, Sioux City Journal
South Dakota Supreme Court asked to throw out state permit for $10 billion oil refinery
October 3, 2012, Associated Press
Landowners refures to give Hyperion extension
September 24, 2012 by Julie Ann Madden, The Akron Hometowner
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