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Hyperion Puzzled by Sierra Club Opposition
June 11, 2010 11 June 2010
For Immediate Release
ELK POINT, S.D. – Hyperion Refining has asked a South Dakota court to allow the submission of additional evidence to make the company’s previously?approved air permit even more stringent. Moreover, Hyperion is surprised by the Sierra Club’s opposition to the tougher standards.
“We’ve said from the beginning that we will apply the Best Available Control Technology (BACT)
at the Hyperion Energy Center, and we take that commitment very seriously. In a process that
takes years we are constantly evaluating changes in law and regulation to assure the HEC
remains a state of the art facility,” Hyperion Vice President Preston Phillips said. Hyperion’s
request to tighten emission restrictions on its permit – previously vetted by the engineers and
scientists at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and approved by the state
Board of Minerals and Environment – was made after the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) proposed two new rules further restricting emission standards.
This past April, a new EPA rule ratcheting down ambient air quality standards for nitrogen
dioxide was finalized. This month, a new national ambient air quality standard for sulfur dioxide
went into effect, again pursuant to EPA rules. While Hyperion’s air permit is issued by the state,
it must meet all EPA requirements and standards.
“Some industries are arguing these aren’t yet the law of the land, but we are committed to
following these new EPA rules,” Phillips said. “The first sentence of our Green Charter says ‘We
will minimize our facilities' contribution to global climate change and minimize air pollutant
emissions by using the best available control technologies.’ We meant it when we wrote the
Charter, and we mean it now.”
Unfortunately, the Sierra Club – which opposes the Energy Center – filed papers with the Court
that present a legal objection to Hyperion’s request to write the tougher air quality
requirements right into Hyperion’s permit.
“The Sierra Club keeps complaining that the standards aren’t tough enough, yet when we
voluntarily seek formal approval to further tighten the restrictions in our permit, their lawyers
still object in court,” Phillips said. “If their concern really was the environment, you’d think
they’d eventually take ‘Yes’ for an answer.”
Construction on the Energy Center is expected to begin in 2011, with startup in 2015. An
average of 4,500 jobs will be created over the four year construction phase, with the Energy
Center bringing more than 1,800 permanent jobs to the Siouxland region.
The Hyperion Energy Center is permitted for a 400,000 barrel?per?day refinery producing ultra-low
sulfur gasoline and diesel and an IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) power
plant. The center will incorporate green principles in its every day functions and integrate only
the most advanced commercially feasible emission control technologies in its operations, as
spelled out in the company’s Green Charter.
Contact:
Eric Williams
Gallatin Public Affairs
509?624?7655 |
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