PIERRE, S.D. – A leading environmental critic of the Hyperion Energy Center has launched a new marketing campaign against the proposed oil refinery and power plant in rural Union County.
In print advertisements in the Sioux City Journal and Sioux Falls Argus Leader Thursday the Sierra Club warns that pollutants from the refinery would put the health of tri-state residents at risk.
“Hyperion would release more air pollution per-refined-barrel than any other American refinery, harming public health across Siouxland,” according to the Journal ad, which was paid for by the Sierra Club's South Dakota and Northwest Iowa chapters.
A top Hyperion executive described the Sierra Club's claims as “totally misleading.”
Hyperion vice president Preston Phillips said the Texas-based company has presented data to state and federal regulators that show the energy center is “going to be the cleanest facility in the United States on a per-barrel basis.”
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In the ad, the Sierra Club contends that Hyperion would release 17 million tons per year of pollutants into the air. Phillips pointed out the figure is misleading because it includes greenhouse gas emissions.
It's unfair to compare Hyperion to other refineries, which buy their electricity from utilities, Hyperion says. The Hyperion complex would feature an integrated gasification power plant that would turn a petroleum byproduct into electricity to run the refinery.
On Thursday, the Sierra Club also launched a new anti-refinery website, www.opposehyperion.com.
The Sierra Club was among the groups that campaigned against a June 2008 referendum to rezone 3,229-acres of Union County land for the energy center. County voters overwhelmingly approved the measure.
Peter Carrels, a national Sierra Club staff member based in South Dakota, would not disclose how much the environmental organization is spending on the new campaign.
“This isn't one ad and we're done,” Carrels said in a telephone interview Thursday. “We're going to be advertising for several weeks.”
The new anti-refinery spending comes as South Dakota regulators continue to review Hyperion's amended application for an air quality permit for the $10 billion energy center.
Carrels said the campaign is aimed at getting its message out about the dangers of the 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery, which would be built just north of Elk Point and east of Vermillion.
“We just don't think the public has been given the full picture on all the issues related to a massive oil refinery Hyperion is proposing,” he said.
