Guess what just happened in South Dakota?

[BigDaddy44]

Evidently, a new oil refinery is going to be built. First in over 30 years.

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2008/06/04/news/top/4e608d46402d5adb8625745e00110beb.txt

[patrice]

1. surprise, surprise . . . .

:eyes:

[Robbien]

2. 3,292 acres of farm land rezoned

The article says the town correctly balanced the needs of the environment and the needs of the economy. True, the environment gets less than nothing and the capitalists get everything. There, balanced.

"The refinery would process 400,000 barrels of tar sands crude from Alberta into low-sulfur gasoline, diesel and jet fuel." A process which requires a huge amount of water and a process which generates a huge amount of pollution.

Yup. Balanced all right.

Wonder how many tax credits the town also kicked in to sweeten the pot to attract the business.

[Sal Minella]

3. I can't believe it. Poor, gullible South Dakotans.

Hyperion pledges to create 1,826 full-time jobs at hourly wages of between $20 and $30.

I will believe this when I see it.

The hog-confinement facilities wanting to build here in Iowa promised "good-paying jobs" too, but most of these noxious hog factories seem to run things with low-paid, undocumented workers imported for the purpose.

Seems to me a modern refinery would be so automated it would nearly run itself. If anybody in this outfit gets paid $30 an hour, I'd guess he'll be sitting behind a mahogany desk in Dallas or somewhere.

Check out the oil company shills posting "Atta Boys" in the comments. They don't have to live there, they just buy stock.

[Strelnikov_]

4. That's a big refinery. Exxon's Baytown, the biggest in the US

processes 560 kbpd.

Baytown Refinery in Baytown, Texas is the largest oil refinery in the United States, with an input capacity of 557,000 barrels (88,600 m³) per day as of January 1, 2005 <1>. The site first opened in 1919 and was originally operated by the Humble Oil Company. Today, it is the largest employer in the city. The plant takes up 2400 acres (10 km²) of land next to the Houston Ship Channel.