Hyperion Refinery Approved with Nearly 58 Percent Vote

The Union County South Dakota vote on zoning for Hyperion is a go. According to the South Dakota Secretary of State's website, the final vote was 57.93% Yes, 42.07% No.

If the project is completed after this first hurdle, it would be the first new refinery built in the United States in about 30 years.

The last one was built in 1976. Regulatory challenges have made it all but impossible to build a new one since then.

We had around 300 refineries in the country back in the early 1980s, but 170 or more have closed since that time. Production from the remaining refineries is about 8 million barrels a day, but demand is about 9 million, so we desperately need more capacity.

The last I read, officials estimate the proposed Hyperion facility near Elk Point would process 400,000 barrels of oil a day.

The project would be a boon for the area since about 4,500 workers would be needed to build the refinery over a four year period, with peak building periods maybe reaching 10,000 employees. Once completed, they estimate about 1,800 employees would be needed to run it.

As an article from the Aberdeen News points out, there's still a long way to go before Hyperion actually builds a refinery. Primarily, the funding for the project faces some hurdles.

Hopefully those can be cleared, because with gas at around $4.00 a gallon, America desperately needs to pull our collective head out of the sand and improve our domestic energy situation.