From KELO, more sanity from the court system (will wonders never cease?).
Circuit Judge Steven Jensen has ruled that the group "Save Union County" has no legal standing in the court effort against the proposed Hyperion refinery near Elk Point.
Circuit Judge Steven Jensen said Save Union County cannot stay in the fray because it owns no land that would be affected by the proposed $10 billion Hyperion Resources refinery.
Ed Cable, who owns land about three miles away, was allowed to proceed with his opposition to a zoning change from agricultural to an industrial use.
I disagree with Cable, but at least he, unlike the radical environmentalist groups themselves, has justification to fight the effort legally. Even his concerns, however, must be grounded in the real world and not just "I don't like that."
Environmental extremist groups have gotten away with this kind of thing for too long. They interfere with projects that will benefit the entire country while hiding behind a do-gooder shield of environmental protection. In the end, their agenda has more to do with opposition to "Big Oil" and capitalism in general than it does concern over the plants and animals.
This Save Union County group is a local group, but they have the backing (or are the puppet of?) of the San Francisco National Refinery Reform Campaign.
Notice that everywhere Save Union County shows, up, The National Refinery Reform Campaign shows up to act as their mouthpiece. Coverage from Omaha.com, KELO, the Sioux City Journal, the Argus Leader and others illustrate this hand-in-hand "cooperation." This piece from the Global Community Monitor also lists the extremist Sierra Club is involved, as well.
If you check out the Refinery Reform Campaign website, apparently there isn't a good or acceptable refinery out there. The name of their group should more appropriately be "National Refinery Opposition Campaign.
From KELO, Denny Larson with the Refinery Reform Campaign claims they would support a "green" refinery, which is what Hyperion says the Elk Point facility will be.
Larson says, "A green refinery is great, we would support that, but it starts with the proper location, and this doesn't appear to be the proper location for this type of project."
Yet you see at Omaha.com that in the eyes of this extremist group, there is no such animal:
"A refinery that processes crude oil cannot be green. It can be greener," he said. "They emit millions of pounds of air pollutants that can pose a serious risk to human health and the environment, and impair the quality of life of nearby communities."
He's talking out of one side of his mouth over here, and the other side over there. A reasonable person would be for a facility that is as clean as possible, so Larson wants to appear "reasonable." Yet he slipped in the Omaha.com quote and revealed that there is no refinery he would support.
They also claim, "Oh, it's just the wrong location." What would be the right location? If we tried to put it in a more industrial area, the objection would surely be: "Oh, that would be too much concentration in an already over-industrialized area."
Nothing will please environmental extremists except successfully impeding progress.
Society's luxury of entertaining these extremists is over. Our $4.00 a gallon gasoline is finally starting to make energy the priority it always should have been.
It's time to push these anti-capitalist extremists out of the way and get about the business of bringing America's energy policy into the 21st Century.
0 comments:
Post a Comment