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Hyperion, Rounds engage in ‘greenwashing’
News Articles | Argus Leader | Dean J. Spader | July 24, 2010
Read the full article on the originating site
Ray Anderson is a true environmentalist. As chief executive officer of a successful but highly polluting business – a carpet manufacturer named Interface Inc. – he ordered his company to significantly reduce toxic emissions. After a focused effort, the company reduced toxic pollutants 60 percent to 80 percent while increasing sales 66 percent and doubling earnings.
This achievement is profiled in Anderson’s inspirational book titled “Confessions of a Radical Industrialist.” Anderson is an honest, pragmatic businessman who is serious about environmental stewardship and does not engage in “greenwashing.”
Greenwashing is deceitful advertising or information issued by businesses and groups to mislead people into thinking they are environmentally friendly when they actually choose an environmentally destructive path to profits or policymaking.
British Petroleum is an example. BP spends millions on its “green” logos and Beyond Petroleum advertising campaign while simultaneously pursuing reckless cost-cutting that now is destroying the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem.
It appears Gov. Mike Rounds and the South Dakota Board of Minerals and Environment are joining Hyperion oil refinery promoters to greenwash us.
Rounds often repeats the words of Hyperion’s Texas speculators that they will build and operate in Union County the cleanest oil refinery in America.
This is greenwashing for the following reasons:
- Hyperion will refine the dirtiest crude oil on the planet (Canadian tar sands oil).
- Hyperion will release thousands of tons of known pollutants over a wide region.
- Hyperion is a real estate company that never has built a refinery. Thus, it has no experience or record on which to base its claim.
- There is no such thing as a clean refinery. (“Least dirty refinery” would be more honest.)
- Hyperion will release more carbon dioxide per refined barrel of oil than any other refinery in the country.
But there is more.
Rookies make mistakes, and Hyperion, as a rookie refinery developer, made a big mistake in its original air permit application. Hyperion failed to recognize and report that its energy center’s coker quench tank emits 1,700 tons of volatile organic compounds annually. Volatile organic compounds are nasty pollutants that cause cancer and worsen climate change.
Overlooking 1,700 tons per year is a really big rookie mistake.
Yet South Dakota’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the South Dakota Board of Minerals and Environment made the same mistake when they overlooked the refinery’s emission of volatile organic compounds and approved the air permit last August. They, too, are rookies, having never dealt with an air permit of this size and complexity. You’d think they’d be cautious when considering a $10 billion oil refinery. Unfortunately, the Board of Minerals and Environment joined the greenwashing campaign to lull South Dakota citizens into complacency.
After issuing the air permit, board member Peter Bullene was quoted in the press as saying: “I believe (state agency staff) has done a very diligent effort in researching not only locally but nationally all of the standards and how they apply to the . . . permit.” Another board member, Lee McCahren, added: “They’ve (Hyperion) satisfied their burden, and they’ve satisfied state and federal requirements for an air permit, in my opinion.”
Not only were both comments false, they reflect the overconfident hyperbole that is typical of greenwashing.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency reviewed Hyperion’s air permit and reported eight major deficiencies. Hyperion’s faulty application and the Board of Minerals and Environment’s faulty permit were exposed. Circuit Court Judge Mark Barnett recently sent the permit back to the Board of Minerals and Environment for corrections.
Hyperion reacted by issuing news releases proclaiming the mistake as a minor matter. More greenwashing. What really happened is that Hyperion got caught underestimating pollution and shortcutting solutions. How many more big mistakes can we expect?
Iowa has deep concerns regarding Hyperion. Apparently, South Dakota officials preferred ignoring Hyperion’s inevitable environmental threats. They issued a weak, faulty air permit, and if Iowa hadn’t expressed its concerns, Rounds and the Board of Minerals and Environment likely would have sat on their hands, preferring to cheerlead rather than exercise genuinely objective examinations and issuing necessary protections.
The Board of Minerals and Environment won’t even recommend an environmental impact statement, a necessary, baseline document so the public understands what this massive project will do to air, water and other resources.
What must South Dakotans do to protect public health and our environment? First, we must recognize greenwashing when it occurs. Second, we cannot allow politicians, board members and state agencies to join dirty polluters in their greenwashing. We must become true environmentalists ourselves because that is the only way we will be able to recognize greenwashers.
Reading Ray Anderson’s book is a good first step.
Tagged with: bp, hyperion, greenwashing, ray anderson, south dakota board of minerals and environment
