(Continued from page 28)

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A company that planned to build a $10 billion oil refinery said Monday it has allowed land-purchase options to expire for thousands of acres of southeastern South Dakota farmland.
• The move does not mean the project has been canceled, officials with Texas-based Hyperion Refinery said.
• "We did not extend land options in Union County on Sept. 30, and we are evaluating our various options and opportunities," Hyperion spokesman Eric Williams said in a statement. "We appreciate the longstanding and continued support of the landowners in Union County and are continuing to dialogue with them."
• The move comes just days before the South Dakota Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case involving a state air quality permit for the refinery. The statement said Hyperion still plans to argue the case.
• Williams declined further comment.
• Union County Commission Chairman Doyle Karpen said Monday he was surprised by the report.
• "I really don't understand why they would allow the land options to expire," he said. "I believe this lingered on longer than they anticipated."
• Asked if he thought it meant the end of the project, Karpen said, "If it is, it is."
• The proposed refinery north of Elk Point would process 400,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands crude oil each day into low-sulfur gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and liquid petroleum gas. It would be the first new U.S. oil refinery built since 1976.
• The project would include a power plant that produces electricity for the refinery. It would use a byproduct of the refinery process, solid petroleum coke, which would be turned into gas and burned to produce electrical power.
• Environmental groups have complained that the refinery would emit too much pollution and hurt the quality of life in the rural area. Hyperion contends the refinery would be a clean, modern plant that would use the most advanced, commercially feasible emission-control technology.
•