ELK POINT, S.D. -- Flashing a smile, Joyce Bortscheller briefly hugged Hyperion Energy Center executive Preston Phillips as she greeted him in the backyard of her home here.

Bortscheller, president of the Elk Point City Council, had invited about 250 supporters to an outdoor barbecue Tuesday to await the returns for arguably the most important election in Union County's history. The big crowd didn't leave disappointed.

As midnight approached, they popped the champagne corks, celebrating a hard-fought victory that keeps alive the county's chances of landing the nation's first all-new oil refinery in 32 years.

By a solid 58 percent to 42 percent margin, county voters approved Hyperion's request to rezone 3,292 acres of farm land for a new classification, Energy Center Planned Development.

"What happened tonight, we were not supposed to be able to do," Phillips told a cheering audience. "Development projects like this are supposed to be outright rejected by residents and neighbors. But this project is a testament to our balancing the needs for growth and for protecting the environment."

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Another was struck by lightning and burned in Kansas.

We had a tornado close,but it did not touch down.

MA,

Here's a good article about the KCK fuel tank fire:

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Until next time,

Zif.

This doesn't do much to help with the basic problem. The spike in energy prices has more to do with the instability in the other sectors of the investment markets. Large institutional investors, like the University I work at, have been freaking out about where to put their money to get income. They were in the hedge funds and with that collapse they ant another place to put their money. But they've become addicted to the heady revenue streams that the hedge funds were producing. Moreover, the stock markets look too unstable and so as a result, they have been flooding commodities markets and driving up prices.

This refinery would be important IF the price increase wasn't a global problem. It's not about production. There is a slight shortage of supply because of increased competition for the resource. But the core issue that has been driving the huge recent spike in fuel prices has more to do with a scarcity of safe investment instruments.