South Dakota Public Broadcasting today has a story up on how recent the anti-business sentiment of some South Dakotans has damaged the reputation of our state as being business friendly, into one where the door has slammed shut, and businesses are going to go elsewhere:
“The black eye that South Dakota has right now on Wall Street is immense,” said Gevo CEO Patrick Gruber.
He’s referring to HB 1052, a bill the Legislature passed prohibiting the use of eminent domain specifically for carbon oxide pipelines.
Gruber told SDPB if Summit Carbon Solutions’ pipeline doesn’t go through South Dakota, the company will move its plant to another state. This comes after Summit indefinitely paused its application in the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.
He claims the way the state Legislature handled the pipeline sent ripples farther than Pierre.
“It’s perceived as not a business-friendly state [on Wall Street], changing the rules mid-stream,” Gruber said. “The stuff that’s been done around that pipeline, it’s a travesty.”
and..
Sen. Crabtree said anyone can claim the state is open for business, but to get a true gauge on it, you have to look at the businesses themselves.
“You can have politicians go ahead and play politics, but the facts are that businesses are telling you that they don’t like it when the state chooses overregulation instead of innovation,” Crabtree said.
and..
“I think about a lot of the community and state leaders, farmers and ranchers that have come before us, those that have worked really hard to make the state a better place than what they found it. And they were driven to create opportunities that kept young people in our state,” Crabtree said. “I think a lot of those folks are rolling over in their graves right now with what the Legislature did. Instead of clearing the way for businesses and employees to thrive, we spent the last session trying to pass laws and created more regulation, more bureaucracy, and even started picking winners and losers. I don’t think that’s something we should be proud of.”
Funny how the GEVO location in North Dakota can handle CO2 onsite, but the South Dakota location required CO2 pipelines to work…….why is the South Dakota location inferior to the North Dakota site which won’t have a pipeline either? Perhaps if you dig further into Patrick Gruber’s financial portfolio at GEVO you see his ‘sour grapes’ comments for what they truly are; a smokescreen for a project that would never have had scale to be profitable, and that could not have been financed without substantial grift from the State of South Dakota and Lake Preston. In 5 years the GEVO plant would have been as successful as the shrimp plant in Madison and Brookings, or the meat packing plants in Aberdeen, Huron, and Flandreau. Yes, we surely missed a biggun.
Easy answers there. ND has pore space under the plant. This is a geologic formation deep under the ground where hydro-carbons have been extracted from. This creates voids well suited for storage of CO2 or any other gas. I also don’t recall SB201 doing any subsidizing similar to your implication. SB201 only provided property tax relief and guidance for zoning. GEVO, a private company, was willing to bet on SD, and only to the tune of $1.5 billion dollars. Guess we showed them!
Again, it’s about more than just the pipeline. It’s about the message it sent to all industry looking to do business here. Over regulation is the hallmark of blue states, not sd.
Probably because the former red trail energy site they purchased already has numerous wells setup for injection right on the property. Not to mention their neighbors like blueflint have the same capabilities. They are setting up for taking over injection in ND by purchasing existing infrastructure and expanding. By 2035, every airliner wants to be carbon neutral so you are going to see the GEVO plant provide a majority of that product and rake in the cash. Not to menti9n the enormous amount of economic activity they bring to the area. Clowns. Everyone of you.
No one could convince them to come to the table like adults and find a workable solution. Shame on the legislators that allowed themselves to be bullied into making the state look bad. Shame on the governor for his (big) part in this. Shame on the voters for electing these extremists and obstructionists (dare I say RINOS?). Next time vote republican not fringe.
Boo hoo. Byeeee!
I see you hate rural economic development. Have fun with more dying small towns.
Some of them want cheap land so they can buy it all
When will the voters realize that the legislators calling the “establishment” Republicans RINOs are in fact the true RINOs? Since when has the Republican Party been the party of over regulating, centralized power, and thought police? They are Democrats. Wake up.
The nut jobs took over the state republican party, and then gave a further black eye when they elected an obama supporting democrat as chair.
And this group isn’t stopping at pipelines. They’re currently doing everything in their power to stop data centers and many of the crazies Facebook groups are now talking about wanting to shut down wind and solar as well. In 50 years, when my children or grandchildren can no longer afford to pay the property taxes on our farm and the majority of rural South Dakota is owned by a handful of large, corporate farms, I sure hope this group will be happy. They entirely fail to see the long term implications of this.
Lol, yes, “Doctor” Goober totally represents all of “Wall Street.”
It’s just one guy you see and he’s a doctor who makes jet fuel in Madison SD. That’s where “Wall Street” does all it’s super sciency stuff you see.
Congratulations to all of my fellow landowners. This should be a strong message to “the business community” that just because we live together under a government does not mean you can use said government to steal my possessions, even if that means you can make money. I’m open to talk, hell, maybe we can even work something out, but the South Dakota way isn’t theft through government, its the art of the deal, you greedy people can’t have it both ways.
What of yours was stolen?
Cut back on the rhetoric Gomer, you are embarrassing yourself.
I can’t wait for the trump oil pipeline to come back and see all of the landowner rights people, take up arms again. Haha