Word: plant
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Today Beulah is a town in crisis. Great Plains has lost much of its Government backing. Moreover, its synthetic fuel is uneconomical because the price of imported oil is falling. The plant may be shuttered within a month, dealing a devastating blow to the community, the state of North Dakota and the future of synthetic fuels. Great Plains has an annual payroll of $36 million, employing 973 people and generating more than 5,000 additional jobs in the area. Says Cynthia Lynk, executive director of Beulah's Chamber of Commerce: "If the plant closes, we'll have businesses shutting down...
...million for a Department of Energy program of synfuels research. The Senate is expected to pass a similar measure. As Congress has grown increasingly skeptical of synfuels, so too has the DOE. Last month it decided to withdraw $1.4 billion in aid to Great Plains. As a result, the plant's private consortium of owners announced that it was pulling out of the project...
Great Plains is now under the control of the DOE. Last week the department sent a team of investigators to inspect Great Plains and confer with plant managers. Some employees hoped the Government would find a way to keep the project running. Said Michael Mujadin, the operations director: "Once they see things for themselves, I'm confident the DOE will let us continue." But that may prove impossible if Congress decides to cut off synfuels funding...
Great Plains has been the only large synfuels plant to start production. Most other projects were halted in the planning stage, before construction began. The industry's increasing troubles have had the most serious repercussions in the West. In Colorado, the residents of four counties that sit atop shale-oil deposits still speak of May 2, 1982, as "Black Sunday." On that day, Exxon and Tosco pulled out of their Colony Oil shale project after having invested about $1 billion. Home prices in Mesa County tumbled by as much as 50%. Unemployment climbed to 15%, and now stands...
...California condor, the Maryland darter, the Florida panther and other animals struggling to survive are not the only endangered species. Largely because of man's encroachment, many, perhaps dozens of American plant species are disappearing each year. Indeed, botanists estimate that some 3,000 of the 22,000 species of higher plants native to the U.S. may be facing extinction. Around the world, as many as 40,000 plant species are in trouble...