Public hearings are scheduled tomorrow in Hilo and Kona on Hawaiian Electric’s proposed 20-year contract for purchase of biodiesel from Aina Koa Pono-Kau LLC. According to the hearing notice, the Hilo session will begin at 9 a.m., while the Kona hearing is set for 4 p.m.
The Public Utilities Commission earlier denied a request from the County of Hawaii to participate in the Aina Koa Pono proceedings, saying that the county’s request was submitted months after the deadline. Environmental advocate Life of the Land, which submitted a timely application to intervene, was also denied following opposition from Hawaiian Electric.
Documents filed in the PUC docket regarding Aina Koa Pono are available on the PUC website, although the state’s web servers appeared to have been down this morning.
The company has leased some 13,000 acres of land to grow grasses or other feedstock to be converted into biodiesel by a yet-to-be-built $350 million processing plant using technology that has never been attempted on this scale. Much of the agricultural land has been encumbered with a conservation easement in deals with the Hawaii Islands Land Trust.
A document filed by HECO last week in response to questions from the Office of the Consumer Advocate acknowledged that the biodiesel processing is not a completely clean process, and that Aina Koa Pono is seeking EPA approval to discharge up to “250 tons per year of any regulated pollutant”.
Per AKP, it has completed the preliminary engineering of the project, including a further process validation by Eichleay Engineers, and assessed permit requirements, including estimated emissions. AKP has also engaged AECOM to undertake their initial air permit application. AKP estimates their initial air permit application will be submitted mid to late August, 2011. AKP has also investigated the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (“PSD”) requirements and is in the process of securing EPA confirmation that the threshold for PSD for AKP’s project will be 250 tons per year of any regulated pollutant versus the more restrictive 100 tons per year.
Other recent entries regarding Aina Koa Pono appeared here on July 18 and July 19.
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A 20 year contract, a plant that will pollute, a technology unproven on the scale proposed, and a rate structure that makes everyone pay for the electricity received by a few. Yup, sounds like a great Hawaii project. What could go wrong?
Actually, I support spreading the cost of moving away from fossil fuels among a broad base of users. These moves aren’t going to happen all at once in all parts of the statewide grid, but we all benefit by the shift they will be part of. Otherwise, we’re going to be stuck with oil until it’s all gone, and we’ll go down with it.
That said, whether any particular project, such as this one, is cost-effective and in the public’s best interest, is the kind of question that needs to be answered, and not just by the company.
In my opinion, of course.
Tell us more about alleged pollution, please.
Worth noting that the PUC hearing in Honolulu on this docket will be held Friday. There hasn’t been a lot of attention paid, so far as I can see, to the fact that if this goes through, HECO’s O`ahu customers will be paying through the nose for fuel that doesn’t come through their wires at all. You’d think there’d be some outrage… (We can thank the Legislature for allowing this to happen.)
Oops. I meant Thursday — the O`ahu hearing is Thursday.