The state is quietly proposing a 70% increase in a contract with a Los Angeles engineering firm to provide environmental studies in support of the proposed “Big Wind” project of industrial-scale wind farms on Molokai and Lanai, and a deep sea interisland cable to transmit power to Oahu. The move could force the reopening of the public scoping process required by the National Environmental Policy Act, according to an application for exemption from competitive bidding submitted to the State Procurement Office last week.

The increased spending was disclosed in an exemption request filed by the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism on September 28. It is seeking permission to boost the contract value by $2.1 million, to a total of $5.1 million, up from the original $2.9 million contract awarded in June 2010.

The previously selected contractor is AECOM Technical Services, Inc., part of the publicly-traded AECOM Technology Corporation.

The contract calls for preparation of technical studies to support a programatic environmental impact statement for the Big Wind project, including “management and quality assurance plans, Cultural Impacts Assessment, biological studies of species in nearshore waters and wetlands, and strategic support.”

The proposed revision would add “impact analyses at additional areas in Maui County that are suitable for two other renewable energy technologies: solar/photovoltaic and geothermal.” The changes are being proposed in response to more than 250 comments received during the initial scoping process, many of which urged consideration of other renewable energy technologies.

There is no indication in the current exemption request to indicate that strong community opposition by Molokai residents is having any impact on the state’s aggressive pursuit of the wind project.

Action by the chief procurement officer on the exemption request is listed as “pending.”

This is the second revision of the original contract.

An earlier exemption request dated December 30, 2010, and approved in March 2011, described major concessions by the Abercrombie administration to unnamed “industry partners” within its first month. The administration agreed to cover costs associated with the environmental studies that previously had been expected to be the responsibility of private sector firms.

As a result, it sought to shift the focus of the AECOM contract from “project specific” studies to “more strategic support and completion of environmental studies covering a greater geographic area.”

The earlier exemption request explained:

…under the original contract, it was expected that the State’s partners in the Interisland Wind Initiative would complete their own respective environmental studies and provide that information to the State. The State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (“DBEDT”) issued a Request for Proposals (“RFP” or the “solicitation”) that described this strategy. The State’s industry partners in this initiative were given a chance to review the RFP prior to its release. After the RFP was released, proposals submitted and subsequently evaluated, and the original contract was executed, the State’s industry partners in the initiative requested, via the Governor’s office, that DBEDT re-examine its strategy for complying with the EIS laws. AS DBEDT offered the State’s industry partners amble opportunities to review its RFP prior to its release, it was not anticipated that they would request such changes in approach after the contract for the EIS was executed. As a compromise between the State, the Governor’s office and the industry partners, DBEDT is now taking an approach that warranties changes to AECOM’s contract scope. Notably, the State must now complete its own environmental studies that cover a greater geographic area in order to complete the programmatic EIS.

AECOM also signed an agreement earlier this year to provide engineering and construction management services to Aina Koa Pono, the start-up company intending to use a commercially-untested technology to provide 16 million gallons of biodiesel annually to Hawaiian Electric beginning in 2013.

Kenton Eldridge, co-founder of Aina Koa Pono, was a co-founder of Sennet Capital LLC with Richard Lim, now director of DBEDT. Aina Koa Pono’s board of advisors includes Robert Clarke, former Hawaiian Electric CEO, attorney Paul Alston, whose firm represents both Hawaiian Electric and Sennet Capital, and former Congressman Norman Mineta, who has previously served as secretary of the departments of Commerce and Transportation.

Mineta was a director of AECOM from 2007 until his resignation earlier this year.

The Public Utilities Commission last week rejected Hawaiian Electric’s bid to have electricity customers pay an escalating surcharge over the next 20 years to subsidize biofuel purchases from Aina Koa Pono at prices significantly higher than the cost of diesel.