Hawai'i Mean vs Green Biodiesel

Hawai'i is the land of sun, waves and wind. So why are Hawaiian Electric and Maui Electric planning to use imported palm oil for biodiesel in their new generators?

Could it be that investing in solar, wind and ocean power would bring down rates and cut into their profits?

Ah! but biodiesel will yoke the Hawaii rate payers to a never ending cost of importing oil. Each kilowatt of energy will have an associated fuel cost (unlike wind, solar and ocean energy which is virtually free once installed). And for every kilowatt that the public buys, HECO will be able to claim a percentage profit.

And that feedstock cost will rise and rise and rise...perhaps even faster than fossil fuel.

HECO decided to partner with BlueEarth and Imperium to build the world's biggest plants on 'Oahu and Maui.

How did it come to this? One theory is that Pacific Biodiesel was entirely too successful and the Hawai'i Legislature couldn't tell the difference between a Green operation (Pacific Biodiesel) and a Mean operation (BlueEarth and Imperium).

Pacific Biodiesel is a small localized biodiesel plant using waste cooking oil. It's win/win for the people of Hawai'i. It keeps waste oil out of the landfill. It offsets imported fuel. It's used primarily for transportation fuel.

Pacific Biodiesel has been working on biofuel crops in Hawaii for several years and has committed to increasing their biodiesel production capacity along with the availability of local crops. By keeping production reasonably matched to the rate that biofuel crops can be produced locally, Pacific Biodiesel avoids building capacity that requires importing massive amounts of foreign vegetable oil.

These are all earmarks of a green operation. But Pacific Biodiesel only puts out about a million gallons per year.

BlueEarth and Imperium plan on 240 times that amount! Sorry gang -- not enough local feedstock in all of Hawaii to feed even one percent of that need!

So where will they get their feedstock? They claim they are going to encourage locally grown feedstock. But when Maui Sierra Club suggested that Imperium include the following schedule in their lease of State land (curiously right next to the dock...hmmmm) they fought tooth and nail.

• Year 1-3 10% local feedstock
• Year 4-6 30% local feedstock
• Year 7-9 60% local feedstock
• Year 10+ 90% local feedstock

What was finally pushed on them (against their will) was 10% locally grown feed stock after ten years. This tells you their true opinion of locally grown feedstock feasibility.

BlueEarth is giving Maui people the same song and dance about locally grown feedstock. Here is why this will never happen:

1. Hawai'i land is incredibly expensive
2. Labor costs in Hawai'i are several orders of magnitude higher than other countries growing biofuel
3. All of Hawai'i has only 140,000 acres identified as capable of growing biofuels
4. 140,000 acres won't even supply one of these plants - let alone two
5. Hawai'i also needs that land to grow food
6. Maui is currently under drought cutbacks so water availability is nil
7. Maui is overusing their aquifer and doesn't have enough water to meet current demands
8. HC&S, the cane grower, says they aren't interested in growing biodiesel fuel
9. Biofuel feedstock grown in Hawai'i would be incredibly expensive for the electric ratepayers.
10. Biodiesel is far more expensive for the ratepayer than solar, wind and ocean power.

So far we've talked about how expensive biodiesel generation will be for the people of Hawai'i. Now let's look at the ethical costs of supporting these schemes.

We know that we will be importing vegetable oil most likely from Indonesia, Malaysia, and South America. Imperium and BlueEarth have claimed they will buy only "sustainable palm oil".

Folks, there ain't such an animal.

Think about it. If we increase the demand for palm oil and there are only a limited number of old (and thus sustainable) plantations, then we simply displace the former buyer to the slash-and-burn palm oil plantations.

Add to this the fact that the organizations which certify sustainability have been caught lying about the practices of their "certified" palm oil producers, and you are left with an uncomfortable feeling that we in Hawai'i are going to be condoning and supporting burning of vast tracks of rainforest, illegally taking indigenous people's land and slave labor. (All practices which are ongoing in the palm oil business.)

BlueEarth and Imperium are nothing more than green-washing schemes to extract money from Hawai'i electric ratepayers.