Like many on Hawaii island, I have been following the developments related to Hu Honua (also known as Honua Ola) closely and with anticipation.

We were happy when the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved the original power purchase agreement (energy contract) with Hawaiian Electric in 2013 and again the amended energy contract in 2017, allowing construction at the plant to resume, providing hundreds of construction jobs for workers in the building trades.

It looked like we were on our way to replacing fossil fuel generation with locally sourced clean renewable energy, launching a new agricultural industry, and seeing hundreds of permanent jobs created for at least the next 30 years.

These would be good-paying jobs and careers employing local people to run the facility, harvest and transport trees to the plant, and grow new trees, giving us a homegrown source of renewable and sustainable energy, while reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) and the volatile cost of imported oil, now used to power our grid.

Then, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled the PUC had failed to sufficiently consider GHG and sent the matter back to the PUC to consider GHG. That was more than a year ago. The plant, which is nearly complete, could be producing power and jobs by the end of 2020 if the PUC will complete its review of the matter, now on pause since early March. Only post-construction state and county approvals remain and are expected to be issued shortly after construction is pau.

In a recent letter to Hu Honua on the PUC website, the PUC said it was going to take more time to consider new Hawaiian Electric solar projects, which the PUC instructed the utility to solicit in 2019.

Intermittent solar and wind can be added to the grid, but only if a firm source of power is available when the sun doesn’t shine, or the wind doesn’t blow. The question is, do we want that firm power to come from imported fossil fuel oil or a locally grown clean, renewable source, like the abundant biomass Honua Ola plans to use?

If we are serious about moving the state toward 100% renewable energy on the grid, we must start replacing oil with firm renewable energy technologies such as biomass.

If the PUC wants to move quickly on projects that will address the serious unemployment on the Big Island, Honua Ola is the only project being considered that can do so this year. The new solar projects being considered by the PUC won’t be available until late 2023 at the earliest, and while they may provide temporary construction jobs, they won’t be long-term permanent ones.

The PUC green-lighted the project when it approved the power purchase agreement, and Honua Ola’s owners spent hundreds of millions of dollars to bring the plant online. Now, the PUC indicates it may not move immediately on Honua Ola but would like to consider newer projects that have only recently been proposed.

This makes no sense from any standpoint — job creation, basic fairness or increasing renewable energy, while reducing fossil generation.

Slow walking this case, while the company is burning through millions of dollars to keep the existing plant’s staff working and the plant maintained and ready to operate, sends a bad message to those thinking about doing business in our state.

State agencies should be doing everything possible to encourage job-creating projects, especially those that benefit the environment. The last thing we need during the current crisis is to discourage business investments on our island and elsewhere in the state.

Others with the funds to help Hawaii will have second thoughts when they see projects get a green light from state agencies and spend hundreds of millions of dollars, only to have the agencies change their mind or threaten the project’s financial viability by prolonged delays.

Derek Kurisu, executive vice president of KTA Super Stores, was raised on the sugar plantation where his father worked at the sugar mill, now converted to the Honua Ola Bioenergy plant.