Life of the Land Executive Director Henry Curtis reacted with disdain Thursday, a day after Hu Honua Bioenergy LLC filed a petition with the Hawaii Supreme Court requesting that the state Public Utilities Commission be ordered to vacate its decision that terminated the company’s biomass project on the Big Island.

Curtis, who is staunchly opposed to Hu Honua operating a tree-burning renewable energy project on the Hama­kua Coast, said he was dismayed that the company continues to pursue the project after it was rejected by the PUC.

“Life of the Land is disappointed that Hu Honua continues to push their tree- burning, high-priced boondoggle on Hawai‘i Island ratepayers,” Curtis said. “The climate crisis requires that we save and plant trees, not harvest them.”

Hu Honua, which does business as Honua Ola Bioenergy, has been seeking the PUC’s approval to begin operating a $474 million biomass plant in Pepeekeo that is 99% complete and would burn trees to produce energy. That energy would be purchased by Hawaii Electric Light Co. under an agreement between the two companies.

But the PUC rejected the project in July when it denied HELCO’s request to waive competitive bidding. The PUC also said the project would result in a higher cost to ratepayers.

The PUC previously had permitted the project to proceed by waiving competitive bidding, but Curtis, representing the nonprofit environmental group Life of the Land, appealed the decision in 2017 to the Hawaii Supreme Court because the agency didn’t fully consider the state’s goal of reducing greenhouse gases, which is required under state law. The Supreme Court agreed with Curtis and returned the case in 2019 to the PUC, which ultimately decided in July against the project and then last week denied Hu Honua’s request for reconsideration.

Hu Honua’s petition that was submitted Wednesday to the Supreme Court also seeks a court order directing the three PUC commissioners to promptly conduct an evidentiary hearing and consider the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in connection with Hu Honua’s amended and restated power purchase agreement.

“We have done everything asked of us by the PUC, including building out the facility to completion as the PUC ordered us to do in 2017, along with training and providing careers to dozens of Big Island residents,” Hu Honua President Warren Lee said Wednesday in a statement. “We are now ready to produce renewable energy this year and make Hawai‘i less dependent on fossil fuels. The only thing holding us back and keeping Hawai‘i from moving forward are these three PUC commissioners.”

Curtis disputed Hu Honua’s contention that it is ready to start operations.

”Hu Honua alleges they are shovel-ready,” he said. “But their initial injection wells failed, and the new injection wells have not been approved by the Hawai‘i Department of Health.”