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Honua Ola Bioenergy’s tireless effort to begin producing renewable energy for Hawaii island enters another chapter Tuesday when the Hawaii Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the company’s latest appeal to vacate a state Public Utilities Commission’s decision that denied the company’s power purchase agreement with a Hawaiian Electric subsidiary.
“We have a strong case based on the law, on the precedent of the PUC approving our PPA twice before, and on the evidence showing Honua Ola will produce clean, renewable energy while benefiting the Big Island’s environment and creating much-needed jobs,” Honua Ola Bioenergy President Warren Lee said in June after the company filed its appeal with the Hawaii Supreme Court. “We have met the burden for approval to begin operations by presenting an extensive record of objective evidence, facts and analyses that is consistent with the requirements established by the Hawaii Supreme Court.”
The hearing will be held at 5 p.m. at the University of Hawaii at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law in classrooms 2 and 3. It also will be livestreamed.
Honua Ola Bioenergy was formed in 2008 to transform the old Hilo Coast Processing Co. plant in Pepeekeo into a biomass plant that would burn eucalyptus trees. The plant formerly burned sugar cane waste material and coal. The plant, now 99% complete, would generate enough energy to power 14,000 homes.
The seemingly never-ending saga has been going on with the PUC for the past 15 years, including more than five years with the high court. The PUC issued a 2-1 majority decision on May 23 dealing another setback to Hu Honua, which is also referred to by its legal name of Hu Honua Bioenergy LLC.
But Honua Ola is hoping for a more amenable PUC this time around if the Hawaii Supreme Court remands the case once again to the state agency.
Since the 2-1 decision was handed down against Honua Ola on May 23, former PUC Chair Jay Griffin and Commissioner Jennifer Potter both have stepped down. Commissioner Leo Asuncion, who cast the dissenting vote in favor of Honua’s power purchase agreement with Hawaii Electric Light Co. in the May 23 order, is now the PUC chair, with Naomi Kuwaye and Colin Yost having been appointed as commissioners.
The Supreme Court previously ruled unanimously in Honua Ola’s favor on May 24, 2021, to vacate the PUC’s order of July 9, 2020, revoking the competitive bidding waiver with HELCO that had been approved twice previously by the PUC in 2008 and 2017.
The case was sent back to the PUC for further consideration, but the state agency rejected Honua Ola’s case again in 2022.
The project, according to the PUC decision, will produce “significant” greenhouse gas emissions, while Hu Honua’s plan to sequester carbon is speculative and relies on “assumptions and unsupported assertions.”
“The Commission is not convinced that the Project will reduce (greenhouse gas) emissions, and has concerns about the potentially significant long-term environmental and public health impacts of the Project,” the PUC said in its decision.
In addition, the commission found that the amended power purchase agreement is likely to result in high costs to ratepayers, both through its relatively high cost of electricity as well as through the potential displacement of other, lower-cost renewable resources.
Honua Ola, in its recent reply brief to the court, said “the simple truth is that the PUC has once again committed reversible error in its misguided quest to deny the Amended PPA, by any means necessary, regardless of the law or the evidence.”
“The PUC continues to ignore, or deliberately misinterpret, the Court’s specific instructions from HELCO I, which the Court repeated again in HELCO II: to “give explicit consideration to the reduction of GHG emissions in determining whether to approve the Amended PPA, and make the findings necessary for this court to determine whether the PUC satisfied its obligations.”
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Star-Advertiser staff writer Tim Hurley contributed to this report.
HAWAII SUPREME COURT HEARING
>> When: Tuesday, 5 p.m.
>> Where: University of Hawaii at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law, classrooms 2 and 3
>> Livestream: Judiciary’s YouTube channel at YouTube.com/hawaiicourts
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