Honua Ola Bioenergy Petitions Hawaii Supreme Court to Vacate PUC Decision Killing the Renewable Energy Project
Company Seeks Expedited Intervention of the Court to Restore Due Process and Save 200-Plus Jobs from Being Eliminated
HONOLULU (September 16, 2020) – Hu Honua Bioenergy, LLC (also known as Honua Ola Bioenergy) today submitted a filing with the Hawaii Supreme Court with a request that the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) be ordered to vacate its July 9 decision killing the renewable energy project and eliminating more than 200 jobs.
The Petition for Extraordinary Writ and/or a Writ of Mandamus also seeks a Court order directing the PUC’s commissioners, Chairperson James P. Griffin, Commissioner Jennifer M. Potter, and Commissioner Leodoloff R. Asuncion, 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, as previously instructed by the Hawaii Supreme Court.
The PUC’s commissioners refused to comply with the Court’s directive and, instead, issued an order that effectively kills the project and puts 64 employees at Honua Ola out of work in the coming weeks. An additional 160-plus jobs in other industries supported by the facility’s operation would also be permanently eliminated.
“We are asking the Hawaii Supreme Court to quickly intervene on this matter, as the fate of our employees and their families are at stake, and more than 200 jobs overall will be lost if nothing is done,” said Warren Lee, president of Honua Ola Bioenergy. “It’s appalling how unfairly the current PUC commissioners have treated Honua Ola and our employees, and how they disregarded the instructions of the Hawaii Supreme Court.
“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. We are now ready to produce renewable energy this year and make Hawaii less dependent on fossil fuels. The only thing holding us back and keeping Hawaii from moving forward are these three PUC commissioners.”
Today’s filing to the Hawaii Supreme Court describes how the PUC commissioners abruptly ended the project without providing adequate due process. Among the key points made in the Court filing to vacate the PUC’s decision include:
- How the PUC twice approved waivers from the PUC’s competitive bidding framework for the project (pages 4-5)
- The fact that hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to complete the project, as ordered by the PUC (page 6)
- The fact that the Hawaii Supreme Court ordered the PUC to hold an evidentiary hearing on the project’s amended and restated power purchase agreement, with findings to determine whether the PUC satisfied Its statutory obligations (page 7)
- How the PUC rejected the project’s request to reconsider the order revoking the waiver (pages 10-11)
- How the PUC’s killing of the project will cause devastating employment and financial consequences
(pages 11-12)
Located in Pepeekeo on the Hamakua Coast of Hawaii Island, Honua Ola Bioenergy is a state-of-the-art bioenergy facility that will:
- Provide renewable, firm, dispatchable energy;
- Support Hawaii’s clean energy goals; and
- Revitalize East Hawaii Island’s agricultural sector.
Under the amended and restated power purchase agreement previously approved by the PUC, Honua Ola Bioenergy is building a biomass power plant that is 99% complete will provide up to 21.5-megawatt of committed capacity and 30 megawatts of available capacity to Hawaii Electric Light Co., Inc.’s (HELCO) electrical grid. When operating at capacity, Honua Ola Bioenergy will be able to produce approximately 15% of Hawaii Island’s electricity needs and displace approximately 250,000 barrels of imported oil per year.
Unlike other alternative energy sources such as solar and wind, which rely on favorable weather conditions and battery energy storage systems, Honua Ola Bioenergy will provide firmly dispatchable electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year-round. By providing that resource adequacy and system security to the HELCO power grid, Honua Ola Bioenergy will enable HELCO to deactivate and retire its existing fossil fuel-filed generators on Hawaii Island.
Honua Ola Bioenergy has committed to plant and grow more trees than it harvests from commercially managed forests, and has committed that the project will be carbon negative as soon as practicable. To further reduce carbon emissions, Honua Ola Bioenergy will also plant 1.25 million trees through the National Forest Foundation during the first five years of the project.
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Writ of Mandamus Filing to the Supreme Court: http://localhost/hob/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/899414_1_001-Petition-for-Extraordinary-Writ-and-or-for-Writ-of-Mandamus.pdf