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| Guy Enriques |
GUY ENRIQUES is calling for more community input and negotiations with ‘Aina Koa Pono, the company planning a refinery above Pahala and a 13,000-acre energy farm between Pahala and Na`alehu. The former county councilman and founder of the community group `O Ka`u Kakou is calling for a Memorandum of Agreement between the biofuels company and the community and said more local people should be involved. “For a big change as this is, the people of Pahala should be over here making a decision. My first concern is for people who have deep roots in this place that’s going to be here when you do this, that’s going to be here after you’re done and for whatever is coming,” he told representatives of `Aina Koa Pono at the community meeting on Monday. “Too many times I’ve seen other people make decisions for the people who live here. Those guys come and go, but the guys who's got roots deep in this ground are not going to go anywhere. Those are the people who are not being heard,” said Enriques. He also stated that he appreciates the jobs that would be brought to the community.
HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC LIGHT CO. wrote about its agreement to purchase biofuels from ‘Aina Koa Pono in its February newsletter to all its customers. It said the effort “is an important step in reaching Hawai`i’s clean energy goal of supplying 70 percent of the energy needed for electricity and transportation from clean resources by 2030. Under the contract, `Aina Koa Pono would provide 14 million gallons of biofuel per year in 2014, increasing to 16 million gallons per year in 2015, for a total of 20 years.
While the biofuel would be used primarily at the Keahole Power Plant near the airport in Kona, the contract provides for flexibility in delivery of the biofuel to other generation stations on the Big Island, Maui County and on O`ahu.
To fund the purchase of the biofuel, electric bills would go up less than one third of a cent per kilowatt-hour to a typical residential customer’s bill. “Because fossil fuel oil prices are expected to continue their erratic climb, in time the cost of ‘Aina Koa Ono biofuel is expected to be less than the oil it displaces,” the newsletter states.
According to HELCO, the biofuel will comply with sustainable sourcing standards developed by the Hawaiian Electric companies in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC LIGHT CO. wrote about its agreement to purchase biofuels from ‘Aina Koa Pono in its February newsletter to all its customers. It said the effort “is an important step in reaching Hawai`i’s clean energy goal of supplying 70 percent of the energy needed for electricity and transportation from clean resources by 2030. Under the contract, `Aina Koa Pono would provide 14 million gallons of biofuel per year in 2014, increasing to 16 million gallons per year in 2015, for a total of 20 years.
While the biofuel would be used primarily at the Keahole Power Plant near the airport in Kona, the contract provides for flexibility in delivery of the biofuel to other generation stations on the Big Island, Maui County and on O`ahu.
To fund the purchase of the biofuel, electric bills would go up less than one third of a cent per kilowatt-hour to a typical residential customer’s bill. “Because fossil fuel oil prices are expected to continue their erratic climb, in time the cost of ‘Aina Koa Ono biofuel is expected to be less than the oil it displaces,” the newsletter states.
According to HELCO, the biofuel will comply with sustainable sourcing standards developed by the Hawaiian Electric companies in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
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| Puna Geothermal is a site visit for the governor's cabinet and state legislators this weekend. |
A TOUR OF BIG ISLAND BUSINESSES AND COMMUNITY PROJECTS is on the agenda for public officials this weekend. Sen. Gil Kahele, Department of Agriculture Chair Russell Kokubun and Department of Land & Natural Resources Deputy Chair Guy Kaulukukui are expected to join other members of the governor’s cabinet and legislators on the two-day tour. They plan to visit Puna Geothermal Venture’s power plant to hear a presentation by the Hawai`i Island Geothermal Working Group’s chairs Wally Ishibashi and Richard Ha. They will also visit Ha’s Hamakua Springs Farm, north of Hilo, Greenpoint Nursery and the proposed Hu Honua bioenergy power plant in Pepeekeo. They also plan to visit the Kamuela Vacuum Cooling plant to discuss its role in the future of diversified agriculture and will head up Mauna Kea to look at the site for the proposed Thirty-Meter Telescope.
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| Artist's rendering of the proposed Thirty-Meter Telescope for Mauna Kea. |
THE THIRTY-METER TELESCOPE is on the agenda this Friday for the meeting of the state Board of Land & Natural Resources, which decides whether to approve a conservation use permit to allow the construction of the $1 billion, 184-foot-tall telescope, with its 18,000 square-foot support building. The BLNR will also decide whether to allow a contested case hearing on the issue, which has been called for by some environmental and Hawaiian cultural groups. Mayor Billy Kenoi, the University of Hawai`i, and numerous scientific and business organizations are calling for approval, stating that the project will generate 300 construction jobs for eight years and 140 permanent jobs. The observatory would also put $1 million a year into local education programs as part of its community benefits package.
HOW IMPACT FEES AFFECT ME is the title of County Council member Brittany Smart’s talk story session tonight at Na`alehu Community Center at 7 p.m. Smart and council member Pete Hoffmann will talk about an alternative to the current Fair Share money contributions imposed on developers during zoning changes and subdivision approvals.
THE COMMUNITY BOOKSTORE at the Kauaha`ao Church in Wai`ohinu is open today and every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.