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Rob%20Report
Biofuels
They’re the bomb!

by By Rob Parsons

February 22, 2007

We have met the enemy, and he is us.



-Walt Kelly’s Pogo







The 1960’s were a time when Cold War politics dictated that

Americans live in fear of the Soviets dropping “the big one,” a nuclear

bomb. Thousands of families constructed and stocked backyard fallout

shelters. Elementary school children drilled “drop and cover” maneuvers

beneath their desks.

Fortunately, that bomb never dropped. But, late in the decade there

was another explosion of sorts. In 1968, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford

biologist wrote The Population Bomb,

a study of unavoidable consequences of human population growth. Though

some have criticized his doomsday predictions of widespread famine and

food wars, Ehrlich recently pointed out that the 2.8 billion people

we’ve added to the planet since the 3.5 billion already alive in 1968

certainly constitutes an explosion, which continues to degrade the

global environment.

I read The Population Bomb a

few years later after it published, when I was a senior in high school.

It’s one of a half dozen books I’ve read that substantially changed the

way I view the world around me. Page by page I read Ehrlich’s work and

thought to myself, “Oh my God, we’re screwed.”





Even considering all the recent discussion of renewable energy

possibilities for Hawai`i, Maui Electric Company’s (MECO) sudden

announcement of plans to construct a $61 million biodiesel refinery was

a bit of a bombshell. The proposal, in which MECO teams with BlueEarth

Biofuels, LLC, projects a first phase output in 2009 of 40 million

gallons of biodiesel fuel, more than half of the 73 million gallons of

diesel MECO used in 2005 to run its generators. While the facility

would utilize imported palm oil, it aspires to set up a nonprofit

public trust to encourage the growth of local fuel crops.

If all goes well, in just a few years we’ll be able to crank up our

air-conditioning, set out more strings of holiday lights and heat our

Jacuzzis… all guilt-free. But, closer examination of the MECO/BlueEarth

proposal raises questions.

Lots of questions.



BlueEarth Maui Biodiesel registered as a Limited Liability

Corporation with the Hawai`i Department of Commerce and Consumer

Affairs Business Registration Division on Jan. 29, 2007. BlueEarth’s

two principle partners, Robert Wellington and Landis Maez, live in

Texas and Arizona, respectively. Is there a local connection?

The Maui News recently

reported that BlueEarth is building a plant in Mason City, Iowa capable

of producing 30 million gallons of biofuel. But the Iowa Renewable

Fuels Association website reports that plant is being constructed by

Freedom Fuels, with general contracting by NewMech of St. Paul,

Minnesota.

How did MECO select BlueEarth, a new company with no track record in

Hawai`i and possibly anywhere else? By what process did they deem them

worthy of this joint venture that is seeking legislative approval to

receive $59 million in special purpose revenue bonds? Isn’t that the

largest request of public funds since the proposed Superferry?

Also on Jan. 29, 2007, Raymond Sweeney Jr. of Sweeney Communications

in Honolulu registered as a lobbyist for the BlueEarth Biofuels office

Frisco, Texas. Senate Bill 1718, authorizing the revenue bonds, has

already sailed through the Energy and Environment Committee, and soon

will face a hearing with the Ways and Means Committee, chaired by

Maui’s Roz Baker.

Henry Curtis of Life of the Land is perhaps the state’s leading

renewable energy advocate. In his testimony on SB 1718, Curtis asked,

“Who is applying? Why do they need money? What are the environmental,

cultural, and social impacts? Or are we giving away money to anyone who

wants to invest in an energy project which begins in ‘bio’?”

Life of the Land, advocating for the people and the `aina since

1970, has a stated mission of preservation and protection “through

sustainable land use and energy policies, and by promoting open

government through research, education, advocacy, and litigation.” They

are currently involved in a contested case hearing with Hawai`i

Electric Company over that agency’s proposed 110 megawatt generating

station at Campbell Industrial Park.

Will the “rush to renewables” allow us to make intelligent,

sustainable choices, or are we heading down a feel-good path, while

adversely impacting the environment in unseen ways?

In a Dec. 6, 2005 commentary in The Guardian,

George Monbiot maintains that palm oil is worse than the fossil fuel it

looks to replace. Turns out there’s a global rush to use palm

oil-derived diesel, with commodity traders listed in such diverse

locales as Russia, South Korea, India and Dubai. But palm oil

plantations in Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and Thailand have faced harsh

environmental scrutiny for destroying millions of hectares of

rainforests.

A 2005 report by Friends of the Earth, titled Oil for Apes Scandal,

found that 90 percent of orangutan habitat in Indonesia and Maylasia

had been destroyed, placing the apes at the edge of extinction. Simply

imperiled are the Sumatran tiger and rhinoceros, gibbons, tapirs and

the Asian elephant.

A U.S. embassy energy news posting from Jakarta, Indonesia states

that, “North Sumatra has avoided the haze from fires used to clear the

forests for oil palm cultivation, and the oil palm plantations provide

a buffer for environmentally protected areas.” A North Sumatran

environmental official noted that heating the oil palm nut to extract

the crude palm oil is still a dirty business, as is burning the empty

husks.





BlueEarth claims they will buy palm oil imported from the Pacific

Rim and in South America from suppliers “that practice sustainable palm

production.” By 2011, they expect their refinery to produce 120 million

gallons yearly, enough to provide fuel for electric generation on Oahu

and the Big Island.

But to what extent would this giant venture employ local labor in

the construction or in regular operations? Would something of this

scope and size encourage grassroots biofuel agricultural production or

just benefit traditional large plantation owners and spark squabbles

over water allocation?

Moreover, can MECO partner in building this facility, then buy the

fuel from itself without going through a competitive bidding process?

Would such a request to provide biofuels contain incentives for locally

produced, not imported fuels?

Representative Mina Morita of Kauai raised an even more essential

question at the Governor’s Biofuel Summit last August. She asked what,

with all this talk of using agricultural lands to raise crops to

produce electricity, are we doing in terms of food security?

There was no answer—just a hush in the Hawai`i Convention Center’s

meeting room. But, shouldn’t there be an equally ambitious effort to

offset our state’s 85 percent dependence on imported food?

It seems that the earlier model of the family farm and small towns

made a lot more sense than our current agribusiness-dominated global

economy. As Kelly King of Pacific Biodiesel reminded a panel audience

recently, all sustainability is local. In fact, King advocates a

community model of local biofuel production far different than the

recent bio-bomb dropped by the big state utility.

In their closing argument against Hawai`i Electric’s proposed new

generating plant, Life of the Land’s Curtis called for alternatives to

combustion—even of biofuels—which produce less harmful emissions. He

advocated Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, seawater air conditioning

and wave energy, which is currently being tested off Kaneohe Bay on

Oahu. Curtis reminded us that all forms of energy production have

environmental impacts.

Much as we’d like to blame others for all the challenges we face in

the 21st century, we need to realize that we are the problem. Every

dire environmental problem, from global warming to rainforest

destruction, over-fishing to lack of fresh water, is traceable to the

rapidly increasing number of humans impacting the planet. This year

alone, an estimated 133 million babies are expected to be born.

Can we learn to live without our SUVs, big screen TVs and shipped-in

luxuries? Will we convince each other to live in a way that minimizes

environmental degradation?

Lots of big questions, indeed. MTW