Honua Ola Bioenergy, also known as Hu Honua Bioenergy, on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court requesting the Public Utilities Commission be ordered to vacate its July 9 decision that nullified an amended power-purchase agreement the almost completed Pepeekeo power plant had with Hawaiian Electric Co.
The petition also seeks a court order directing the PUC to promptly conduct an evidentiary hearing and consider the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in connection with Honua Ola’s amended power purchase agreement. That was the basis of the Supreme Court sending the power contract back to the PUC after legal action by the environmental group Life of the Land.
The PUC’s order nixed a waiver from the competitive bidding process granted to Hawaiian Electric for Honua Ola. The decision forced HECO to consider two 30-megawatt solar-plus-storage projects that offered a price of eight to nine cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, as opposed to Honua Ola’s stated price of 22.1 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity generated by burning eucalyptus wood chips.
In a statement Wednesday, Honua Ola President Warren Lee said 200 jobs, including 64 at Honua Ola, are on the line.
“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,” Lee said. “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.”
Honua Ola said the current commissioners, Chairman James Griffin, plus Jennifer Potter and Leodoloff Asuncion — who were not the commissioners who approved the power purchase agreement and competitive bidding waiver in 2017 — “abruptly ended the project without providing adequate due process.”