SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL
Among the Hawaiian Electric Co. biofuel policy requirements are that:
Native peoples not be displaced in development of any new palm oil
plantations.
Native forests not be destroyed to create land for plantations.
Fire be avoided in preparing land; minimize growing on erodable steep
terrain.
Soil erosion be controlled, water conserved and agricultural chemicals
used appropriately.
Rare and endangered species around plantations be identified and
conserved.
Child labor not be used; unions be permitted.
LEARN MORE
Hawaiian Electric Co.: www.hawaiisenergyfuture.com
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil: www.rspo.org
Natural Resources Defense Council: www.nrdc.org/energy
Hawaiian Electric Co. will buy biodiesel only from farmed palm oil
plantations that haven't been cut out of native forest, and which don't
displace native peoples.
The company announced yesterday that it has committed, as local
environmental groups demanded, to fully meet the requirements of the
most prominent international standard on the subject, that of the
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Hawaiian Electric has also
applied for membership at the Roundtable.
"We listened to everyone and made significant adjustments based on what
we heard," said Karl Stahlkopf, the utility company's senior vice
president for energy solutions and its chief technology officer.
The draft plan had envisioned buying biodiesel from growers who
promised and showed efforts toward meeting RSPO requirements. The final
plan requires they already be there.
"This policy encompasses all elements of the RSPO from the first
shipment," said Ralph Cavanaugh, energy program co-director for the
Natural Resources Defense Council, which was Hawaiian Electric's
partner in developing the new biofuel purchase policy. Company
spokesman Peter Rosegg said the utility has determined that
RSPO-certified sources of biodiesel from palm oil are available.
Life of the Land director Henry Curtis said the new policy isn't
everything he'd hoped for, but it's a big step.
"That's better than what they had in the original plan, but I think in
Hawai'i we should be going with the power sources we have here: wave,
wind, solar and OTEC (ocean thermal energy conversion)," Curtis said.
Too, if the company wants to burn biodiesel, it should be looking for
local sources and supporting local agricultural industries that would
grow oil crops, he said.
That is the long-term plan, said Hawaiian Electric and the Natural
Resources Defense Council. Hawaiian Electric will help establish a
Biofuels Public Trust Fund by early 2008, which will support the
development of a Hawai'i-based agricultural energy industry.
Hawai'i is uniquely situated to develop biofuel plantations, because
there is significant unused acreage of former sugar and pineapple land,
Cavanaugh said.
HECO has two generating plants anticipated to use biodiesel — one on
O'ahu and one on Maui.
It is building a 110-megawatt power plant at Campbell Industrial Park,
which would burn exclusively biofuels like biodiesel. The utility plans
it as a "peaking" unit, meaning it would be fired up only for the few
hours each afternoon and early evening when O'ahu's energy use reaches
its high for the day. It proposes to buy processed biodiesel made from
palm oil on the open market to run this plant, but it could also burn
ethanol.
Hawaiian Electric is a partner in Blue Earth, a proposed Maui palm oil
refinery, whose end-product will be biodiesel that will be burned in a
diesel generator owned by HECO's Maui County sister firm. The raw palm
oil purchased by Blue Earth would be required to meet the same RSPO
standards as the Campbell peaking plant, Rosegg said.
The utility says it will buy locally produced biofuel feedstock first
when it's available. But in the meantime it will buy imported fuel and
feedstock. Hawaiian Electric will be the nation's largest user of
biodiesel, and the company said it hopes its role in the market under
the new policy will help push the biofuel industry into a sustainable
direction.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.
