Hawaii: Fuels Rush In
“Palm Reading” (Dec. 6) detailed a Honolulu meeting with members of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council and their claims that everything about their industry is cool. No pollution, illegal logging, slash and burn clearing or displacement of indigenous forest people or endangered species. OK, but aren’t you PAID to say all of that, and what about the satellite photos showing hundreds of fires?
The cover story “Deadly Price” (Apr. 3) told the rest of the story on the Southeast Asian palm oil industry and Hawaiian Electric’s (HECO) misguided plans to import huge quantities to provide our local electricity (at the expense of increasing pressures on the region’s remaining rainforests and its unique and threatened creatures, such as the orangutan and Sumatran tiger).
Imperium Renewables, which pitched a 100 million gallon/year refinery to fuel a yet-to-be built 110 megawatt generating plant at Campbell Industrial Park on Oahu, cancelled an initial public offering of stock, in part due to rising prices of vegetable oils, including soy and palm. Their plans to build on Oahu are now uncertain at best.
Nine months after announcing they had agreed to prepare a “voluntary EIS,” no such environmental study has been issued by BlueEarth Biofuels, which had proposed partnering with Maui Electric (MECO) to build a biodiesel refinery with 120 million gallon/year capacity.
Last Sunday, the Honolulu Advertiser ran a feature story on ventures in Hawaii to research converting algae to biodiesel fuel. The story mentioned that BlueEarth was partnering with HECO “for an $81 million facility capable of producing 30 million gallons of biodiesel that will be used by Maui Electric Co.” Oddly, that’s a $20 million increase on the price tag–and a 90 million gallon reduction in yearly output of fuel–from what had previously been announced,
In any case, Pacific Biodiesel is still the only company producing biodiesel in Hawaii, and all of it is derived from waste cooking oils. Any biodiesel produced from Hawaii field crops or primordial pond scum is still years away. As it has often been stated, importing yet another fuel does nothing for our energy security or self-sufficiency.
This year’s amazing version of the Maui Film Festival ran entirely on energy produced from solar panels. I know what you’re thinking: how’d they pull that off with the movies shown outdoors at night. I’ll leave that question to the experts.
33 year old filmmaker Josh Tickell screened his opus, Fields of Fuel to an enthusiastically receptive audience on Sunday evening at the Skydome Theater atop the roof of the Wailea Marriott hotel. Tickell’s fast-paced, highly informative film chronicles his eleven year quest to learn about biofuels, to expose the powerful and toxic grasp of the petro-chemical industry and to lead the charge for self-sufficient communities, that run on vegetable oils and biomass, not fossil fuels.
Tickell toured the country in his colorful Veggie Van interviewing, filming and learning everywhere he traveled. There is fascinating footage of the historical roots of diesel engines as well as the auto industry. His fabulous integration of appropriate soundtrack choices makes the film a compelling music video tour de force, perhaps unsurpassed in the documentary genre.
Tickell’s vision is biodiesel representing a shift in power from corporations back to individuals. One of the film’s most poignant quotes was Senator Barabara Boxer stating, “This has become a government run by oil companies.”
Tickell said the transition needed is not so much in technology, but in political power. This harkens to McKibben’s MCC talk in April, when he said, “There’s no shortage of technology or engineers. What we lack is political will.”
Fields of Fuel will be released on DVD and to classrooms and theaters this coming fall. Don’t miss it. MTW
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