Pacific West Energy, LLC is not going away quietly. With a handful of high-profile backers, its request to lease feedstock land for a proposed 20-megawatt power plant may yet win approval from the state Agribusiness Development Corporation.<\/p>\n
Or it may not, depending on what an investigative committee determines.<\/p>\n
The ADC controls several thousand acres of prime agricultural land in Kekaha, Kaua`i, that were once part of the Kekaha sugar plantation. Its tenants, known collectively as the Kekaha Agriculture Association (KAA), operate and maintain most of the infrastructure there under an agreement with the agency. Last year, the ADC asked the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism to evaluate the proposal of Pac West to grow biofuel crops on 1,150 acres and a competing proposal by Pacific Light & Power, a Kaua`i based company. It recommended awarding a lease to Pac West.<\/p>\n
But on September 15, the ADC\u2019s Kekaha committee rejected Pac West\u2019s proposal in favor of PLP\u2019s. The deciding factor appeared to have been PLP\u2019s focus on meeting the needs of area tenants, compared to Pac West\u2019s plans to sell its electricity directly to the island\u2019s utility.<\/p>\n
Pac West had originally tried and failed to lease feedstock lands from the Gay & Robinson sugar plantation. Over the past few years, it has instead been seeking ADC and other government and private lands.<\/p>\n
Two months after the Kekaha committee voted to support only PLP\u2019s project, Pac West president William Maloney wrote a four-page letter requesting reconsideration and harshly criticizing the committee\u2019s decision-making process.<\/p>\n
Maloney argued that PLP, through its relationship with KAA, had inside knowledge of the ADC\u2019s priorities for the development of its Kekaha lands, which included the preference for a tenant to provide power to KAA members. Had his company known of \u201cthis secret criterion,\u201d it would have offered to provide energy to KAA, Maloney wrote.<\/p>\n
With the committee\u2019s decision to lease land to PLP, which proposed using 1,850 acres of the ADC\u2019s mauka lands and 1,180 acres on the Mana plain, Maloney argued that the ADC seemed to have enough lands to accommodate both projects.<\/p>\n
When Pac West initially approached the ADC about leasing land in Kekaha, the ADC informed the company that only 750 acres of mauka land and about 450 acres of makai land were available, Maloney told Environment Hawai`i.<\/i> Yet the Kekaha committee approved PLP\u2019s project, which sought more than twice that amount.<\/p>\n
The fact that the committee voted at a subsequent meeting to ratify the decision by one of its tenants, seed corn company Pioneer Hi-Bred International, to relinquish its mauka lands in favor of some makai lands that Pac West hoped to occupy convinced Maloney that his company was being treated unfairly.<\/p>\n
In his November letter, he asked that all Kekaha lease decisions be suspended and recommended that future applicants be provided all adequate information, such as the ADC\u2019s draft master plan.<\/p>\n
On December 8, Kaua`i County councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura and International Longshore & Warehouse Union president Isaac Fiesta, Jr., wrote letters to the ADC in support of Pac West\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n
Yukimura pointed out that, if allowed to fully develop its project, Pac West could provide the island with a significant amount of liquid ethanol, as well as 30 percent of its electricity needs. The latter would help the Kaua`i Island Utility Company reach its goal of 50 percent self-sufficiency by 2023, she wrote.<\/p>\n
Both Yukimura and Fiesta pointed out that Pac West\u2019s project could provide union-paying jobs to many former sugar plantation workers.<\/p>\n
The committee met last month to discuss Pac West\u2019s reconsideration request and decided to appoint a committee to investigate PLP\u2019s project further before issuing a lease.<\/p>\n
At the meeting, DBEDT\u2019s Cameron Black advocated for greater diversity in renewable energy projects. Steven Rymsha, KIUC\u2019s senior energy solutions engineer, had a lot more to say.<\/p>\n
Rymsha complained that under the PLP plan, electricity must pass through the KAA\u2019s antiquated transmission system before it reaches KIUC\u2019s and said he wished the west side lands could play a greater part in reducing the island\u2019s reliance on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
Rymsha added that a proposal to install a photovoltaic system on a triangle of unused Kekaha lands has been met with resistance from KAA, despite the fact that KIUC is willing to help improve the infrastructure at Kekaha, specifically, upgrading substandard reservoirs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d love to be part of the solution if they\u2019d just let us in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Regarding the PV project, committee chair David Rietow explained that the ADC is mandated by the state Legislature to support agriculture, not electricity production.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to fix the old irrigation system to improve the ability to farm. We can\u2019t be a direct generator of electricity for KIUC,\u201d Rietow said. \u201cWhatever it takes to farm in Kekaha is first and foremost.\u201d<\/p>\n
ADC executive director Alfredo Lee said that the triangle parcel would have to be transferred back to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to accommodate a PV project.<\/p>\n
Rymsha said that while he understood the ADC\u2019s restrictions on leasing land, he did not understand how that applied to Pac West, which was proposing to cultivate biofuels.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the land went to one entity\u2026 Why can\u2019t we co-exist?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
KAA representatives at the meeting chose not to speak on the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the end, after an executive session, Rietow said that it would take Pac West\u2019s request under consideration.<\/p>\n
After the meeting, Lee explained to Environment Hawai`i<\/i> that the Kekaha committee did not actually approve a lease to PLP in September, but merely \u201caccepted the project.\u201d Lease terms are still being discussed, he says. \u201cWe just said, \u2018We like your project, we\u2019ll work with you.\u2019 There\u2019s still a long ways to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds that he doesn\u2019t know how the investigative committee plans to deal with the issues raised, although he noted that the ADC has decided that the makai plain will be used for seed production and the mauka lands for energy.<\/p>\n
Despite PLP\u2019s proposal to use 1,850 acres of mauka land, Lee says none of the land has been allocated. What\u2019s more, there may not be that much land available. Lee says he has not yet tallied how much land Pioneer Hi-Bred gave up. He said only that the total mauka land available is more than 750 acres and possibly more than 1,500.<\/p>\n
Maloney says the ADC lands are important to Pac West\u2019s project, representing about 10 percent of his company\u2019s total land requirement on Kaua`i. They are also very close to its mill site.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there was the view that since we lost those lands, our project wouldn\u2019t go forward,\u201d he says, which is not true. \u201cWe\u2019ve acquired the [mill] site, we\u2019re going to go through with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, the Kekaha committee\u2019s September decision hurt the company\u2019s credibility with people who thought it had the state\u2019s support, Maloney says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t look good when a state agency refuses to lease lands that are important to the overall project, he says.<\/p>\n
Maloney says that if they get a lease from the Department of Hawaiian Home Land, which owns land adjacent to the ADC\u2019s lands, his company plans to improve the water system, which will benefit all the makai users.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the final outcome is far from clear, Maloney says he is heartened by the ADC’s promise to reconsider its decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that they have it within their power to facilitate both projects, and hope that their decision is a first step towards this end,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Dam Liability<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
To some, it may appear that KAA and the ADC are in lockstep. But that\u2019s not the case. At the ADC\u2019s Kekaha committee meeting in December, they struggled to come to an agreement over the eme
\nrgency operation of reservoirs. Jonathan Chun, an attorney representing the KAA, had objected to language in a proposed plan that would have made the association responsible for operating the dams during times of emergency.<\/p>\n
The ADC has no staff on Kaua`i and would need the KAA to do such tasks as manage irrigation system flows to prevent flooding during heavy rains.<\/p>\n
The problem is, all of the ADC\u2019s Kekaha reservoirs are substandard and require upgrades.<\/p>\n
KAA representatives said the association is concerned about the liability that comes with dam operation, noting that its memorandum of agreement with the ADC stipulates that the association would manage the reservoirs once the ADC brought them into compliance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re operating a non-complying structure, insurance goes through the roof,\u201d said KAA\u2019s Landis Ignacio.<\/p>\n
The committee\u2019s deputy attorney general said she didn\u2019t think the state could indemnify the KAA, but it could try to work on some language that would allay the association\u2019s concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all have to lobby for more CIP [capital improvement project] money\u201d to upgrade the reservoirs, ADC director Alfredo Lee recommended.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(For more on the Kekaha committee\u2019s September decision, read the article in our October 2010 issue, \u201cAgribusiness Subcommittee Approves Renewable Energy Project at Kekaha.\u201d All back issues are available online at www.environment-hawaii.org.)<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Teresa Dawson<\/b><\/p>\n Volume 21, Number 7 — January 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pacific West Energy, LLC is not going away quietly. With a handful of high-profile backers, its request to lease feedstock land for a proposed 20-megawatt power plant may yet win approval from the state Agribusiness Development Corporation. Or it may … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-january-2011"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}