The Hawaii Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by Honua Ola Bioenergy to delay evidentiary hearings that will be conducted by the state Public Utilities Commission.
Honua Ola, the nearly completed biomass energy plant in Pepeekeo, has been mired in legal challenges for years. The latest revolved around an evidentiary hearing by the PUC, scheduled for last month, regarding the possibility of greenhouse gas emissions from the facility.
However, days before the hearing was to take place, Honua Ola appealed to the Supreme Court to postpone it until it could be held in-person, arguing that the PUC “fully intends to kill (Honua Ola’s) renewable energy project again, without a fair and meaningful opportunity to be heard, even though the half-billion dollar project is 99% complete and ready to provide the state of Hawaii with myriad environmental and economic benefits.”
In response, environmental group Life Of The Land filed a motion urging the Supreme Court to dismiss Honua Ola’s appeal, while the PUC agreed on its own to suspend the hearing pending a decision by the court.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted Life Of The Land’s motion, dismissing Honua Ola’s appeal and allowing the PUC to go ahead with its evidentiary hearing.
The high court in its ruling called Honua Ola’s appeal “particularly outlandish” because the biomass project had, for months, raised no issue with the PUC’s hearing schedule until the last possible moment.
“(Honua Ola) said nothing when, in June 2021, the PUC said it expected to schedule the evidentiary hearing for ‘the week of January 10, (2022),” the Supreme Court said in its ruling. “And in December 2021, when the Consumer Advocate moved to push the evidentiary hearing from the week of January 10th to the week of January 24th, (Honua Ola) responded by saying it ‘has confirmed that all of its witnesses are available during the week of January 24, 2022 and, therefore, has no objection to the Consumer Advocate’s Motion for Enlargement of Time.’”
Only in early January did Honua Ola raise objections with the schedule, filing a request with the PUC to reschedule the hearing.
When the PUC denied that request, Honua Ola took the matter to the Supreme Court, which was, according to the court’s ruling, an extreme step that would be “remarkable in any circumstance.”
The court’s ruling also noted that Honua Ola’s appeals were regarding preliminary orders that are generally not worth appealing.
“… Until the PUC issues a final decision … any appeal by Honua Ola (including this one) merely creates unnecessary delay,” the court said in its dismissal.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
