Richard Ha writes:
Farmers want to know: What can Aina Koa Pono pay farmers to raise the crops they need to make pyrolysis oil?
On the mainland, large cellulosic biofuel projects wanted to pay $45/ton for feedstock. But farmers were getting much more than that – $100/ton – to grow hay. So the biofuel projects got a $45/ton subsidy, and could then offer $90/ton for the farmers' feedstock.
Last year, in a presentation, I heard Chris Eldredge of Aina Koa Pono say that they would pay $75/ton for feedstock. But farmers here in Hawai‘i make $300/ton for their hay!
I just shook my head.
From Big Island Now:
HELCO Proposes New, Cheaper Aina Koa Pono Deal
by Dave Smith
Hawaii Electric Light Co. is asking state regulators to approve a new contract with Aina Koa Pono which the utility says will be cheaper for its customers than the proposal shot down last year.
Like the proposal rejected last year by the Public Utilities Commission, HELCO would buy 16 million gallons of biodiesel produced by Aina Koa Pono on former sugar cane lands in Ka`u.
However, under the latest proposal, Aina Koa Pono would also produce an additional eight million gallons of biofuel for Mansfield Oil Company for sale in Hawai`i and eventually the mainland, the company said in a statement Thursday. Read the rest