Several groups are challenging a push by Hawaii Gas to become the first company to bring liquified natural gas to Hawaii, contending that the company’s plan has not undergone sufficient environmental review and will slow the state’s quest for energy independence.
The Sierra Club and Blue Planet Foundation have filed objections with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission expressing their concerns with the plan. Life of the Land also cited its concerns in a filing with FERC, but did not take a position on the proposal.
Hawaii Gas, formerly known as The Gas Co., submitted an application with FERC in August to ship liquified natural gas, or LNG, from the West Coast to Hawaii in refrigerated tanks mounted inside 40-foot containers.
LNG would provide a cheaper alternative for power generation compared with the fuel oil that is used to produce about 80 percent of the state’s electricity, Hawaii Gas contends.
The proposal includes a container storage area and a mobile "re-gasification" unit at Honolulu Harbor that would take convert LNG into its gaseous form and inject it into an existing Hawaii Gas pipeline.
The approval being sought is for the first part of a three-phase LNG plan. Later phases could include larger quantities of LNG shipped in specialized ships that would require a specialized terminal for offloading and permanent storage facilities. One of the company’s long-term goals is to provide enough LNG to Hawaii’s two power companies to generate 400 megawatts of electricity.
Hawaii Gas officials maintain that because of the limited scope of the first phase of the plan, an environmental review is not required. They say FERC’s approval of Phase 1 would not preclude an environmental review for later phases of the project.
However, the Sierra Club and Blue Planet Foundation contend FERC is obligated to consider the implications of all three phases of the plan. Because the Phase 1 application invokes features that would be developed in later phases, such as an LNG import terminal, an environmental review should be required at this time.
"FERC must reject the company’s request for authorization to begin the first phase of a long-term strategy to bring LNG to Hawaii without any environmental review or public input," according to the Sierra Club filing. The environmental group says Hawaii Gas "disclaims all responsibility for many impacts of a long-term LNG strategy."
Robert Harris, director of the Sierra Club’s Hawaii chapter, also said Hawaii Gas has not offered evidence to support its contention that LNG would be cheaper than petroleum after shipping and handling costs are factored in.
"Just to say it’s cheap on the mainland and that it will be cheap here is inadequate," Harris said. "Hawaii Gas is too early out of the gate on this. They’re hell bent on moving forward with this, and I don’t know why."
Blue Planet Foundation, a Honolulu-based nonprofit working to end the use of fossil fuels, said requiring an environmental review at this point in the process would give the public a chance to comment on the plan.
"Blue Planet urges the Commission to engage the public by completing an environmental impact statement and providing ample opportunity for public comment, or, at a minimum, by taking comments on an environmental assessment."
In addition, Blue Planet said the plan would hamper the state’s transition to renewable energy.
"LNG is an imported fossil fuel. Hawaii law and policy require reduced dependence on imported fossil fuels. Speculative justifications in support of LNG importation remain unproven. The Gas Company’s comprehensive LNG plan is therefore contrary to Hawaii energy law and policy and not in the public interest," Blue Planet said in its filing.
Both Blue Planet and the Sierra Club also questioned whether the company’s LNG plan is compatible with its initiative announced in 2009 to produce half of its synthetic natural gas supply from renewable sources within five years. The company now produces 100 percent of its synthetic natural gas locally from naphtha, a byproduct of the petroleum refining process.
Jeff Kissel, president and chief executive officer of Hawaii Gas, said the company remains committed to its alternative energy plans.
"That is still our goal. We’ve spent more than $1 million on our renewable natural gas pilot project," Kissel said. "We’re on track to continue that process."
He said Hawaii Gas engineers are experimenting with various kinds of non-food-grade animal fats and plant oils which have triglycerides that can be converted into renewable natural gas.
Kissel also said the company would not be able to conduct an environmental review at this stage because it has not yet selected a location for any of the infrastructure that would be built in Phase 2 and Phase 3.
"The law is very specific here. We have to have a location in order to make the applications for the later phases."
In addition, Hawaii Gas is participating in a Hawaii Natural Energy Institute study looking at the long-term outcome of bringing in LNG to Hawaii.
"We’re trying to genuinely determine whether this is the right thing for our community. We only want to proceed if the community supports it. This is an important point for all of us," Kissel said.
