The state Public Utilities Commission, which is being pressured to reconsider its decision to terminate the Honua Ola Bioenergy deal on the Big Island, said it has received fake emails supporting the project.

Honua Ola is seeking the PUC’s approval to begin operating a $474 million power plant on the Hamakua Coast that is 99% complete and will burn trees to produce energy. An earlier PUC approval of the power plant was rejected by the state Supreme Court in May 2019, saying the PUC did not consider the state’s goal of reducing greenhouse gases in its decision.

The case was returned to the PUC and the agency on July 9 reversed its previous decision that cleared the way for the plant to proceed. That ruling halted the project. But the case is now back before the PUC to reconsider whether Honua Ola can start producing energy.

The PUC said Wednesday it received seven emails in support of Honua Ola that were not sent by the email account holders.

Honua Ola, also known by its registered business name as Hu Honua Bioenergy LLC, denied it was responsible for those emails in a letter it filed Thursday with the PUC.

The PUC said after receiving the seven emails, it sent a standard message to the email addresses acknowledging receipt of the public comments. The PUC said it got replies Monday from the seven email address holders, saying they did not send emails in support of Hu Honua.

“The Commission is gravely concerned about this matter, as: (1) it impacts and risks violating the privacy of those who have had their email accounts used to file public comments they did not authorize; and (2) calls into question the credibility and legality of other public comments filed in this docket, which the Commission notes number in the thousands.”

Hu Honua said the IP address associated with the emails has been identified, is located in Honolulu and that the company will be speaking with authorities to determine potential criminal claims against the individual or individuals associated with the IP address.

”Hu Honua shares the PUC’s concerns and takes this matter very seriously as such actions are inappropriate and work against Hu Honua’s true supporters,” Honua President Warren Lee said in the letter. “Hu Honua denies any involvement in this apparent email spoofing scheme. We make every effort to keep track of both solicited and unsolicited public comments in support, and we do not believe these seven public comments are tied to our efforts to gain support for the Hu Honua project. Hu Honua supports further investigation into this serious matter.”

The supportive emails contained some identical lines, such as “if the project is unable to move forward, many good-paying jobs will be at risk.”

The PUC, which redacted in its letter the names listed on the emails, included some examples of the replies it received when it verified the emails.

One reply said: “Please be advised that my email was used without permission or authorization by someone attempting to utilize my email for their own personal agenda.”

Another reply said: “I am not a resident of Hawaii and have never heard of this project and have no opinion on it.”

And yet another reply said: “It looks like my email was hacked to send in comments regarding the docket … I did not write or send the comments that you refer to. I am not a resident of Hawaii. I know nothing about this docket.”

The PUC said to protect the privacy of those whose emails may have been compromised that it will redact from public view the public comments filed in this proceeding from Tuesday going forward “unless or until such time that a reliable and practical means of verifying the authenticity of the public comments can be implemented.”

The PUC said the redacted public comments will remain as part of the docket record, pending any further action it deems appropriate in light of the privacy breaches and unauthorized use of email accounts.

Hu Honua said in its letter that redacting from public view public comments filed in this proceeding from Tuesday forward “inappropriately censors relevant public comments that may inform the general public and allow the general public to submit further public comments for the PUC’s consideration.”

The company also requested in its letter that before the PUC renders its decision that the PUC fully investigate the issue “as we believe that leaving this issue unresolved unfairly prejudices Hu Honua.”

Hu Honua said its own investigation found that the seven emails were all sent within a 47-minute span on Monday between 10:59 p.m. and 11:46 p.m. from a SaveHawaiiIslandJobs.com website link following a single click. Honua said that meant one person, located in Honolulu, clicked on the website one time and then entered seven different email addresses.

“Based on our preliminary investigation, it appears that this is an isolated event intentionally caused by an individual(s) who is/are attempting to create controversy or discredit the large number of legitimate public comments in support of this project — comments made by real people who can be verified in connection with their unique email addresses,” Lee said.

Hu Honua has said approving the plant will mean more than 200 high-paying jobs, a new forestry industry and the expansion of local agriculture over the next 30 years.

Hu Honua has 64 current employees and said when the plant begins operating it will create 145 added jobs. The company recently submitted a filing to the PUC that claimed Hu Honua will start laying off employees if the agency is unable to make a decision by Sept. 30 regarding the fate of the company’s biomass plant.

Not approving the plant “will maintain our dependence on imported oil and expose us to large price swings,” the company said in a newspaper advertisement.

Hawaii has a goal to have 100% clean energy by 2045.