There has been some severe headshaking around the Internet and blogsphere this past week about Hawaii's Public Utilities Commission's denial of Hawaiian Electric's request to approve a biodiesel supply contract with Seattle firm Imperium Services LLC.

The Honolulu Star Bulletin reported that "according to the contract terms, Imperium was to build a local refinery with a pipeline to supply biodiesel for HECO's newly completed, $142.3 million, 110-megawatt plant at Campbell Industrial Park." They also reported that when the contract was amended to have Imperium import biodiesel from the West Coast, and HECO then added in a trucking contract with Aloha Petroleum for transportation, the PUC ruled that it would incur too much expense to HECO's customers.

Over at the American Chronicle, Stafford 'Doc" Williamson lamented the report by writing "Since the new/renegotiated deal with Imperium MIGHT have put them back on track to raising new capital, and a general road to recovery, and there is no obvious or easy substitution for American sourced biodiesel in the volumes required (Imperium was going to build a biodiesel refining facility next to the power plant before the economic downturn and the stunning difficulties with feedstock prices)." He concluded by stating that "It seems fairly obvious to me that the Hawaiian Public Utilities Commission acted, "stupidly" in this situation."