U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Neighbor Islands-rural O‘ahu, is pushing legislation through the House that would provide funding for a biomass-to-ethanol project at the Gay & Robinson mill in West Kaua‘i. Case announced that $19.1 million based on his request for
U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Neighbor Islands-rural O‘ahu, is pushing legislation through the House that would provide funding for a biomass-to-ethanol project at the Gay & Robinson mill in West Kaua‘i.
Case announced that $19.1 million based on his request for agricultural projects in Hawai‘i and the Pacific was included in a House Agriculture Appropriations bill. The measure includes funding for the ethanol project on Kaua‘i, and has been sent to the Senate.
If the measure is approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush, the funding for the proposed Kaua‘i project may just sit idle.
Earlier this month, Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed state Senate Bill 3170, which could have exempted ethanol-blending rules from the public rule-making process.
The bill also set January 2006 as the deadline for the ethanol industry to get going in Hawai‘i.
Lingle said she objected to the bill because of the exemption from public rule-making processes, but local Democratic state lawmakers contend that oil-industry leaders influenced her to kill the bill.
The veto effectively prevents the forming of the ethanol industry on Kaua‘i, O‘ahu and Maui.
Earlier this month, Lingle moved along the development of that industry by signing two other bills into law.
One gave $12 million in tax credits to companies that built facilities that created ethanol.
The other bill extended the time from June 30, 2004 to June 30, 2009 in which $50 million in special-purpose revenue bonds could be issued to Worldwide Energy Group Inc. to develop an ethanol-fuel project on Kaua‘i. Such bonds don’t cost taxpayers a penny, and offer low-interest financing options for developers of large projects such as ethanol plants. Ethanol can be used as fuel by itself, or blended with gasoline, helping the United States to become less dependent on fossil fuels to make petroleum products.
º Lester Chang, staff writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@ pulitzer.net.
