Check out Andrew Alan McNarie’s excellent piece on the present (and possible future) of biofuels in Hawaii in the Hawaii Independent.

In 2002, the state Legislature enacted provisions in Hawai‘i Revised Statutes, Section 171-95, to allow the Board of Land and Natural Resources to directly negotiate leases of state land to the companies producing vegetation-derived “biofuels.”

HRS 171-95 is bearing fruit (and trees, and bushes). Efforts are underway to produce biodiesel and biofuel-generated electricity on Maui, O‘ahu and Kaua‘i. At least six different companies are interested in producing biofuel on the Island of Hawai‘i.

But there have been setbacks. After a bruising series of public meetings on the Big Island, one biofuel firm has repudiated its own “Agreement in Principle” to lease state land, and legislators are reconsidering the BLNR’s authority to negotiate such agreements.

See the full article at: http://www.thehawaiiindependent.com/hawaii/2009/02/04/the-bio-fuel-land-rush-part-i-blnr-bobbles-biofuel-agreements/