Environmental groups are trying to convince Hawaiian Electric and the state to develop stricter rules for acquiring environmentally sustainable biofuels.

Hawaiian Electric is working on a set of guidelines — still not in final form — to guide its purchase of palm oil for use as fuel in a 110-megawatt biofuel generating plant at Campbell Industrial Park. The plant is to be on line during 2009.

Five environmental and Hawaiian organizations yesterday presented an analysis of the proposed Hawaiian Electric guidelines to the utility, the Public Utilities Commission and the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The five include Life of the Land, Kahea, 'Ilio'ulaokalani, Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Hawai'i. The state agency was included because it must certify that Hawaiian Electric's fuel purchases meet sustainability standards.

Life of the Land director Henry Curtis said that the utility's decision to use palm oil as a fuel in the generator is flawed, largely because there is so little palm oil available on the world market that is developed without destruction of native forests or displacement of native peoples. Both Hawaiian Electric and environmental groups agree that the utility would quickly become the world's largest single utility purchaser of biofuel.

Curtis said that Hawaiian Electric's proposed guidelines allow oil palm fuel that is not environmentally sustainable to be purchased if the grower is moving toward meeting sustainability benchmarks. That and other parts of the plan fail to meet the requirements of an international panel that worked with extensive industry participation, Curtis said.

"HECO standards are far weaker than the international standards negotiated over several years through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil process," the analysis says.

Hawaiian Electric spokesman Peter Rosegg said that the utility, with the assistance of its partner the Natural Resources Defense Council, has completed several public meetings across the state and will be amending the proposed guidelines, but may not initially bring them into full compliance with the roundtable's proposals.

"You have to start somewhere and move forward," he said.

The utility's plan is to move quickly toward purchasing more and more sustainably produced palm oil, and it hopes its financial clout will help make more and more sustainable fuel available, Rosegg said.

"We're not going to take somebody's word for it. We're going to want to see a timeline and progress. We will have auditors independently observing. We will have the NRDC looking over our shoulder.

"We have very high incentives to do this in the right way," Rosegg said.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.